Introduction

 

Hi there, I’m Tom.  I’m twenty-four, currently unemployed, a college graduate with a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management and another in Forestry. 

I didn’t go into this field because the work was easy and I’d make lots of money.  I went into it because it allowed me to do something I’m passionate about, it gave me the opportunity to make a career out of something I enjoy doing anyway, and it allows me to see the things others won’t- be it a colorful species of crayfish which only exists in a half-dozen places on the planet, to a four-foot long, fifty pound lake sturgeon, to a twenty-inch long eastern hellbender that’s a solid decade older than I.   It’s fun, and so far I wouldn’t trade it to a higher pay grade and job security.

I began fly-fishing around the age of nine or ten.  In truth, I began tying flies first, lashing bits of hair and feather to hooks with my mom’s sewing thread.  Fishing them became a natural extension of that.  I began taking formal fly-tying classes at a local shop in middle and high school, and spent a great number of Wednesday nights there, learning to tie and listening to stories.  I learned the importance of reading, and the first books I read were by Robert Traver, Lee Wulff, and John Gierach, and those stories colored my own approach to the sport.