New Fish

If you haven't been in the shop the last couple of weeks, you wouldn’t know, but there is something new lurking in its depths; it's me, Ben! I am fresh off an eight-month work hiatus where I left the corporate world to take a step back and allow myself to think and reflect on what truly makes me happy and how to incorporate that into what I do for a living. It was an easy conclusion for me to make. Standing in a river, rod in hand, talking fly fishing, and being around fly fishing, in general, is my happy place. So here I am, and I couldn’t be happier to have become part of the Royal Treatment family. 

I moved to Oregon ten years ago from Vermont, where I attended Green Mountain College. I grew up in upstate New York, a small town near Cooperstown, NY. If you’re into baseball you know Cooperstown, if not, you have no idea where Coopertown is. I was exposed to hunting and fishing as a young boy and was fortunate enough to readily have access to these pastimes right out my front door. When I was a junior or so in high school, my family took a trip to Montana, where my passion for fly fishing began to blossom. By no means was this a fishing vacation, unfortunately, but my father and I knew that between the dinner rehearsals and whatever else we were actually there for, we’d sneak out to explore and see what Paradise Valley had in store for us. I remember hooking into my first Montana fish on a fly rod, a mountain whitefish. I had no idea what it was. I knew it wasn’t a trout, but it didn’t matter. It was exhilarating. That was the moment that would have me standing riverside for years to come. 

I spent my college summers and post-college years raft guiding and whitewater kayak instructing on the Nantahala River in North Carolina and the Arkansas River in Colorado. Although I had picked up a fly rod in my earlier years and fished rivers in a few areas around the United States, it wasn't until I moved to Oregon that I truly immersed myself in the sport. Let's just say that steelhead, Spey casting, and the places these fish have taken me are why I have made the Pacific Northwest my home. 

In my first couple of weeks of working at Royal Treatment Fly Fishing I have learned an enormous amount about the RTFF family. I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of great folks and have truly enjoyed the stories that you all bring. I look forward to meeting the rest of you and assisting you in your next river outing. That's all for now.

Cheers!

Ben