A Night with Trout Unlimited

A few years ago I had an invitation to meet with a group local to Pittsburgh called Tri-County Trout- this was one of my first speaking engagements. I jumped at the chance and I was really glad that I did because it was a great learning experience. This is me back in 2014, a guy who hadn’t caught a trout since he was 9 years old.

Since that time, I’ve shared that particular presentation with others who have stepped up to spread the love of kayak fishing in my area. Recently, this led me to another opportunity, this time for my local chapter of Trout Unlimited (Penn’s Woods West) and I again agreed to share some knowledge of kayak fishing in general and also took the opportunity to show off the brand new Jackson Kayak Mayfly, which was designed with fly fishing in mind.

These folks are a top notch organization and I was really encouraged to see how many came up to learn more after the 30-minute session was over.

Neill Andritz and his wife, Evelyn, who operate The River’s Edge Canoe & Kayak (my local kayak dealer) joined me for the evening. Neill brought his many years of fly fishing experience with him and even worked on a video with me that we prepared for the crowd. You can check it out right here:

As a kayak angler who has spent almost every instance on the water after freshwater bass, I often overlook other species but I think the crowd agreed that a great application for the kayak is making a paddle to some water that can’t be accessed from land, opening up a world of opportunities for bass and fly fishing trout anglers alike. And something that can make the difference between a heavily-pressured area and an untapped fishing hole that you’ll never forget.