September Speaker - Tommy Lynch

My name is Tommy Lynch, I am a Fly Fishing Guide living near Baldwin, M, where I guide full time on several different streams, but primarily on the Pere Marquette River where I have done so for over 20 years while fly fishing almost 30 years. The FishWhisperer was a nick name given to me by an old girlfriend back in college, (who in fact was very much into horses), in response to my fishing addictions that would never be satisfied as it would seem. Cheesy? Yeah, but I went on to use it as a screen name on a fishing report website called The Steelhead Site where I used to frequent since college before naming my new website here the same.
At the ripe old age of seven I started fishing the Pere Marquette with my father, fishing spawn bags and hardware in the lower sections of the river before I could even fill a pair of waders. It wasn’t until 1985 when I would introduced to a fly rod and the gentle art, this at the age of eleven. From that point it was just something that fit for me, like the river does within its banks. Never have I found something as gratifying as a Trout on the end of a Fly Line my whole life, though seldom have I looked being satisfied with what is. Having fished Western rivers, guided Alaska, frequented Ontario’s Streams, and even tangoed with a Tarpon or two in the Caymans & FLA Keys; never have I found a place so diverse and inviting as I have in my home state on The Pere Marquette River right here in North Western Michigan.
As soon as I was a licensed to drive a car in the state Michigan I fished the Pere Marquette as much as I could, whenever I could, failing in all other aspects of my life to do so. Moved away to Central Michigan University in ’94, putting me within an hour of the Pere Marquette; and though my college grade points were dropping, my knowledge of the PM grew exponentially fishing as many as 5 days a week never being tardy or having a hard time concentrating with any of my fishing studies or guide trips; the PM was my classroom and those wary browns and steelhead were my teachers all equipped with PHD’s.
When I came home from school one summer my father, (the wisest man I may ever know), gave me a shove in the direction I needed; towards being a Pere Marquette Fly Fishing Guide and not a Funeral Director, which had been my goal when I had moved away to college originally. It was the best thing that ever happened to me, that was until I met Andrea my wife over ten years later! Several years later Andrea and I would reset the bar again bringing Thomas Patrick Lynch III into the world on the 16th of August and what a day that was. Having had plenty of fishing buddies over the years, never have I looked so forward to fishing with someone as I have with my son, whom is still just a few years old, but is a Fishing Machine in the making. Thank God we have something as grand as Fly Fishing to visit with as much frequency as we do… The world is a better place for it!!
In order to make it as a guide I had to relocate to the western side of Michigan to limit gas money and mileage which became and issue with lease cars so I moved to Grand Haven in the fall of ’95 and worked in a Fly Shop attached to Earth’s Edge with few patrons where I tried to build a part time guiding hobby into a full time job. Salmon and steelhead trips were the only trips to take for John Hunter of J & J River Guides at the time and after many seasons of working for John and a summer guiding in Alaska, I got an offer to Guide Full Time at The Pere Marquette River Lodge; the brass ring as it was THEN if you were a Fly Fishing Guide in Michigan.
After a decade plus at The Pere Marquette River Lodge as HEAD GUIDE, and then a short run with Hawkins Outfitters. I have moved on to become my own boss FINALLY and the wind is finally at my back, not having to pay anyone or any lodge a percentage to do what I was born to do. Be Flies Only Fishing Guide on the Pere Marquette and surrounding streams in Northern Michigan!!
Fly Fishing like few other sports or arts for that matter, has no ceiling of learning or achievement; it is what you get from it, all of those who engage it get something totally different. Fly fishing teaches us that perspective and trial go together like coffee and donuts, and that the creative and imaginative sides to all of us are satisfied and renewed each and every cast, and if you cast the flies you tie, you get that much more from it. We are all just products of our experiences, memories, and ideas… and for me I am just happy I got to lump them all into a “Fly Fishing Snowball” as I have never done anything so awesome or reaffirming, NOR WILL I!
MFFC business meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. EST, learn about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, hear fishing reports, and general Club information. The featured speaker / tyer will start around 8:00 p.m. EST.