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BRENT DAWSON
Certain men and women were created to fish. The word that best describes them, their views of the environment, the sport of fly fishing, and teaching others to fish: passion. They speak of fishing with a profound fondness and promote conservation efforts with such a sincere love and appreciation for the waters they fish that their passion is unavoidably contagious.
Brent Dawson is as enthusiastic an angler as you will find, but conversations with him bring a different word to mind: aggressive.
Brent fishes destinations like Mongolia, Panama and Egypt without a guide, ties flies no one has ever dreamt of, and when he boasted years with 180-plus days on the water none of them included an hour of guiding clients. How did he choose the name Warpath for his tying company? It sounds aggressive.
Brent began fishing at the age of three. He grew up in the Sierras of eastern California. He loved team sports but didn’t excel, skied with his friends but didn’t shred the way they did, and although he loved spin fishing with his dad there was something about fly fishing that he naturally took to. For a passionate young angler, there aren’t many essentials. He began his career as an angler with the cheapest tackle on the market, supportive parents, and an abundance of local water. Without anyone around who could teach him the basics, Brent taught himself to cast and catch fish, as well as how to tie at the age of 8. Although those first few flies were the “ugliest things you’ve ever seen”, Brent learned a lot about tying flies outside of the bounds of tradition and common practice.
Brent still ties with a disregard for what everyone else is doing. Part of this is personality; part of it is his desire to see the sport of fly fishing break down the barriers of because-it-has-always-been-done-that-way. One way that Brent does this is by putting on two-day tying/fishing classes for kids. Day one consists of painting poppers with Loon’s Hard Head (which yields some pretty “wild” designs). On day two Brent takes the kids to the nearest water, gives some basic instruction on casting, and then watches the smiles explode as the kids reel in the bass and blue gill that were enticed by the poppers painted the day before. Brent’s goal is to give them just enough instruction to make them successful, but leave plenty of room for kids to develop their own style and flare.
Talking to Brent is a great way to get excited about the future of fly fishing. His passion and enthusiasm are an inspiration to get out and fish, you guessed it, aggressively.
www.warpathflys.com
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