Baldwin, MI
You would think after all the different changes in gear and outfitters that I have worked for and through that I would have gone with a different boat by now, but I still haven’t found a company as straight up as Hyde Drift Boats or a boat as sound for the rivers here in Michigan. It is really nice to be able to work with some fellow fishing sponges too: that is a fellow that thinks mostly of fishing a devotes a better part of his or her brain activity to the pursuit of improving what is in fly fishing, or moving into uncharted waters and coming up with new patterns and presentations to enhance what is or what will be!
My name is Tommy Lynch, I am a fishing guide living in Baldwin where I guide full time on several different streams, but primarily on the Pere Marquette and have done so for 15 years and have done so in a Hyde for 14 years. Started fishing the Pere Marquette River at the ripe old age of seven with my father, fishing spawn bags and hardware in the lower sections of the river before I could even fill a pair of waders and then I was introduced to a fly rod and the gentle art at the age of eleven.
Moved away to college in ‘94, putting me within an hour of the Pere Marquette; and though my college grade points were dropping, my knowledge of the river grew exponentially fishing as much as many as 5 days a week never being tardy for a trip or having a hard time concentrating with any of my fishing studies, the river was my classroom and those wary browns were my teachers all equipped with PHD’s. Guiding from a Hyde drift boat is like having an edge on everyone that doesn’t fish from a boat. Not only does a boat get you to more river with the capability to fish it better, but it also teaches the river to you faster and with more detail. Seeing steelhead in holes in Michigan is almost impossible from a wading angle, but from a boat you actually get to see the fish that you have either fished or passed over, a bit of knowledge that is worth gold in the winter months where steelhead only
favor certain runs and knowing those runs is huge.
Started booking guide trips through a great fellow known as John Hunter, the year before the federal permit system went into affect, (a system we live and die by now). Salmon and steelhead trips were the only trips to take for John at the time and after several seasons of working for John Hunter, I got an offer to guide for the Pere Marquette River Lodge; the brass ring as it was then if you were a fly fishing guide. After a decade at the lodge I moved to what is now the most elite group of guides the state has seen yet, Hawkins Outfitters where things are just flat peachy. You would think after all the different changes in gear and outfitters that I have worked for and through that I would have gone with a different boat by now, but I still haven’t found a company as straight up as Hyde Drift Boats or a boat as sound for the rivers here in Michigan. It is really nice to be able to work with some fellow fishing sponges too: that is a fellow that thinks mostly of fishing a devotes a better part of his or her brain activity to the pursuit of improving what is in fly fishing, or moving into uncharted waters and coming up with new patterns and presentations to enhance what is or what will be!
I fish and guide with the likes of Ed McCoy, Jon Ray, Brad Turner, Chuck Hawkins and occasionally Jac Ford one of the true Obe Ben Canobies of the river.You might think that it would be getting old for me as much as I have been doing it the last two decades, but it still hasn’t. Still fishing most nights of the summer even if I don’t have to work, and even if I have worked already that day; some glasses can never be filled, and I am thankful for that. I love guiding and fishing so much; I just can’t imagine my life without trout and the people that pursue them. I have lived on couches, tents, and spent a few winters in an RV just to keep me near them. Writing about them has always given me a chance to vent ideas, and experiences and I will continue to do so. Magazines, editorials, and maybe even a book one day, are all great avenues for this; but since I have the attention span of a gerbil, reports are a better more frequent way for me to spill my beans. Have been featured in many magazines and write for most of our state’s fly fishing publications every issue and you can find my reports at www.hawkinsflyfishing.com under the Pere Marquette River posts as well as my personal site www.thefishwhisperer.com. Email is fishwhipserer@carrinter.net and my number at the house is 231-898-4832, and for extremely fresh reports, feel free to call my cell phone at 231-408-7220 where I am likely in my office…. My Hyde 14.5’ Low PRO with all the likely bells and whistles!!
