I will never forget my first day where I caught a cutthroat on an ant in the first meadow of the famed Slough Creek in Yellowstone on a hand me down fiberglass 7 weight! Though I’d been fishing with hardware since I was a toddler, that day started an addiction to fly fishing that I can’t seem to shake. When I fished against Lance Egan and Ryan Barnes in the former Outdoor Life Network’s Fly Fishing Master’s in 2004, I knew I had to find a way to compete in the sport I loved. It was serendipitous that I worked with both these anglers a year later after they had made Fly Fishing Team USA. I fished in my first regional and made the team myself in 2006.

The ensuing years have been more educational than I could have ever imagined and I’m as hopelessly obsessed with fly fishing today as I’ve ever been. This obsession has brought dedication, which has helped me to have competitive success domestically and abroad. The year 2017 marked my 9th consecutive berth as an angler for Fly Fishing Team USA in the 37th Fips Mouche World Fly Fishing Championships in Slovakia. In 2015 I was incredibly fortunate to finish with the individual bronze medal and even more fortunate to have been a part of the squad that won the first team medal (a silver) for the USA at the world fly fishing championship in Bosnia. In 2016 we followed that feat with a team bronze in Vail, Colorado.

Fly fishing competitions have exposed me to tactics and techniques from incredible teammates and fellow fly anglers from across the globe. Away from competitive fishing, fish have sculpted my professional life as well. I hold a bachelor’s degree in ecology and a master’s degree in fisheries science and spent 3 years working as a fisheries biologist before taking on Tactical Fly Fisher as a full-time business in 2017.