Birthday Fishing with a Poet!

Matt Smythe - AKA the fishing Poet - Holds a beautiful post spawn female brown trout.

Last week I had the opportunity to get out and fish for my birthday.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with a friend of mine Matt Smythe AKA the Fishing Poet.

Matt is a writer and a darn good one at that. In fact it is his profession. But over this past year he has taken his passion of the outdoors and slammed it head first into that professional world of writing. He left his desk job, for the unknown and unproven grounds of the freelance world. A brave man indeed!

A nice lake run rainbow/steelhead taken on the swing.

Our goal for the morning was to search the waters of a local tributary and try and tempt its finned inhabitants into taking a fly or two. Lucky for us it was more of the latter.

Matt was running a little late, so he encouraged me to venture out before his arrival. I did, and found two fish willing to take a streamer. One of which was taken on the swing.

Upon Matt’s arrival I was very excited as I had already hooked two beautiful rainbows, landing them both, and had seen at least another seven or eight fish on my walk down to our meeting place.

A bright female steelhead that ate an egg pattern. Photo by Matt Smythe

We set up shop at a favorite pool and began to put our flies to work.

Matt hooked up within that first half hour, and I ran down to help him land his first fish of the day, a gorgeous post spawn female brown trout. A few photos later and she was released.

My last fish of the day. A nice big male with two beautiful red stripes. Photo by Matt Smythe

Over the course of the next couple of hours we each hooked a few more fish, landing only one. But before we left for the day, I had the opportunity to hold one more fish. A gorgeous male rainbow that displayed not one red stripe, but two! A fitting end to a great morning birthday fly fishing session. 

Thanks Matt for joining me on a very memorable day….although I doubt I had to twist your arm very hard to get you out there!

Until next time…………

Local WNY Talent Spotlight!

Jessie Hollenbeck fishing a local spring creek

This week I would like to highlight two Western New York companies that are looking to make a few waves in the world of fly fishing.

First is Wide Sky Fly Fishing. WSFF is run by local guide Jessie Hollenbeck who specializes in fly fishing for the many species of fish that call Western and Central New York home. He has spent numerous hours learning our local streams and can put you on trophy lake run trout and salmon during the run, help you decipher the code of our local spring creek trout, put you in position for excellent dry fly fishing in the spring and summer, and also get you into some great warm water fishing opportunities.

I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jessie throughout the years and his dedication and love for the sport of fly fishing is second to none, not to mention that he knows how to catch fish!!! His patience and persistence give him an edge when teaching others how to be successful on the stream, and those who have spent any time with him come away with a better understanding of our WNY fisheries.

You can get more info on both him and the fish pursues at his website www.wideskyflyfishing.com, or just give him a call at 585-314-5089.

The second company I would like to feature in this week’s blog is Silo4. This new upstart company is a four man team with two of them coming from the local WNY talent pool – Matt Smythe and Grant Taylor. They’re goal is to tell stories that need telling, or as their opening paragraph on their website puts it, “Some stories grab you by the collar. Some whisper softly in your ear. However they're told, they still need to say something that matters.”

Both Matt and Grant live just south of me out here in WNY and have been working hard at what they love to do – writing and photography! 

Matt has his own blog www.fishingpoet.com where he continually writes outside of his hectic freelance world. And we are thankful he does!

Grant is an artist as well, but his art comes from behind a lens. His website www.granttaylorphoto.com will give you a sneak peek into his world.

These two WNY artists are joined by two very talented cinematographers Matt White and Dustin Lutt of Rockhouse Motion. Together they are Silo4.

There most recent project is a short film entitled a “Deliberate Life” and it is a beautiful piece that should get some attention this year, as it well should – It’s amazing!

A DELIBERATE LIFE..... FILM TRAILER from RockHouse Motion on Vimeo.
 

I hope that those of you who visit will take the time to stop over to their pages and, at the very least, take a moment to look around. But you may be moved to stay awhile or even leave a comment two. Either way....enjoy!