Fishing

Back to Belize

March 10, 2021 By Jess McGlothlin

It’s been a hectic Q1. (Okay, really it’s been a hectic year, since the world went topsy-turvy in March 2020.) Now, a year later, we’re still muddling through it.

I was fortunate enough to kick off 2020 with another visit down to Belize’s El Pescador Lodge to continue shooting saltwater fly-fishing imagery. Between hosting a group of anglers for a week, working as a producer for a videographer, and shooting my own work for El Pescador and several editorial clients, it was a hectic visit but—as always—a good one. (Stay tuned for two editorial features about to drop, covering the reopening of Belize and what both travel and fishing look like there now.) The weather was uncooperative for the most part, but we made the most of it and our rain gear got plenty of mileage.

Then it was back to Montana, settling back into what’s become my routine of lap swim in the early morning, come back to the apartment to work until lunch, go for a walk or run, work the afternoon, then rinse, repeat, and do it all over again. It’s feeling an awful lot like Groundhog Day, but there’s light on the (far) horizon.

I’ve been asked to head back down to El Pescador in May to fill-in as Fishing Director for a few weeks. Excited to get back down into the salt and slip into the now-familiar routine of what’s become rather a second home. (What is home, anyway? It’s an incredibly fluid concept, and mine certainly isn’t Missoula.)

So, if you’re looking for an escape, come hang and fish at El Pescador in May. I’m not hosting, nor giving a photo school, but would love to see some friendly faces in the tropics. Shoot me a note and I’ll give you the details!

The Fly Fish Journal: Fly Fishing Japan

December 3, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

“Despite the fact that North Korea had recently launched two missiles over the island and a typhoon was barreling our way, the daily tempo of life on Hokkaido appeared peaceful, almost bucolic.”

I penned a few words about fly-fishing Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido for The Fly Fish Journal. Read it in the latest issue, or online here.

Outside Bozeman: The High Life

August 5, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

Outside Bozeman article and images by Jess McGlothlin about fly fishing the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness for Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Had a lot of fun delving through the image archives and old notebooks to write this short piece for Outside Bozeman‘s summer issue. Fly fishing the backcountry of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness a few summers ago, chasing Yellowstone cutthroat trout with Absaroka-Beartooth Outfitters, has been one of my favorite stateside fishing experiences. Combine days on horseback, a comfy backcountry camp in the perfect location, most excellent people, and stellar fishing for ambitious Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and you’ve got the recipe for something amazing.

Keep Fish Wet

August 4, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

Big or little, fresh or salt—they’re all good. I’ll forever be in awe of the intricacies of these fish we spend a lifetime chasing around the globe.

I’m proud to be an ambassador for the newly-relaunched Keep Fish Wet initiative. Keep Fish Wet helps develop and spread science-based practices for the safe handling of sport fish. Think of the last five fish you caught. Odds are, more than one of those fish has been caught by other anglers and was safely released to swim (and be caught) again. Proper handling of fish helps ensure we have healthy fish populations for recreational anglers to pursue, and helps imbue a sense of responsibility over the resource.

As a fishing photographer, keeping fish in the water while capturing compelling images is always forefront in my mind. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredibly savvy anglers over the years who understand how to work with fish to keep them wet while “getting the shot.”

Ready to learn more about how to Keep Fish Wet? Explore the new website: KeepFishWet.org, or comment below / DM me with any questions—always happy to chat about this!

Fresh Air

June 30, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

Drone photograph of two anglers and a dog fishing a clear river in Idaho.

Sometimes you need to step outside, get some fresh air, and remind yourself what’s really important.

Needless to say, Jake, Lynsey, and Marley the Trout Dog have their priorities straight. It was a treat to get together with old friends this weekend, cross a few mountain passes on dirt roads, sleep outside, cook meals over an open fire, and chase a plethora of westslope cutthroat trout with big foam bugs.

This summer dictates a mindset change—no big international shoots for a while—so I’m making the most of time spent at home in the West. Turns out, there are plenty of good stories tucked away off dirt roads.

Men’s Journal Van Tours: The $900 Pan-American GMC Safari

April 2, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

Had no idea this Chile shoot in February with Zach Lazzari and Skylar Lamont would be the last travel for a while. Most of these assets are on hold for another client, but really excited to see this “Van Tours” feature run on Men’s Journal, talking about Zach and Shale’s epic adventure through the Americas, fishing along the way.

Zach and Shale are two of the coolest travelers I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and it was such a pleasure to be able to head down to Chile and join them for one of the final weeks of their epic trip. This pair accomplished a hell of a trip over the past couple years… give the article a read for the full story.

Here’s a quick excerpt:

With each road bump, dust puffs up to coat the van’s driver, Zach Lazzari, and his co-pilot, Shale. The 11-year-old dog serves as traveling companion, nighttime guard, curious conversationalist, and convenient icebreaker: She’s an impossibly fluffy red mutt whom Lazzari found a decade ago in a Montana animal shelter. There, in a building full of dogs needing homes, Shale was the only one who ignored Lazzari. He knew it was meant to be.

The pair have been living in Lazzari’s tattered GMC Safari van since September 2018, when his marketing automation job at a Missoula, Mont., tech company began to feel more soul-sucking, and less like a job he could tolerate. He decided it was time to revisit an old dream: take the long drive down to visit the rivers he’d grown to love since his last season working as a fly-fishing guide in Chilean Patagonia in 2016, with Shale as his traveling companion. Along the way, he’d explore new water and fish corners of the world far, far removed from most fly anglers’ purview.

Lazzari quit his job and bought the 1994 Safari, abandoned in a Missoula alley, for a grand total of $900. It took merely a month for a quick build-out of basic living quarters…

I very remember coming back to Santiago after a week pretty well removed from the world and standing, filthy and in need of a shower, in the airport and watching the news. It was the first week of March, and in the space of a few weeks the world had started a dramatic change. Now it’s the first week of April and this trip feels like a lifetime ago. I still have faith that sometime this year we’ll be traveling again, and I’m already looking forward to the next adventure with Zach, Shale, and Skylar.

Thanks for reading, folks.

On Island Time in Belize for the U.K.’s Fieldsports Magazine

February 9, 2020 By Jess McGlothlin

“The air is heavy with humidity and the playful scent of tropical flowers, mixing languidly with the scent of aviation fuel and the general bustle of Belize’s largest airport, Philip S. W. Goldson International, in Belize City. The open-air stroll into customs provides a welcome glance at what’s to come: Belize is delightfully casual. Things move on ‘island time’ in this Central American country, and the airport experience is a part of that. I’m quick to find a seat at Jett’s Bar, the bustling airport bar run by diminutive, wizened Jett, and settle in to wait for the short Tropic Air flight to San Pedro.”

The U.K.’s Fieldsports Journal is one of my favorite publications to work with. The magazine itself is gorgeous—thick, heavy paper printed with intense colors, the binding sturdy. Each issue reads more like a mini-book than a magazine, and shows in my mailbox carefully nestled in cardboard packaging. Quality, all around. The editors are lovely, and I delve through each issue—whether or not I have an article placed—with excitement.

In this most recent issue, I wrote up a few words about Belize escapes. I’ve been down to the Central American country three times now, each time bringing very different experiences and new lessons both on and off the water. But there’s a relaxed “go slow” island vibe I fall in love with a little more each trip. I tried to sum it up in the closing paragraph of this most recent article:

“After a long day on the boat (most full-day fishing trips run eight hours) it’s back to the lodge for appetizers and cold drinks. Bartender Mariano runs the bustling El Pescador bar, serving up a mean Belizean Painkiller crafted from pineapple juice, orange juice, and spiced rum, with a few special additions. As is traditional at any fishing destination around the world, fish stories are exchanged over drinks and bar games; tales of near-misses and photo proof of the ones that didn’t get away. Later, dinner is served informally at the open-air tables dotting the deck, and newfound friends find themselves seated at the long tables, exchanging fishing tales from Belize and beyond. The tropic air of the Caribbean softens at night yet rarely loses its warmth or humidity, and once the revelry at the bar ebbs anglers find their way back to their rooms, ready to rise again in the morning and do it all again.”

Fishing the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

December 3, 2019 By Jess McGlothlin

It was a great pleasure to escape into the backcountry just north of Yellowstone National Park a few summers ago and spend some time riding rough country, chilling around campfires and—of course—chasing fish. The Yellowstone cutthroat are truly a special species, and hands-down one of the more fun fish I’ve chased in recent years.

I was recently able to put together a little write-up to run alongside images from the trip for Big Life Magazine. The gang at Absaroka-Beartooth Outfitters are truly top-notch; Lonny, Cameron, and the entire gang have a way of making the backcountry feel very much like home. See the rest of the story here (toggle right to view the entire feature).

Here’s a brief snippet from the piece:

Sitting around the fire, comfortably ensconced on a dusty bed of dried pine needles, I look around at my companions. Most could have readily stepped from the screen of a John Wayne movie. Cameron and Lonny sit comfortably in their camp chairs, Cameron in the midst of telling some grand ranching tale, hand gestures and all. Lonny looks remarkably at home, and it’s no wonder, really. Her family has been running sheep in these mountains for generations, and she has the stories to prove it. For her, this is as much home as anywhere.

The wranglers are a wild bunch all their own; good guys who I would want by my side at any adventure. Seasoned ranch hand Patrick also runs a small-town bar (the Grizzly Bar in Roscoe, Montana) with his wife. Tall Jacob is a third-generation Montanan who competes in rodeo events when he’s not working the family ranch or in the backcountry. And young Jeremiah brings a quick whit and good tales from the annual Miles City Bucking Horse Sale.

It’s a motley crew, but the conversation is real, flowing freely around the flickering fire. We laugh when a mouse jumps from the log behind me into my lap before scurrying off into the blackness surrounding us. Just another creature that calls this place home, and will continue to do so long after we make the long ride back to civilization.

But for the moment, we grin and laugh in the darkness, eyes flashing and the bottle of whiskey catching the firelight as it’s passed around. For the moment, the rest of the world fades away and we’re newfound friends on an adventure; breathing clean air and watching the stars wheel overhead, tucked safely in the wilderness. And perhaps that’s the odd magic of it all; we’ve all gathered to chase a fish, to stalk through high mountain creek and ply clear waters for cutthroat. Once again, angling brought together an unexpected group of people and made an improbable clan of them.

There are no moose in Bull Moose Camp. There are, however, plenty of cowboys, horses, mules, and a curious supply of rather good boxed wine.