Learning from a Fly-Fishing Master: How Joe Humphreys Mentored Thousands

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Let me start by saying that it’s an honor to have Fly Fisherman magazine ask me to write about my friend and mentor, Joe Humphreys. But at the same time, I’m feeling stressed because how do you summarize the life of a living fly-fishing legend in approximately 2,500 words? The short answer is you can’t. All I can do is talk about the life of this amazing man through my own filter. We’ll look at the impact he has had on thousands of fly fishers he’s influenced through his writing, videos, clinics, and his time running the fly-fishing program at Penn State University.  And if you are new to the sport and hearing the name Joe Humphreys for the first time, make sure to watch his film, Live the Stream–The Story of Joe Humphreys (available at the end of this article).

A Chance Encounter with George Harvey

In his best-selling book, Trout Tactics, Joe mentioned he was “troutbitten” as a young man. Once he caught his first trout on a fly, he knew exactly what he wanted to do the rest of his life. In those days, trout fishing tactics were kept secret unlike the world we currently live in where information is shared freely over the Web. In other words, he had to figure out how to catch fish on his own. As a boy he noticed trout feeding below the surface and wanted to know what was in the water, so he picked up a handful of vegetation and noticed that the freshwater shrimp had hints of orange within their bodies.

Joe borrowed his mom’s orange tying thread and tied a fur nymph with said orange and began catching trout on that nymph, despite not ever hearing about nymphing tactics. This was one of first lessons he taught himself—to take the time to understand the local food chain before making a cast. This may sound like common sense for most fly fishers today but for a six-year-old boy learning to fish in 1929, it was borderline revolutionary; Joe was already becoming a fly-fishing pioneer. But the rate of learning while fishing solo can only take you so far, and this was when Joe’s mentor George Harvey entered the scene at age 12.

One day while fishing a local stream, Joe’s fly was falling apart and he was having trouble getting the fly reassembled. He asked several nearby anglers if they could help. Unfortunately, no one could help but they pointed to another man upstream and said, “that man is George Harvey and he might be able to help you.” Joe had no idea who Harvey was but he politely asked if he could help him with his fly. Harvey helped the young angler get back to fishing and that act of kindness eventually led to a lifelong friendship. And Joe never forgot that act of kindness.

Without a doubt, a lot of Joe’s fly-fishing fundamentals came from Harvey’s teachings. What I find most impressive is how Joe took those lessons and evolved them to catch even more fish. For example, Harvey introduced the tuck cast to Joe who took those concepts and developed additional casts, including the rolling tuck, the downer, and the upper. Like any great student of the sport, Joe tried to improve upon the information handed down to him. Even more important was Joe always gave credit to Harvey for the information he shared. And this is one of the core lessons Joe continues to stress with me–always give credit where it belongs.

Joe’s Gift to Penn State University

Harvey is considered the Dean of American Fly Fishing since starting the Penn State fly-fishing program in the late1930s. George ran the program before retiring in 1970, but for years he had a succession plan: Joe Humphreys. Harvey did an amazing job during his time at Penn State but his protégé Humphreys brought the school national acclaim with his public outreach in the form of books, articles, and hosting the first ever national fly-fishing show on ESPN. And even more impressive is the amount of energy Joe put (and puts) into the program, even 37 years after retirement.

What many people don’t realize is there’s a small independent group who has worked with Joe and Penn State for years helping raise funds for the fly-fishing program. Some of these individuals don’t even fish, but all have two things in common. First, they understand the benefits of a higher education fly-fishing course to teach not only fly-fishing skills but demonstrate the importance of conservation and clean water. The second reason why this group donates their time and their own money is because they love Joe and want to see his legacy at Penn State continue for generations to come. One of their goals is to support the program, of which I am now the lead instructor and director, in allowing students to take the program with no additional financial strain. Other than tuition, this means the only financial obligations placed upon students is buying a fly box for the semester. All fly-fishing and fly-tying equipment and materials are provided to students enrolled in the fly-fishing course. We run approximately 170 plus students through the fly-fishing program each semester. It is not cheap supply these 170 plus students with quality tools and materials each semester. Somehow this group finds a way to support the eight sections of fly fishing being taught each semester.

Recently though the gift of a unanimous donor, the program was named the Joe Humphreys Fly Fishing Program, which is appropriate for someone who has dedicated close to 60 years of their life towards a higher education fly-fishing program. To this day, it’s one of the few universities in the country offering a credited fly-fishing course. George Harvey, Joe Humphreys, Vance McCullough, Mark Belden, and Greg Hoover have contributed to the program’s success over the years. When I travel across the country and speak to former Penn State fly-fishing alumni, they can’t remember who their English professor was, but they remember taking the fly-fishing course with Joe. Hopefully, this program will continue to offer fly-fishing courses for generations.

I believe one reason Joe has had a soft spot for taking anglers under his wing was his relationship with Harvey. Joe’s life changed with his encounter with Harvey all those years ago, and this is where I discuss how my life trajectory changed when meeting Joe over 28 years ago.

My 28 Year Relationship with Joe

Most of us have experienced chance encounters that changed our lives. The encounter that changed my fly-fishing life occurred over 28 years ago at a fly shop in central Pennsylvania. Since moving to central Pennsylvania with my family at age 14, I had visited this shop countless times, always hoping to run into my fly-fishing hero, Joe Humphreys. It took 4 years and over a hundred visits before my encounter with Joe occurred. I was 18 years old and a freshman in college stopping in to pick up my weekly dose of fly-tying materials before hitting the Sulphur hatch. For years I dreamed about getting to spend a day on the water with Joe, and there he was. But I was shy and terrified to introduce myself. I needed a way to start a conversation, but how was I going to pull this off with my awkward personality. This was possibly my one and only opportunity to make a connection with Joe Humphreys.

A small group of customers started to huddle around Joe, making it even more difficult to strike a conversation. I grabbed a copy Trout Tactics from the bookshelf and casually walked up to Joe and asked him if he could sign this book for me. I already owned a copy of Trout Tactics and On the Water with Joe Humphreys. I had just enough cash to cover the cost of the book, so my tying materials had to wait. He kindly agreed, sat down at a table with me, signed my book and chatted with me a few minutes despite having to leave to run his lesson. It’s one of few fly-fishing books I’ve kept over the years and is a reminder how a how a kind gesture can change someone’s life, as Joe did for me.

During the conversation, I asked if we could fish together someday and he said, “sure kid-we’ll fish someday.” It took some persistence on my part, but I made him keep that promise. It took nearly a year of phone calls (borderline harassment on my part) to agree upon a time and place to fish. It was worth the wait, and we struck up a lasting relationship that day on the water. Since then, I consider Joe to be my most important mentor-not just with fishing but with becoming a better educator.

I didn’t spend hundreds of hours on the water with Joe. In fact, our time on the water was limited to a couple sessions each year. However, I did stop by his house as often as I could to talk tactics and how to become a better teacher. Many times, I would stop by his house as he was developing a new fly-fishing program to take on the road and he would use me as a test group before presenting. It was like George Lucas giving you a private screening of Star Wars before it hit the theatres. His wife Gloria would make grilled cheese sandwiches and tea. The three of us would sit in the living room as Joe narrated the program. This was in the early 2000s as most presenters were slowly transitioning from slide projectors to PowerPoint, but Joe was doing video productions for these presentations. He was in his early 70s but was still working hard to provide the best programs he could. And he would modify the program several times before taking it live to the shows. And each time the program got better in terms of structure and entertainment. Joe was always tuning his presentations to be the best they can be–a great lesson for me when I eventually starting presenting programs.

Focus on Fly-Fishing Fundamentals

At age 96, Joe still hasn’t lost his quickness. His ability to make fun of himself is one of the most endearing qualities I find about his teaching approach. Time and time again he’s shown footage of getting struck in trees, losing fish, falling into the water, along with other mistakes any normal person would make streamside. And this is the point of his teaching–he’s not looking down at the crowd and showing everyone how great of a fly fisher he is. Instead, he talks to his audience on a level platform, showing common mistakes and how to fix them. And he does it in an entertaining method while spreading nuggets of wisdom. He demonstrates that fly-fishing skills are attainable by anyone willing to do the work, but you must do the work and focus on the fundamentals.

Joe frequently quotes his wrestling coach and mentor, Bill Koll “The most primary and basic moves, refined and done to perfection, become the most advanced moves.” During many casting lessons on Joe’s yard, he would drill me repeatedly on what I thought were basics skills I was already too far advanced to need to work on. If Joe thought I was using too much arm movement, he would tell me to place my elbow on my knee (while in sitting position) and make short casting movements while never allowing the elbow to lift off my knee cap. When learning the double haul, he had me focusing on the line hand coming back to the rod hand after every haul while allowing the line to fall on the ground during each forward and backward cast. The idea here is focusing on hand position during and after the haul without worry about carrying the line. He had me do this for what seemed forever before he allowed me to elevate the line while hauling. This theme of focusing on the fundamentals repeated itself no matter what the lesson was about. To this day, when something isn’t working with my fly-fishing presentation, I always remember these lessons and start working on the fundamentals. Thanks Joe.

People who know of Joe Humphreys through his film Live the Stream see this gentle and loving grandfather figure teaching fly fishing. This is true today, but it took well over 80 plus years for Joe to mellow out a bit. When I first met him in his late 60s and early 70s he was full of spunk, wirily as hell, and a task master. He would drill me over and over during our fishing and casting lessons. If I wasn’t performing well, he let me know. And don’t forget he is a former wrestler and boxer–I always felt a quiet intensity from him, and still do when I watch him fish.

One of his former high school wrestlers once told me if Joe didn’t feel you were mentally ready for battle on the mat, he would start pushing and even lightly slapping you around until he saw the fire in your eyes. This same wrestler (who remained close friends with Joe since high school) watched “Live the Stream” and jokingly asked Joe, “when did you become such a nice guy?”

In truth, these short, intense, and educational sessions with Joe taught me how to fish under pressure on both the national and international scenes. Joe's approach was strict during my early days, which I understood as his way of saying he cared and wanted to help me succeed. And tough love was exactly what I needed during my youth. I’m thankful that he never sugarcoated any feedback. I knew exactly what I needed to work on after every session with Joe.

Joe’s Greatest Gift

There’s a saying that if you read the same book over a lifetime-the book will speak differently to you at each stage of your life. I feel the same way about my relationship with Joe. Early in our relationship, the focus was on learning to become a good fly fisher. A decade later I was eager to become a great teacher. Now in this stage of our relationship, I’m learning how to enjoy the gift of life. Every time I see Joe now, you can tell he’s thankful that he’s been given one more day to catch a fish and spend time with a friend or family member. I’ve noticed that as people age and near the end of their life-they tend to go into one of two directions. One group becomes angry in knowing that their time is running out, the other is thankful for each new day. I see the latter with Joe every day.

While I know myself and countless other fly fishers are thankful for the knowledge he’s passed on–I don’t think Joe’s greatest gift to the fly-fishing world is the knowledge he’s shared through his books, videos, article, clinics, and lessons. You can argue he has improved the lives of thousands and thousands of fly fishers by making their time on the water more productive. But I believe Joe’s greatest gift to the world is demonstrating how to live life to the fullest, even when you’re 96 years old. As Joe says: “The secret to life is having something exciting to look forward to.” He reminds us that if you think old–you get old. He’s living proof that life can remain excellent into our golden years, especially if you have a fly rod in hand. And this is why Joe Humphreys and the Penn State University are passionate about the Joe Humphreys fly Fishing Program. The program isn’t teaching students how to cure cancer, design building and superhighways, or developing technologies to solver world hunger. This program is providing the greatest gift to all students interested in continuing fly fishing: “the gift of looking forward to something exciting.” If we want the next generation to have success in both personal and professional lives–a lifelong gift of fly fishing could be a good starting point.  

I want to end this piece with a quick story about why so many people love Joe. In 2006 I earned a spot on Fly Fishing Team USA’s travelling squad to participate in the world fly fishing championships. I mentioned this to Joe a few weeks before my departure and he suggested we spend a few hours on the water.

We met up at a local limestone stream and had wonderful outing together. I barely fished as I stayed next to Joe’s side watching him fish while asking questions. And of course, I took away some excellent tips I later used in the event. As we were walking under a bridge heading back to the parking lot, Joe stopped by a deep run and said, “just one more run before we leave.” He looked at the run and then looked at me and said, “I’m going to catch a fish on the first cast.” Joe proceeds to turn his back to me, opening his chest fly box, switching patterns, and positioning himself to make a cast. Joe rocketed the nymph into the water with a beautiful tuck cast. Within three seconds of the drift the line went tight, and an airborne rainbow trout thrashed the surface. I couldn’t believe my eyes; it was like Babe Ruth calling his shot.

After releasing the fish Joe turned back to me and said, “George, I’m going to share with you a tip that will change your fly-fishing career.” I thought to myself, “Oh baby, this is the teachable moment I’ve been waiting for my entire life.”

Joe looked straight into my eyes as I was waiting for secret to fly-fishing success when he proceeds to say, “Never leave the bridge hole.” In other words, Joe knew the hole was recently stocked with rainbow trout and knew they would certainly eat a well-presented egg pattern (which he switched to while turning his back to me). He played me like a trout with no fins. All I could say to myself with a big smile on my face was ,“that son of a bitch.” And that is the Joe Humphreys we have all come to love.