On the Water
Capt. Ethan Winchester · Fly fishing guide since 2010
Where it started
Long before I worked with data, I learned to read water. A seam where two currents meet. The soft edge behind a boulder. The way a trout gives itself away with a rise so small you’d miss it if you blinked. None of it was written down anywhere. You learned it by showing up, paying attention, and being wrong a lot.
That’s still the best training I know for any kind of work. Look before you cast. Figure out what’s actually happening, not what you expected to happen. Then make one good presentation instead of ten hurried ones.
Guiding
I went through Sweetwater Travel Company’s guide school in 2009 and guided my first season in 2010 at Kulik Lodge in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, chasing big rainbows with clients who’d flown halfway around the world to be there. It was a fast education in reading water, and in reading people.
In 2011 I started Boyne Outfitters in northern Michigan, and for the next 12 years I ran it as Director of Operations and head guide with a crew of eight guides. Looking back, the seasons blur together in the best way:
Float trips. Most of my river days were spent at the oars of an Adipose skiff or a Flycraft raft, boats that suit northern Michigan rivers: light, shallow-drafting, and nimble enough to slip through tight bends and logjams. Steelhead in spring, then the long evenings from late May into July, when sulphurs, drakes, and Isonychia came off and the river woke up at dusk. Hex gets the headlines, but I always liked the quieter hatches better. Summer brought hoppers, and a hopper bounced off a bank from the boat is hard to beat.
Walk and wade. Countless days on foot, including the cold, gin-clear backcountry creeks you can’t float. That’s where terrestrial fishing was at its best: sneaking up on brook and brown trout with an ant or a beetle, one cast at a time.
Freshwater flats. For years I waded the rocky flats of the northern Great Lakes for smallmouth bass, carp, and pike. For a few seasons near the end, I poled clients across those flats from a Hog Island skiff. The skiff has since found a new home, but those were some of the most fun days I ever guided.
These days I guide by invitation more than by calendar. The license stays current anyway. Some habits are worth keeping.
At the vise
I’ve been tying flies for nearly three decades, since I was about 12. Some of it is craft and some of it is problem-solving: a handful of feathers, fur, and wire, arranged until a fish believes it. Since 2018 I’ve designed patterns for Catch Fly Fishing, which means a few of my ideas now ride in other people’s fly boxes.
Further afield
Fly fishing has taken me to Alaska, Belize, the Bahamas, Louisiana, the Rocky Mountain West, and several dozen states in between. Bonefish, tarpon, and permit on the flats. Redfish in the marsh. Trout wherever trout live. The fish are the excuse. The places and the people are what you remember.
Giving back
Healthy fisheries are the whole reason any of this works. I served as president of Friends of the Jordan River from 2019 to 2021, partnering with AmeriCorps on instream habitat restoration and supporting the Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative. I also served as vice president of the Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited from 2018 to 2020, and the chapter honored me with its John Walters Award as a Stream Champion in 2019. Since 2022 I’ve served on the board of the Michigan River Guides Association.
Partners
Thanks to Scientific Anglers and Catch Fly Fishing for years of support, gear, and good company on the water, and to Sage Fly Fishing for ten years as an Elite Pro (2015 to 2025).
