Weekly Round-Up: Christmas 2024
Pausing for a deep breath before the leap into the New Year—and all the lovely chaos it's bringing.
It’s hard to believe we’re in the final two weeks of 2024. It’s a year I’m ready to put in the rear-view; I’m eager to turn the corner into 2025. The year’s going to start off strong with nearly a month working in Argentina, and then things should clip along at a pretty good pace from there on out. I’m making up lost time from this year’s unplanned spine surgery and, after having to cancel eight trips in the latter half of the year, I’m excited to get back to bringing you destination and trip reports here in the newsletter.
Thanks to all of you for following along this past year, and welcome to the many new readers who have joined in the past few weeks. Let’s find some quiet time to enjoy the Christmas season, celebrate the New Year, and then adventure on into 2025.
Carving Out Quiet Moments
Let’s take a deep breath and focus on the little things.
It’s a busy time of year for everyone. Some are running here and there, trying to fit in a different family get-together or social engagement every night of the week. Others are facing the end-of-year sprint, trying to cram in as much work into the 2024 calendar before 2025 shows its face. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind this time of year, and hard to block out time to just catch our breath.
If you can carve out that time, though, you’re likely to find it’s well worth it. I’m in a sprint of my own right now (a couple sprints, in fact), and the days are flying by. Somehow it doesn’t feel a whole lot like Christmas this year, but I’m trying to find little moments that are a bit festive, or carve out an hour here or there for some quiet thinking time.
A couple weeks ago Missoula received a hard hoar frost that lingered throughout the morning, so I bumped a meeting back an hour, grabbed the camera, and headed out to a local park for a long walk in the frigid air. I just needed to make images of something, and it turns out these pine needles in the image above, painted white with ice crystals, just about fit the bill. I came home cold but happy, refreshed and ready for the next hour of staring into a computer screen for a client video call.
However you choose to find some quiet time before the madness of 2025 kicks in, make time to do it. It doesn’t have to be a full hour. Twenty minutes here or there, away from screens and phones and the ‘net, can work wonders. Just go for a walk and think. Sketch a drawing on your favorite notepad. Handwrite a Christmas card. Bake a batch of cookies (from scratch).
This time of year can be all about the little details… when everything is whirring by, stop and appreciate the white frost crystals on the fence. Old, cheesy Christmas lights strung on a street corner. The first sip of hot coffee on a cold morning. Before we know it Christmas will be over, the New Year will be past, and we’ll be rolling into the first hard-charging days of 2025.
Once January hits, I have three weeks until I’m working in Argentina for a month, hosting two fishing groups and then staying on to visit another lodge for a shoot. Then I’m home for less than 72 hours before heading to the Denver Fly Show to teach classes and take meetings. The rest of 2025 is looking to continue in that same hectic vein, so despite a busy schedule for these coming few weeks, I’m trying my darnedest to carve out some of that quiet time for myself.
Easier said than done, I know. But here’s to each of us finding a bit of quiet in the coming days. Merry Christmas, y’all.
Final Call: Argentina Hosted Trips
(P.S. Travel Makes a Great Christmas Gift!)
Final call to join me in Argentina next January for trout, dorado, or both!
January 25 - February 1, 2025
Estancia Laguna Verde, Lago Strobel, Argentina
$7,500 (7 nights / 6.5 days fishing)
Private room / shared guide
February 2 - 7, 2025 (ONLY ONE SPOT REMAINING)
Golden Dorado River Cruiser, Paraná River, Argentina
$4,200 (5 nights / 4.5 days fishing)
Shared room and guide
The prices include lodging, guides, and food at both locations. Want to learn more? Send me a DM on social media or an email, or peek at this PDF for more details.
Denver Fly Fishing Show
For those of you who are planning (or maybe should be planning!) to attend the Denver Fly Fishing Show this year, I’ll be teaching a couple different workshops during the February 21-23, 2025 show. (And I’ll just have returned from Argentina two days prior, so the odds are good the presentations will be jet-lagged and entertaining.)
I don’t have dates or times for the workshops or talks yet, but stay tuned for more information. I’ll be teaching on the following topics:
Capture Better Fishing Photos With Jess McGlothlin: A 2.5-hour intensive workshop with in-class “assignments”, $95 for the session and limited slots.
Travel Tips and Tricks With Jess McGlothlin: A 45-minute presentation designed to help anglers be more prepared—and feel more confident—traveling solo or as part of a group. Free with show ticket.
I hope to see many of you in Denver at the show!
Q&A
Keep on sending in your questions via Instagram or by commenting by clicking the button below. Each week I’ll pick one and give a longer, more thought-out answer here than those I give on Instagram.
This week’s question came in via email.
Q: What’s your best travel tip for someone starting to travel more?
A: Look carefully at your credit cards! I’m a big fan of putting all my expenses on credit cards which give me airline or hotel points, and then just paying the card off entirely each billing cycle. Pending on many factors (your bank, financial situation, etc.) there are many cards which offer travel benefits, The Points Guy did a good round-up recently on 20 different options. Some of my favorite benefits include free checked bags on certain airlines, airport lounge access (significant for me, as lounges serve as de facto workspaces for much of my year), and—of course—airline points.
Recently Published
Take a peek at the latest issue of The Fly Fish Journal for my feature about pelagic fly-fishing off Colombia’s Darién Gap. Colombia, Me Gusta, is an attempt to capture this incredible place on paper.
Hook & Barrel’s latest print issue has a gorgeous feature about fishing for large rainbow trout at Argentina’s Estancia Laguna Verde in their latest issue. I got a sneak peek at the layout, and am excited to see the final!
It’s not all fishing. I recently penned a hotel review on the exquisite Langham in Boston for travel industry B2B publication Travel Market Report.
Pick up the latest issue of American Fly Fishing and peek at the cover. I shot this image of friend Jackie Jordan on the Battenkill River in Vermont nearly ten years ago. Peek inside the issue for a photo feature on New England fly fishing (and some unexpected adventures you can find in the region’s waters).
Read the latest issue of Fly Fisherman magazine for an article and images on the Golden Dorado River Cruiser, as well as a series of images from Colombia’s Darien Lodge accompanying an article from fly-angling great Jeff Currier.
Photography on the Water: Help Your Buddy Nail the Hero Shot ran on Epic Fly Rod’s blog this past week.
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