Amen! Great point about being versatile with a fly rod. Drys, hoppers, neeemphin', bottom bouncing, streamers, swinging, single hand spey, spey, European neeemphin' styles... On and on. You can do it all with a fly pole. Hell, I've had great luck spey casting streamers in ocean inlets, swinging it just like you would in a river, just with the tide.
I have so much in common with these guys Kelly and Matt! Grew up and still have a place warm water species fishing on Lake of the Ozarks. Progressed to fly fishing after being transferred w my dad’s GM job to Flint ,MI 1987. Through college my weekends were spent camping and fly fishing northern Michigan rivers with my friends. After college I took my first teaching job in San Diego where I would explore all of the great Sierra fly fishing as well as dabble in Salt Water. My summers and long holidays would consist of traveling all over the west to the best fly waters Montana, Idaho, Wyoming Colorado you name it I fished it (a true fly-fishing bum) while sleeping in the back of my Chevy S-10. My fly tying started in college joining the T.U. challenge Chapter tying evenings in Bloomfield Hills, MI and would carry with me out to California. After 6 years with my wife and I teaching out west and traveling back to Michigan to visit her family while fly fishing all the way there (then 2 weeks with my old pals based out of Grayling, MI on the Manistee and Ausable) and then driving back out to San Diego fly fishing from the parents place in Lake of the Ozarks back through Colorado etc. We would finally decide to move back to Michigan and take teaching jobs in Detroit before having our kids. I had met Kelly Galloup while back in Michigan on my return trips in the mid-late 90’s where I attended his fly tying seminar and streamer fishing for trophy trout speaking engagement at the Dundee MI Cabelas store I think is where it was at or else the Novi Expo Center. Bought his original book he signed for me that day and I took it up camping w my pals on the Manistee that next weekend where we stripped big streamers for two weeks straight on my 7wt Fenwick HMG steelhead rod with a stiff short 4 ft leader. We rented a brand new inflatabledrift boat with front stripping basket and stand up area from Bueter’s Outdoors then in Northville. This was probably the summer of ‘97 that I got hooked on seeking the monsters with the streamer. Kelly’s book and tactics immediately got me back to my roots of warm water fishing growing up at Lake of the Ozarks. In 2000 I moved back to Detroit and would buy a house a block from Lake St Clair in Grosse Pointe. Here I would learn to stalk the Musky on my fly rod in the grass flats of Lake St Clair while spending every weekend up north going after the big browns. This would last about 3 or 4 years straight until we had our children between ‘03-‘07. Unfortunately the life of a dad and teacher got me away from my love and addiction of fly fishing and tying. My spare tying bedroom “The Trout Room” got displaced by a crib and later a bunk bed. My fishing boat would be transferred to my dad’s dock at Lake of the Ozarks and out of the Neff Park Marina on Lake St Clair. In 2010 during the long recession and several pink slips and school closings I made the difficult decision to sell my house in Grosse Pointe and early retire from the school system there. I would move south to Bowling Green, KY where I still live. I’m now 50 and have gotten all of my fly fishing and tying back out and in use. The Cumberland River tailwater down here is much like the White in Arkansas with big water (75 miles of big trout water) and fluctuated water flow from generation. Really have enjoyed all of your videos with these Michigan guys (I used to be right there with them) in the early days when Kelly came out with that book and it’s crazy how well known these guys are now. All we were doing at the time was presenting that fly and triggering that predator response much as we all did growing up bass, pike, musky or smallmouth fishing. For me growing up catching big blue cats in the Ozarks with big blue gills on circle hooks weighted to the bottom would really also help me better understand the big streamer fly triggering the mature browns and musky on the fly rod!
Nice video once again and I agree with Matt on many things and can see the lines blurring even though the delivery system is different. I follow him on IG and that Yard Sale fly is definitely a beauty and it is nice that it can be Adapted (hence the Adaptive Fly) to many sizes for many different species. Thanks for sharing another amazing episode Brian.
