About Your Guide

Dave Aronson

I grew up in a small town in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont by the name of Craftsbury. Much of my time, when I wasn't causing trouble, was spent tromping up small brooks in search of brook trout. We would often bring a stick of butter, an egg and some cornmeal, as well as a cast iron pan and a book of matches. When we caught enough, into the pan they went! Those days are still a close memory. I had given up on spin cast fishing as a teenager because it didn't seem challenging enough.

Several years passed where I worked my way through the ranks of several kitchens of inns and small restaurants. At 21, I was working at a country inn in Stowe, VT, as the executive chef where I hired another chef named John (his last name has escaped me). What didn't escape me was the day he and I took a canoe to a high-elevation pond where he taught me how to cast a fly rod. After that, my older role models (my father-in-law and brother-in-law) had also taken to fly fishing. My father-in-law handed down a cheap fly rod, which in hindsight would have made a better saltwater spin fishing rod than a fly rod! I spent the summer beating the water with that, and the following Christmas I was given an Orvis rod and reel. From there, the passion bloomed.

The following years of my life have been spent working as a baker of artisan bread, working four ten-hour days allowed for three days to travel to different rivers. Mornings and evenings are spent locally, learning the water and the hatch cycles which make the sport so interesting. I have found myself in some beautiful places looking at some beautiful fish. The search for these places are in constant evolution, studying topo maps and tromping through the forest to find remote ponds for float tubing. When I am not fly fishing, I am working on my fly-tying skills. When I'm not doing anything related to fly fishing, I am working around the house, hiking, skiing and spending time with my family.

Please respect our wild trout population and allow the gene pool to improve by practicing catch and release. I am a member of the Mad-Dog chapter of Trout Unlimited, as well as the statewide Brook Trout Coordinator for Vermont's Trout Unlimited.