Podcast

Dylan Tomine Part 1. Writing Headwaters and Humility in Fly Fishing

The WadeOutThere Podcast is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

** Note ** The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below.

In Episode 176 we WadeOutThere for Part One of our conversation with Dylan Tomine, from Washington State. Dylan was one of those children who always loved fish and fishing. He developed a love of steelhead at an early age and has spent most of his life fly fishing.

He is a passionate angler, Patagonia a mbassador, conservationist, and writer. His books include Headwaters: The Adventures, Obsession and Evolution of a Fly Fisherman, and Closer to the Ground: An Outdoor Family’s Year on the Water, in the Woods and at the Table. Dylan was a producer of the film Artifishal and played an important role in the films Damnation and Chrome.

We discuss Dylan’s writing and his book Headwaters, as well as humility in fishing.

I think if I had grown up in a vacuum, and there were no mentors or people to teacher and show the path, I think then you could talk really about deserving something because I figured all this out myself, but I didn’t figure out any of this stuff. It was all somebody who taught me somewhere along the way.
Dylan Tomine

Photo by Matthew DeLor
© Cameron Karsten Photography

Reflections

When I look back on my time learning to fly fish, many lonely days on the river, trying my hardest to figure out why I’m not catching fish, seem to rise to the top of my mind. Little victories, here and there, that add up over time, slowly built a toolbox of techniques that I can fall back on now when times get tough. Things don’t seem quite as tricky now, and getting skunked doesn’t seem quite so common.

But when I think hard about what nudged me forward and truly helped me progress, it’s obvious that the interactions and instruction from friends and mentors is what really moved the needle.

Dylan reminds us that we all lean on each other to progress in fly fishing and it’s a welcome perspective. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed talking with Dylan.

Thanks for listening.

VR- Jason