Pat Gaffney

For my 10th birthday, my Uncle Tim gave me a fly-tying kit, and it has been all downhill since. I grew up chasing trout in New England’s small streams, and fishing poppers for bluegill and largemouth in the local golf course ponds. Soon I was running up and down the beaches of the Long Island Sound trying to get bluefish, striped bass, and false albacore to eat my surface flies. At 14, I sold my first commercial fly order–to my Uncle, who in turn sold the stonefly nymphs to customers at the Vermont bar he tended. Even before I was old enough to drive, I was bumming rides to chase Great Lakes migratory browns and steelhead. In college, my fishing buddies and I travelled and fished whenever and wherever we could. While in Boston at law school, I was the guy on the “T” in waders with a fly rod, going to catch stripers in Boston Harbor

For the 3 ½ years I practiced law, I had to wear a suit and tie and shave every day. I often worked 60 hour weeks in a tiny, windowless office as an associate attorney in a small law firm. My boss was the kind of guy that made me dread going to work every day. The money certainly was not worth it. So in June 2007, I did what any self-respecting fish bum would do–I quit and packed up my truck and moved to MT with no agenda other than the pursuit of a passion. One thing lead to another and by August 2007 I was guiding trips for TroutHunter. That Fall I met the woman who would eventually be my wife. Now we are expecting our second child. My pursuit of my passion for fly fishing began in childhood and has been an incredible journey that has brought me immeasurable happiness. To me, guiding trips for TroutHunter is like playing for the Red Sox–I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing, and I’m doing it exactly where I want to be–on arguably the best trout streams in the world.