A letter to my clients...
Dear past, present and future clients,
These are unprecedented times in our country right now and we are all in this together. This pandemic is affecting our day to day lives and affecting our communities, some more than others. This is a time for reflection and understanding what matters most in our lives. For me it is the three F’s. Family, friends and fly fishing.
The fly fishing community is my extended family and I have built lots of great relationships because of fly fishing and being a guide. Most of the people I fish with on a consistent basis I consider family. I have even built lasting relationships with clients that I now consider to be family and I hope they feel the same. As family we stick together and we watch each other’s backs to make sure we succeed. We are all trying to do just that during these tough times.
Fly fishing has led me to meet many people I consider my friends and many clients that I consider to be my friends, and let me tell you I miss my friends, as most of us probably do right now. I miss being able to go fish with friends and give a high five when a good fish hits the net. I miss sitting on the boat and drinking beers with my friends or even sharing a nip or two off the bottle after a long day. Hell I miss bellying up to the bar and talking about our day of fishing. I miss the normal days of floating the river and bullshitting our way down, but friends will stick together and friends will help get us through.
As for this letter to my clients, you are family. You are friends, and you are fly fishing. Without my clients I am not sure where I would be in life. I want to take a moment and say that the fly fishing guide community would be no where without clients. We would not have our dream job and an escape from the corporate world. We would not be able to fish every day, which is a luxury, if it weren’t for our clients. I want to say that I am thinking about my clients right now and hoping that everyone is staying safe and staying healthy. I hope that your family is safe and healthy and you are taking the right precautions. Soon we will be reunited and we will be fishing again. We will share laughs, we will share highs and we will share lows. We will share a boat together and a shuttle together. We will share beers together and lunch together. We will connect with the river and connect with each other. I know many of you are thinking about your annual fishing trip, well as John Geirach said, “the solution to any problem – work, love, money, global pandemic, whatever- is to go fishing, and the worse the problem the longer the trip should be.” I added a small bit to that quote. When this is all over we will be more eager than ever to fish and share a passion for the outdoors.
We are so lucky to have fly fishing in our lives and I am very thankful to each and every one of my clients, my friends and my family for supporting my habit as a fly fishing guide, my business and my dream. Stay strong and know you aren’t alone out there. I’ll have a beer or three for ya.
Sincerely,
Cameron Rhodes