Trading salted roads for salty air

From the very first date with my wife Liz I knew that there was something special there.  That fact is likely the only reason that her statement on our second date of “I have been trying forever to do it and at some point will move to Florida” didn’t faze me in the least.  In fact, since then, we have gone down to New Smyrna Beach for an extended amount of time each year in May and in many times have gone back down again at other points in the year…including for our wedding on the beach.  After a few years of this many friends starting jokingly asking when we were just going to stay down there.  We would often talk about what we would do, where we would want to be, how to pull it off and then the conversation always ended with “wouldn’t that be great…’sigh’…”.  

Well, the dream has suddenly become a reality and we are trading the salted roads for salty air.   I am finishing up my current corporate gig of over 16 years this month, then packing up a big truck and driving south to our new home by the beach! 

July will be about as hectic as it gets between the move south, attending IFTD with Clutch Tactical Fly Rods in Orlando, and a couple long scheduled trips to Wyoming and Alaska…but I live for that kind of hectic!  In the quiet moments during July I will be settling in with my amazing wife to our new home; unpacking, organizing, having a few beers and smiling. 

As we get settled in there I will be a refocusing of my thoughts and energy towards the continued and sustainable growth of Anglers Choice Flies.   I will continue to tie the existing catalog of ACF flies as well as some new patterns that have proven themselves and should be available before the fall streamer bite.  In addition, being on Mosquito Lagoon will allow me the opportunity to also grow the inshore saltwater flies available through ACF.  I cannot express enough the gratitude that I have for the support of friends, customers and vendors that I have worked with to make Anglers Choice Flies successful to this point, and look forward to expanding those relationships as ACF is pushed to the next level. 

 

-mike Schmidt

www.anglerschoiceflies.com