I grew up in New England and, ironically, I didn’t fish much as a kid, other than throwing plugs off the beach to Bluefish in Truro while on family camping trips. After college in Boston, I spent some time ski bumming in Utah, and decided to move to NYC to try my hand as an actor. I always loved imagery as a way to communicate a story or feeling and thought that film work might be my niche. Coupled with a complete lack of talent and no desire to sit around a craft service table (the film-set food table) for 16 hours a day, I realized that acting was not gonna be it. After a camping trip to Yellowstone Park in the early 90s with my wife-to-be, I was first exposed to Fly-Fishing during a hike-in overnight on Grebe Lake one August. I only wish I brought a good camera with me on that trip, as I will never forget the sight of a fly-man in a belly boat, on a glassy lake, with snow falling, fog rising and hundreds of trout (and Grayling) gulping at Callibaetis as the sun started to rise. I was transfixed as if I had just seen my first naked lady.

To me, imagery and fishing are one in the same. As much as I want to catch any given fish (and believe me I do), I just as strongly want to capture the moment of the scene, the take and the struggle on film. To me, I want to get all the variables correctly; either with the light and the camera, or with the flyrod and fly. This is where the satisfaction comes from. Not for any goal-reaching or desire to control things around me, but just to feel things come together. I am generally terrible at this in real life. The effort to balance my love for my children, the challenge of living in NYC, the struggle of earning enough dough is often overwhelming to me. But with photography and fishing, every once in a blue moon, I get it right, and it teaches me about life and gives me a glimpse of the satisfaction of a life in balance. A deep, shit-eating grin that comes all the way up from my shin bones.

Luckily, I live in NYC and only 12 miles away from my boat. I have been really really lucky to fish in Panama quite a bit, most of the Bahamas, Alaska, Belize, Seychelles, a lot of the West, Mexico a bunch, Florida, Louisiana, etc. I am fortunate to run the Redbone Tournament (a cystic fibrosis charity event) every fall in Montauk. And I would really like to fish and shoot Tarpon as they have been mostly elusive to me up until now.

So that’s about it. I fish what was once 170 days a year as a guide (kids and the economy are cutting a few dozen days off that the last few years), I shoot actors portraits, some magazine stuff, sell some real estate, tend bar, whatever can pay the bills. I try to keep up the fight to protect the resource, especially the Striped Bass (go to www.joinFCA.org if you want to help). Most importantly, I feel fortunate to have met and know a lot great people that happen to be fisherman.

In the back of my mind I always have two things. My kids, first and foremost, and second, the sight of some fish (most likely Bluefin Tuna though) busting all over the surface of the water. Somehow I don’t think that that will ever change….



Check out Urbanflyguides.com to learn about Captain Brendan McCarthy’s guide service.