Tommy Lynch

Being a full time fly fishing guide for 25 years, Tommy Lynch has refined his casting instruction to enhance even the most seasoned anglers fly fishing skill & knowledge. Specializing in Brown Trout & Steelhead in the Northwest Lower Pennisula of Michigan, Tommy also winters a bit in the southern tail-waters of the US in search of those next level brown trout. On the water upwards of 250-300 days a year, rowing/instructing or just fishing… Tommy does not hunt, bike, or bowl… He just fishes till the wheels come off; and that’s always been more than enough.

Tommy has different gears based on what type of guide is needed on a daily basis. Realizing long ago that there are different needs for each client, each and every trip. Some people like to go for boat rides, watch the birds, and just take it easy while they cast away with little or no need to catch fish as much as a good conversation with the guide amongst a beautiful landscape… While others would like to download as much information and casting etiquette as they can while sore mouthing as many fish as possible in the process and prefer their guide a bit more in their grill in getting them to that point. Keeping in mind there are different trips for different folks, and a good guide is able to cater to these types, and every type in between, while keeping politics and religion out of the boat. No matter what your fancy, Tommy is made to order, and does so with the very best gear and experience as he lives and works daily on Northwestern Lower Michigan watersheds and has beaten it down to a rough science. He is a Sage ELITE Pro, a SIMMS Ambassador, on the Pro staff for AIRFLO, HATCH, HYDE, RIO, SMITHFLY and COSTA… And chose those companies not based on availability but on overall excellence in performance & wear, as most companies want to be in Tommy’s boat having been in the game as long as he has. Having been in every fishing publication at some point or another, he doesn’t promote or publicize like he use to, his main focus is the improvement of the sport instead of ones website and marketing skills.

Growing up around Michigan’s finest trout streams and rivers… Tommy has found little else that will give him such satisfaction as a brown trout in consideration of his fly, and looks not to improve his culture in life so much as the next evolution of brown trout fishing and how to better his chances on shaking hands with the oldest, largest, and highest character versions of that most beautiful version of a fish on a fly. Specializing in large streamer fly approaches, and especially those considered on “The Darkside” approach with rodents and other assorted critters and streamers… Tommy is not a snob to “eggin” behind spawning salmon & steelhead during the pre spawn and post winter bite, or hatch fishing where the ease of setting up a fish drunk on Mayflies or caviar make them vulnerable and available to his clients. Spending almost 5 months a year targeting steelhead on floating lines or swung fly approaches, he has revolutionized the approach of stripped streamer approaches to the Lake Michigan Chrome with The Drunk & Disorderly Flies which have as much chuck and jive as allot of stick baits. Realizing some time ago that presentation dictates more than fly selection, Tommy wants that understanding for his clients more than most and knows that for one to truly enjoy fly fishing for all that it can be, they first need to understand how to do it, before becoming creative with it.

Having guided longer than most of the new kid guides are old, he really has forgotten as much as most will ever know, yet never gets stuck in a rut of zero evolution. Pushing himself to better his and his clients potential per trip, he may be a little OCD when it comes to fly fishing for “The Brown Trout”, or the steelhead that migrate his trout streams for several months of the year… But that passion in perfecting the next step is what allows a good guide to become great in that he realizes just how lucky he is to call guiding & fishing a way of life and wants that affinity for angling from his clients. Without having a sense of work attached to his way of life, Tommy takes more pleasure than most fishing in the dark of night or the most brutal of winter conditions, and all the comfy stuff in between. Being referred by many as “The Guide’s Guide”, you will never find a boatman more into his line of work than Tommy. Give him a ring and some direction on what you would like from YOUR day on the water, and he can make it happen. His wife Andrea would prefer he gets paid instead of not, and he’ll be on the water regardless… So put him behind the oars to make sure his boys, (Tommy III & Alexander Edward), have a stellar Christmas & birthdays every year… For Tommy the fishing guide, each day on the water is it’s own reward and refining experience… Which is better than anything wrapped up in a box or paid for via credit card in his eyes. Tommy will remain a fishing guide until his shoulders can’t anymore, which is still several decades out… In which case he will just fish and write books about fly fishing the brown trout and steelhead of the Midwest. His father once wrote, “I took the boy to the trout stream when he was seven years of age, and he never really came home!”