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Hey Guys!

Welcome to the 27th Issue of Guys Fishing Weekly!

Thanks for spending even just a little of your week with us. We are grateful for you!

Enjoy,

- The GFW Boys

I am not sure where I originally heard this little tid bit, and I am not going to claim it as my own. The friend hack that has best worked for me over recent years is:

Now it might feel weird to text your old buddy out of the blue and only say “I admire you”. If I got that specific text, I may just think this person is crazy and maybe there is a reason we drifted apart.

However, if you take this and elaborate a bit more, you can make someone’s day and possibly a meaningful re-connection.

So something more along the lines of “Hey Jimmy! Hope you are well. I just came across this photo, and just wanted you to know I’m thinking about you. Miss you man.”

Now Jimmy is thinking about that fun time you had together 10 years ago and how much of a bummer it is that you have drifted apart. At a minimum, he is going to say “Great to hear from you! What a good memory. I hope you are well.”

And if not, so be it. You tried.

In this modern world, where we are so “connected” through social media or other means, we forget about people. We stop connecting because we see their update in our feed or we just get busy. As this happens, we don’t really notice because we can see Jimmy’s posts and answer his notification announcing his birthday.

Then 10 years down the road we lift our head up from our phone just to realize we have no one around us.

I sense that many of us are living out this exact situation. I sense that because as a run of the mill guy myself, I lived this. Then I heard the above advice and decided to start intentionally reconnecting.

In fact, I recently had this exact situation play out in my own life after I put this in to practice. Here is a text exchange I had with a long lost buddy from college, who I use to do regular annual skiing trips with.

We hadn’t seen each other since this wedding 2013 (pains me to think it had been 10 years). He took a job straight out of college on the west coast, and I drifted around the country chasing my career and wife to be.

But as one’s photo album does, it showed me a reminder of the past. And with my recently acquired manifesto to reach out no matter what when thinking about someone, I did.

I reconnected a 10-year-old tie. One that may have at the time felt like, “why would he want to hear from me. Maybe we drifted apart for a reason.”

Now more than ever, people are craving that long lost connection. Rekindling memories of more fun times, and “when life was easy.”

The first place to find friends and connection, is by reaching out to people from your past. You will be able to rekindle friendships, find business deals, or just close chapters of your life.

So, I encourage you to take up this practice:

Be intentional about your relationships, because if not you, then who?

Quote of the Week

What We Are Watching

Fly fishing for big trout at Cedar Springs Sportsman Lodge!!

Looks like an absolutely awesome place to fish! This video by @sw_virginia_outdoorsman is all about catching.

Fish of the Week

Ice Trout Szn!!

One Fly Pattern

Joe’s Smelt

A really cool streamer pattern tied by Jesse Rochester (Instagram), that is super simple to tie and even more effective.

One Cause to Learn About

Warrior & Quiet Waters

Warriors & Quiet Waters Foundation (WQW) believes in the power of nature to heal and transform the lives of post-9/11 combat veterans and their loved ones. Their story began in 2007 with their Solo Fishing Experience – a week-long fly-fishing experience in Southwest Montana – to help veterans cope with the physical, psychological, and moral trauma of combat. Their programming was designed to provide respite, healing, and a safe space for veterans to connect and find belonging with veterans and the volunteers who cared deeply about them.

Over the many years since 2007, the Solo Fishing Experience has done what it was designed to do – help nearly one thousand veterans find healing and hope through fly fishing. It also sparked multiple other veteran programs based on fishing to include a couple’s program, family program, ice-fishing program, and backcountry fly-fishing program.

For more information:

Website | Instagram | Donate

Nuggets for Nibblin’

Find Your Life’s Purpose

Snow Towns

Is your state’s sandwich correct?

Extend your Healthy Years

!!Merch Pre-Orders Coming Next Week!!

#River Thoughts

• It's not okay to eat food that's been left out all night for breakfast, unless it's pizza. (Source: Reddit)

• Due to allergies all ingredients have to be listed, meaning no company can legally have a secret ingredient (Source: Reddit)

• People that drive cars that look like police cars must have longer commutes going places (Source: Reddit)

• Almost every mythical creature sighting in ancient times can be explained by the fact that visually impaired people didn’t have glasses back then (Source: Reddit)

There has got to be fish in there… right?!

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