Updates on travels, adventures and news from Jess McGlothlin Media.
Slowly, slowly… it’s beginning to feel like spring in the West. Eventually we’ll hit the hot, glorious days of summer (I’m so ready). In anticipation of the eventual arrival of summer, I gathered together a few of my favorite sun protection pieces for Men’s Journal. Give it a read, then let me know what your go-to piece of summer clothing is.
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.
I had a lot of fun combing through the latest and greatest fly-fishing gear to write this piece for Men’s Journal. After spending many of my early years in fly-fishing and outdoor retail, gear that works is close to my heart. Give it a read, and then let me know what your favorite piece of fly-fishing gear is.
In other news, I’m just back from Chilean Patagonia after a weeklong shoot. It was amazing—met up with some good friends and camped for the week, fishing a variety of water. Most of the images are embargoed until clients have their pick, but you can check out the behind-the-scenes Instagram story here.
Excited to see this piece about freshwater stand-up paddleboard fishing republished on Men’s Journal. In “A Beginner’s Guide to Freshwater SUP Fishing” I aimed to cover may of the questions I’ve gotten at boat ramps and on rivers / lakes around the West. Why use a SUP for fishing? How do you cast without falling off? How do you keep from stepping on your rod when passing through fast-moving water? How do you manage fish once you’ve hooked into something? What SUP is best for fishing?
I’ve outlined the basics in this piece, and illustrated a few points with images from a fantastic SUP camping / bass fishing trip a few summers ago with friends Marty and Mia Sheppard from Little Creek Outfitters on Oregon’s John Day River.
What other SUP fishing questions are burning your brain? What’s keeping you from hopping on a board and trying it out?
