About Jesse
I’ve been moved by words, stories, fish, and water for as long as I can remember.
As a boy, I sat around dinner tables, porches, wood stoves, and campfires with my parents and their friends, content to absorb the never-ending supply of outdoor exploits and fish tales until I was sent to bed. Eventually, I assembled a collection of co-conspirators, we started making our own (mis)adventures, and I began capturing them in writing.
I believe that the best fly fishing is everywhere and there’s always a story attached. Campfires, cabins, and canoes; drift boats, dirt roads, and dim bars; rivers, ponds, and flats; these are my favorite storytelling sources and venues. I’m most passionate about family, friends, fishing, wild places, and discovery of all sorts. I love telling stories that combine them all, and I want to hear yours too.
I grew up in rural, midcoast Maine in a family of outdoors-lovers, with a river and woods behind the house. I explored the waters of the northeast for a quarter-century before following my passions of fly fishing and travel across the globe to live in a van by the rivers of New Zealand. Afterwards, I moved west, working as a fly fishing guide at the 4UR Ranch in southwest Colorado, and then moved to the Pacific northwest. There, I worked in-house at Far Bank Enterprises - the umbrella company for Sage, Redington, RIO Products, and Fly Water Travel - spending time in the R&D, marketing, travel, and sales departments.
My time in the fly fishing industry was nothing short of incredible and I am fortunate to have met, fished with, and - most importantly - learned from many of the great anglers, casters, guides, writers, and pioneers of the sport. Along the way, I fished up and down and across the States and on four other continents. My writing examines the myriad relationships and encounters with others and the natural world that arise while on the water in these, and other, special places.
I now live in Oregon, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers, and am focused on writing, storytelling, and strategic communications of fly fishing, outdoor, and environmental conservation topics. Collaboration is critical for my work and I love to ideate with others to help tell the stories that matter. I graduated from Bates College in 2006 with a B.A. in Economics, and I was in Class III of The Futurist Project. I’ve completed writing workshops and residencies at Freeflow Institute and PLAYA Summer Lake, am a FFI Certified Fly Casting Instructor, received whitewater boating training at NWRC, am President of the Redsides Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and am also an Ordained Dudeist Priest.
I love to connect with new folks, so please send me an email if you’d like to chat, discuss an idea, or just tell me a story.
Banner photo by Chase White.