About Rob
Rob’s Mission
To get you to fish locally. To make you a better and more competent and self sufficient angler. To make fly fishing easy, approachable, and less intimidating.
Background
Rob grew up in Reston, VA where he had a warm water lake across the street and beaver ponds in his backyard. Rob spent his time after school and on vacations fishing on the lake and along the nearby creeks.
His dad would take him and his brother (Andrew) to the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers on weekends where they would fish for smallmouth bass. His grandparents lived in Florida. His mother’s parents lived along a coral reef on the ocean. His father’s mom lived inland amongst tea-stained canals.
Rob’s vacations were based around family but he made them about fishing. Rob fished the coral reefs for jacks and what ever else would bite and golf course canals for monster largemouth bass.
Rob started off with a hand line from the Boston Aquarium at age four and graduated to a Zebco push button rod by age 6. By fifth grade he was using a spinning rod with lures and bait. Rob says that Spam is the best fishing bait. Although Rob has been fishing since he was four, he didn’t pick up a fly rod until 5th grade or so . It was his brother’s rod. The first time he used it he broke the tip in the front door and from then on it was his. In fact, he still fishes that Cortland rod.
Rob’s dad started taking him to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the summer where he learned to fish for brook trout. Rob began to drive to the middle Potomac river at ‘Seneca’ and nearby office park ponds after school when he got his drivers license in 1993.
In the summer of 1993 he went on a trip to Ecuador where one of his fellow travelers had a fly rod and butterfly net. During that summer Rob began to focus his interests from spin and bait to fly and eventually fly tying. It was that trip in 1993 that inspired Rob to pursue entomology in college.
August of 1995 Rob went to college at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA . It was on the Rappahannock river where he was introduced to tidal and anadromous species such as shad and striped bass. Rob fished the spring runs for these fish and fished the summers above town for smallies. Rob’s life changed dramatically on May 4, 1999 when he caught his first striped bass on a fly rod, “I never touched a spin rod again.”
Rob graduated in 1999 and began working for the local Orvis store in Tyson’s Corner and then Key Largo, Florida.
That is where his life changed. Since July 1999 Rob has dedicated his life to fly fishing. It has changed who he is in almost every aspect. Rob’s solo career in fly fishing began in the winter of 2006 when he left his part time job at Hudson Trail Outfitters. Rob left corporate life in the spring of 2010 to pursue fly fishing as the focus of his career.
Rob now wears flip flops and shorts or waders to work in stead of wingtips and a suit. For more information, please read below. He is the only guide authorized to guide the shorelines of the Tidal Potomac in and around Washington DC. He is obsessed with northern snakeheads.
Rob is featured in the short film “Urban Lines, Fish Where You Are”
Urban Lines – Fish Where You Are from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo.
Affiliations
- Patagonia Pro Athlete
- Stealthcraft Boats Pro Team
- Supported by Simms, Orvis, Costa Del Mar, Chaco, Reddington, Sage, Rio, Buff, Temple Fork Outfitters, Ariat, SIMMS, Hareline Dubbin, Korkers, Mountain Khakis, Yeti Coolers, Kast Gear, Douglas Outdoors
- Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders
- Trout Unlimited
- American Fly Fishing Trade Association
- Federation of Fly Fishers
- Potomac Conservancy
- Project Healing Waters.
Other
- Red Cross C.P.R. , AED, and first aid certified
- Insured
- Commercial use authorized for George Washington Memorial Parkway National Park.
Fishing
- Fly Fishing Consultant, LLC, Alexandria, VA 05/10 – Present Owner/operator
- Fly Tying Instructor, Arlington VA 01/12-Present Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders monthly tying class instructor
- Breckenridge Outfitters, Breckenridge, CO 06/05 – 08/05 Sales associate and fly fishing instructor Breckenridge Outfitters won the 2005 Orvis Endorsed Outfitter of the Year Award!
- Hudson Trail Outfitters, Fairfax, VA 12/03 – 05/05 Sales associate
- Orvis Company Store, Tyson’s Corner, VA 7/99 – 5/03 Sales associate and fly fishing instructor
- The Mountain Lake Lodge, Harpers Ferry, WV 08/02 – 06/03 Head Guide and store employee . Lodge and store destroyed by arson, 06/03
- Grand Slam Outfitters, Key Largo, FL 12/99 – 02/00 Sales associate and fly fishing instructor.
Consulting
- Booz Allen Hamilton, Arlington, VA. 05/08 – 05/10
- Provided financial business management and post-award grant monitoring support to the National Science Foundation Division of Institutional Award Support
Teaching
- Biology Teacher, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA 03/04 – 09/07 General and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Biology Classes
- Developed instructional materials, including visual aids, hand outs, curriculum, computerized lesson plans, and assignments to meet individualized learning needs of a multicultural diverse student body based on my background in education and biology. Closely collaborated with department teachers to share personally developed instructional materials and common assessments to ensure all students learned and were uniformly assessed
- Demonstrated expertise in using technology-based instructional materials, including extensive use of Blackboard.com as learning platform, Power Point, and various tactile and auditory medium. Used inspirational techniques focused both on classroom learning and scientific application in the real world.
Education
- B. S., Biology, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA 05/99
- Coursework included: Animal Ecology, Botany, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Entomology, Environmental Science, Human Anatomy, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Parasitology, Statistics, Tropical Ecology, Vertebrate Zoology, Physical Geography, Genetics.
States & U.S. Territories Fly Fished
- Washington
- Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
- Ohio
- West Virginia
- North Carolina
- Florida
- Colorado
- New Hampshire
- South Dakota
- Maryland
- Maine
- Puerto Rico
- Delaware
- Hawaii (Kauai & Oahu)
- California
- Idaho
- New Jersey
- Washington D.C.
- Massachusetts
Countries
- U.S.A.
- Australia (Australia Capitol Territory)
- Ecuador & Galápagos Islands
- Botswana / Columbia (along or possibly across borders from other countries)
- South Africa
- Spain
- France