Meet the New MidCurrent Editor-in-Chief

January 29, 2025 By: Phil Monahan

Casting for brook trout and landlocked salmon in the Maine North Woods near Libby Camps. Image by Charles Hildick-Smith

Although I joined MidCurrent on December 1, I’ve spent the last few weeks working in the background on a few special projects, while Johnny Carrol Sain has continued doing his usual brilliant job overseeing the website and newsletters. This week, he’s handing the reins to me. (Fear not, Johnny is still part of the MidCurrent team, but he’s also pursuing other projects.) Since I’m the new guy, I figured I’d introduce myself and explain how I got here.

Starting Small

I didn’t become serious about fly fishing until I was in my early 20s, when I returned to my home turf in southeastern New Hampshire to attend graduate school at UNH. My older brother, Brian—a much better angler than I was—lived nearby, and we began fishing together regularly. Although we ranged as far afield as the Androscoggin River, in the northeastern corner of the Granite State, most of our time was spent on the small ponds and streams that were within minutes of our homes—such un-fabled waters as the Isinglass River and Stonehouse Pond. After one of the guys in the fishing department of the Kittery Trading Post clued me in to his secret spot—code name “The Goose Mill”—for smallmouth and largemouth bass, we spent countless hours there, chucking deer-hair poppers and greased Muddler Minnows. Although the sibling rivalry was always good-natured, Brian and I pushed each other to work hard to hone our fly-fishing skills, making us both better anglers.

At about this time, a couple high-school buddies asked me to join their twice-annual jaunts to the Rangeley Region of Maine, where we fished the Rapid River, as well as the famed Upper Dam Pool between Mooselookmeguntic and Richardson Lakes. (That’s where Carrie Stevens first tied her legendary Gray Ghost.) Chasing wild, native landlocked salmon and big brookies on dry flies and traditional featherwing streamers was a big part of my angling education.

Guiding anglers on Alaska’s American Creek in 1995. Remember neoprene waders?

Going Pro

Next, I headed to Rutgers to pursue a PhD—which I never earned, by the way—and spent four summers as a guide in Alaska and Montana, where I was exposed to many different styles, techniques, and philosophies of angling. I tried to learn as much as I could from my fellow guides, from clients, and through trial and error. I was able to fish with anglers of all skill levels and in all kinds of situations—surrounded by brown bears in Alaska, surrounded by Winnebagos in Yellowstone National Park, and surrounded by incredibly finicky trout on the spring creeks of Paradise Valley. Best of all, I got to be on the water almost all the time, in some of the most beautiful settings on the planet, and I got to hang out with fellow fly fishers.

But, as they often do, real-world concerns took over (translation: I was broke and had met the woman who would become my wife), so I found myself in need of a “real” job. Through dumb luck and good timing, I landed a position as an assistant editor at Outdoor Life magazine, and my career in publishing was off and running. Although I enjoyed the work, there were two problems: the magazine’s offices were at 2 Park Avenue in New York City—far from any actual outdoor life—and there weren’t nearly enough fly-fishing articles for my taste. When I learned that the folks at American Angler magazine were looking for an editor, I jumped at the chance and moved to Vermont.

This Battenkill brown fell for a size 18 Olive Caddis Emerger, just five minutes from my home. Photo by Bill Bullock.

American Angler and Beyond

I edited American Angler for ten years, eventually overseeing production of the company’s other titles—Fly Tyer and the dear departed Saltwater Fly Fishing and Warmwater Fly Fishing—as well. In that capacity, I had the chance to meet and/or work with pretty much everyone in the fly-fishing industry. The job also afforded me the opportunity to fish around the country and around the world, opening my eyes to even more fly-fishing styles, cultures, and techniques.

The 2008 recession meant the end of that gig, and I spent 2009 and most of 2010 working as a freelance editor, writer, and consultant for magazines, websites, and book companies, including writing the weekly “Ask the Experts” column for MidCurrent and the AFFTA newsletter. This was the beginning of an ongoing freelance-writing career, during which I have written many articles on fly fishing, fly tying, and angling travel for a variety of publications, including Gray’s Sporting Journal, American Angler, Fly Tyer, Fly Rod & Reel, Outdoor Life, USA Today, and Game & Fish. My first book, The Orvis Quick-Start Guide to Fly Fishing, is due out next August from Lyons Press.

The Digital World

In 2010, Orvis approached me about editing the Orvis Fly Fishing blog, a unique opportunity to make a big splash in a new kind of media. We launched in September 2010, and at its height, the blog generated more than 5 million views per year. By the end of my time at Orvis, I was also responsible for all social-media accounts, as well as brand content for web and catalogs—including video, photography, and copy.

Fly-fishing travel offers incredible opportunities to catch real trophies, like this Icelandic brown, but I’m most at home chasing brookies on my local mountain streams. Photos by Joel Ruby (L) and Charles Hildick-Smith (R)

Throughout my career, I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of fly-fishing travel, both within the U.S. and abroad, but there’s nothing I love more than spending time on my home waters—the Battenkill, which is just minutes from my front door, and the myriad brook-trout streams that flow out of the Green Mountains. Although I’ve caught trophy fish of many species in some incredible destinations, in both fresh water and salt, I’ll always be a brook-trout guy.

After 14 years working for a single company, it’s exciting to be back in the wider world of fly fishing, in a situation where I can engage with all brands and players in the sport. I’ve been a huge fan of MidCurrent since its launch in 2003, and I’m looking forward to building on the remarkable work of those who came before me. You’ll continue to see great articles by experts such as Spencer Durrant, Kubie Brown, and others, and we’ll be adding more names to the mix in 2025. Feedback from our audience is always the best way for us to know how we are doing, so feel free to weigh in whenever you see something you like or don’t like—or even to make suggestions about future content.