My Introduction Blog

A little about Skiddy:

Editors Note: This is my introduction blog which is more or less a "how I got here" article. I plan to leave the tail end of this article a little more vague to help cover the details of some grander stories. While I do admit that I was never much of a blogger, I have found myself recently curious to explore the fields of writing and documenting. On the contrary, I am a sort of analytical thinker by nature. Documenting catches, stats, images, and stories are important to me. I suppose I never really knew why though... perhaps I hope to catch the inspiration of people around me and leave a legacy of special stories for my children to read as I pass on from this world some day. I don't expect my writing to be perfect English verbatim, but I will do my best to keep my stories entertaining and open to questions and comments.

    Fishing started with a mix of active years followed by hiatus nature; though I do like to think I am lifetime angler to some degree. It started in diapers on an old Bayliner in the 90's. My father would troll for kokanee salmon on Flaming Gorge Reservoir and I spent many hours on the water probably crying more than fishing. Then came my teenage years. My family became overnight camping enthusiasts and we spent what felt like the majority of our summer weekends for several years up in the mountains at paid campgrounds with stocked lakes. The fishing was more conventional by spin fishing standards (power bait, salmon eggs, nightcrawler, etc.) This was met with another hiatus as we grew apart from camping and after a few years, my father purchased another boat and was ready to re-visit the Flaming Gorge days in pursuit of kokanee. There was one particular summer where every single weekend was spent on that lake. 

My fathers boat "Skiddy's Living the High Life"

    Eventually I graduated high school and focused my priorities on my early years of marriage and fatherhood. The Covid pandemic would be the life changing course for my fishing obsession. Like everyone else, I was cooped up and ready to touch grass, explore nature, and just simply soak in some vitamin D. I went to the store and purchased an Ugly Stik combo and went back to my roots of power bait fishing at a local favorite hotspot; Salem Pond. I caught many fish from Salem, with the grand majority being stocked rainbow trout. I would visit frequently on the weekends in the early hours before my family would wake up and try to beat my numbers from the weekend before. Now I will admit, I didn't understand safe catch and release at this time but ultimately I found myself just simply tired of having good days with bait. This lead me to pursue my first fish on a spinner, then new locations, new species, so on and so forth. 

My personal best trout from bait

     It was really my desire to catch new species that  really led me to my modern day lust for adventure and  new trout species. I was pretty ignorant to the idea that there were sub species of trout in the world beyond rainbows. It was ideally just "trout and bass". While I did catch some crappie and bluegill, those were more "exotic" to me rather than something I could target regularly. 

    I will state that the first fish that really changed the course was my first brown trout. I quicky became obsessed with an idea that these fish were so elusive to a guy that seemed to only appreciate stocked community ponds. I quickly latched onto the knowledge that these fish were primarily river dwelling and again; completely ignorant to the reasons why. After hours of research and time spent casting on the banks, I finally caught my first brown trout on the lower tailwater of the Provo River. Engulfed with pride and satisfaction that I had elevated myself to a new level beyond "put and take" trout fishing, I knew I needed more and made several return trips to the Provo River. Some days were spent catching a couple, others spent mindlessly casting and banging my head against the wall from fish that wouldn't strike large spinners. 

Provo River brown trout

   As if I couldn't elevate myself beyond the advanced nature of river fishing, I was just scratching the surface of what was to come. Eventually I found myself interested in landing my first cutthroat trout. While doing similar research to brown trout, I stumbled upon the Utah Cutthroat Slam: a non profit organization that encourages you to catch the four indigenous cutthroat of Utah, take a picture, release them, and receive a certificate of achievement and sweet medallion. Wait!? Did I just read "FOUR CUTTHROAT" I asked myself. Attempting to figure out where these fish were going to be caught seemed like a daunting task but then I became elated with the research. It was becoming apparent to me that these majestic fish were mostly found in creeks. Creeks would be hard for me considering there are tree, shrubs, low water, and slinging a jerkbait or spinner was going to be tough....it was pretty clear this was a fly fisherman's task....and boy was I in a heap of trouble from here!

   

Native Utah Yellowstone cutthroat

It was about this time I picked up a tenkara rod and a western rod simultaneously. I can't say I was a convert over night and spent the majority of my first year fly fishing with a spinning rod in my back pocket and abused the spinners every time I felt uncomfortable. In the course of a year, I slowly picked away three of the four fish in the UCTS. Eventually the dreaded Yellowstone Cutthroat was the final task for me. I made my way to the Raft River Mountains in Northwest Utah and spent an entire day grinding away for one miniscule cutthroat. It was caught on a Tiny Ten branded tenkara rod.

I completed the Utah Cutthroat Slam and it changed me forever. I grew my passion for western fly fishing, and fixed line fly fishing (as I will refer to Tenkara in many articles). But more so, my passion for native fish. I felt robbed from my years of fishing with bait because I was experiencing a type of fishing that was so mundane to me, I couldn't believe my resilience led my mind down a path of wanting to make sense that there was more than throwing a doughy bait into a lake. I am proud to admit that I spend 99.9% of 2023-2024 with a fly rod in my hands. A future article will explain this transition for me but that decision led me to three new states, eight native cutthroat, and four drainages in the year of 2024 alone. They say trout live in the most beautiful places but I don't think we could ever fully understand until we visit a headwater stream in trout country.  

A beautiful cutthroat stream in Wyoming

    YouTube became a part of my journey in 2021. While I documented many of my adventures initially on Instagram, my beloved wife has always had a niche for social media and she encouraged me to try video blogging my adventures. I made a quick cut and edit from a cold wintery day at Strawberry Reservoir and the video although poorly edited, generated over a thousand views on the first day. I kept up with it and upgraded equipment through the year. YouTube has helped me network and market my content with some business owners from brands I have really grown to love. I have made many friends who are tenkara enthusiasts and this became my channel niche at some point. Although my content has provided a handful of fishing styles and methods, tenkara is a young and growing phenomenon in modern day fly fishing and I felt I was in the right place at the right time as if it were part of the journey all along.

Welcome to the Skiddy Fishing Chronicles and I hope you enjoy these written adventures and the photos I captured.