“Things get said in a skiff that wouldn’t get said in a confessional,” Flip Pallot says.
No kidding. As a trout guy, I’ve always said that the truth always comes out around a campfire. And I’d love to share a campfire conversation with Flip Pallot.
As a formative fly fisher in my 20s and early 30s, I remember those Saturday mornings watching Pallot’s “Walker’s Cay Chronicles” featuring the generally formulaic “fishing show” lineup of great destinations and guest anglers. Pallot’s home water is the salty environs of Florida, but on that old program, he’d fish all over—a buddy of mine remembers bumping into Pallot on the Stocking Ranch on Idaho’s upper Blackfoot River. The show either preceeded or followed the late Jose Wejebe’s “Spanish Fly,” another show that spurred a mountain-dwelling trout guy to seek out the salt and the critters that swim there. Pallot was an inspiration.
YETI’s guide series features Pallot in the video above. Here’s a guy who tossed his business suits in the garbage and followed his dream to be a full-time fly fisher. He made it work, and there are many who have tried and failed. Perhaps it’s because he succeeded, and worked to bring so many young anglers into the world of fly fishing—or, in my case, expand our angling horizons—that he continues to inspire.
Now well into my 40s and peering over the edge at 50, I can honestly say that it’s Pallots voice in my head when I find myself on some deserted tropical flat looking for fish. Maybe it’s because he emotes confidence and patience when he teaches. And there may not be more important traits in a saltwater angler.
Yes, indeed. An inspiration. Thanks, Flip.
— Chris Hunt