“Early on, I decided that fishing would be my way of looking at the world. First it taught me how to look at rivers. Lately it has been teaching me how to look at people, myself included.”

— Thomas McGuane

My name is Braden Hughes, and I'm a fly fisherman.

I grew up in the Ozarks, where rivers carve through limestone and the people who spend their lives chasing fish.

I learned to read water here, but fishing doesn't let you stay home. It takes you to new water, questionable parking spots, and rivers that make you work for it. You wade until your knees ache, tie flies at kitchen tables after midnight, and drive hours for water that might be unfishable by the time you arrive.

This is where I write about it.