Stories From Afield

For Ken Baldwin — formerly a fishing guide, actor, professional salsa dancer; and now the contributing editor and writer for Men’s Journal’s fly fishing channel — life has evolved around nature and capturing its perfection. Ken guided and photographed in Alaska for 20 years, bringing his camera everywhere to eternalize this wild, free world of the North. Now, as Ken helps cover the outdoor world for a main-stream audience, we explore his approach to chronicling the fly fishing lifestyle.

Ritual surrounds the consumption of coffee, argues Matt Igoe, pictured below bowing to the great blue yonder. Coffee is the great motivator — the catalyst that cracks the curse of the snooze button and gets journeys underway. It’s gas in the motor, lifeblood — feeding the muscle fibers of your forearms as you pole your skiff into a relentless onshore wind. It’s the dream to see coffee sustain rather than drip dry the rainforests and communities of El Salvador that produce this daily staple of our lives — a dream that, for Matt Igoe, blossomed into Afuera.

It’s amazing the degree to which the stories of fish landed and fish lost affect us as human beings. Each time we leave the dock, we unveil the next chapters of our own fishing anthologies — forging memories in company of fellow anglers or in complete solitude. While some of these stories embody life’s most carefree moments, Monte Burke’s Lords of the Fly tells a fisherman’s tale of much higher stakes. Burke’s writing transports the reader to the storied flats of Homosassa, Florida, during an era of fierce competition among world-class fishermen in the hunt for angling history. We sat down with Monte to dive deeper into his life, writing, and research in covering the race to catch record-breaking tarpon on a fly rod.

Capt. Alex Tejeda of Bone Collector Kayak Fishing Charters offers an incredibly unique angling experience unparalleled in the South Florida area. Bone Collector Kayak Fishing mainly targets bonefish, but if the client has a preference, Alex can tailor a trip to their desires. Alex uses specialized kayaks to target everything South Florida has to offer. Tarpon, snook, largemouth bass, spinner shark, lemon shark, barracuda, permit and more are available options. The operation is run off state of the art kayaks designed for efficiency and comfort, he will fish anywhere from Biscayne Bay to the Southern Keys, including the everglades. Keep reading to learn more about a truly unique experience on the water with Bone Collector Kayak Fishing.

It’s no surprise that Captain Ian Slater understands the value of good coaching. Born and raised in Satellite Beach, Florida, Ian grew up fishing for trout, snook, redfish, and baby tarpon in the tidal estuaries of his backyard. However, his focus fell squarely on hockey early in life, and he began pursuing it seriously by the age of 9.

People tend to make a lot of generalizations about anglers, but one of the most widely-held and glaringly-reductive beliefs has to do with their stories. Continuously and without fail, the proverbial “fisherman’s tale” has been codified into pop culture and modern lingo as an exaggerated, farce-ridden narrative — deceptive by design and meant to be received with default skepticism.

Alec Lucas grew up in North Carolina and started fishing when he learned how to walk. His parents, both avid outdoorsmen, frequently took their family on excursions to inland waterways, as well as the occasional trip to the Carolina lowcountry.

We believe the guide IS the experience. As a former fly fishing guide myself, I had the opportunity to fish with people from all over the world and all walks of life - people I wouldn’t normally interact with or mesh with. Many of these people I stay in contact with to this day. I don’t believe I’m unique in that way. Most full-time guides share a deep connection with their clients. A bond that can’t be otherwise explained except that it happened in the outdoors over a shared passion.