Meet Eli, Nina, Axle and Isla. The family that has taken their life on the road in order to search out the best fly fishing rivers across the United States.
They spend their days searching for all different species. From Rainbow trout to Brown trout and even Bass and salt water species. They fish for it all.
Learn what makes a life spent with family in an inflatable boat like the Flycraft Guide the perfect way to connect and share important moments and lessons.
Check it out:
Boats used: Flycraft 3-Man Guide
Follow Eli, Nina and their family: @fly_high_eli
Transcript:
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is, it's been beyond our wildest expectations. Do it, do it. Don't hesitate. You'll never regret it. Money and time we will never regret in our lives. So if it's at all a thought, especially repeating thought in your heart and in your head, this is your signal to absolutely do it. Being out in nature with your kids and being on the river in the water in the boat, none of it will be a waste.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I mean, truthful, this has become our life where we're fishing essentially full time and it is too valuable to our kids from what they've become. So we're just going to keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I think it's just so much fun to go on the river with my family to have all these cool experiences and it is this the best time of my life. It's just like I'm so lucky.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I would like to say that all my whole life is perfect. You like being on the river? Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
My name's Nina or, and I am Eli's wife and Isla and Axel's mother. We expected growth. That's why we took the opportunity to do this in our lifetime because we saw such a short window of their age where they were eager to learn and still wanted to be around us all the time. And my husband and I were like, this is the time that we need to go out and do some hard things together as a family for bonding and to grow. But when we left and we got out here and got on the rivers, it was beyond our wildest expectations. When Axel left, he was very shy, very much under Isla's shadow in a way, always let her answer and speak for him and very easygoing and we love that about him. But we wanted him to grow and become more outspoken and just more opinionated and the river and these waters and fishing has just completely changed him and traveling.
(02:47):
And it takes this kid now two seconds to meet a friend and the way he can speak to adults and carry on conversations is just something we're so proud of because it happened in such a short period of time. And then with Isla, we've always known, even since she was really little, she has to have a job and she has to have a challenge. And if she doesn't and when she's bored, that's when she gets in trouble. And so this has been amazing for her because it keeps her busy in the best ways and every time she's out in nature, it just reconnects her and calms her. Anxiety is not the right word. Her energy in a productive way. And so seeing her use her day and her time and her high energy level to learn and grow and teach herself has just been amazing because this is something that I feel like we haven't even really learned as adults of how to target and express our energy into actual tasks that are useful and helpful.
(03:39):
And so seeing Isla grow so quickly, Eli and I have these conversations all the time. It's blown our minds in the way of like, are we not challenging her enough? What more is she capable of? And I just think because Eli and I talk about this too a lot is that parents don't push their kids enough. And maybe not even push is the right word, but expose them and then also push them. Because there's so many times that after we get done with school in the mornings they're like, I don't want to go out on the river. And then I'm like, I remind them what other kids or what they could be doing and they just kind of whatever about going and then they come back and they have the best attitudes and they're so happy they went. They've never, not once come back and been like, I regret going. I wish I wouldn't have gone. And so with that, we're like, okay, we know we're doing the right thing because they are kids and sometimes they do complain and I'm like, you have no idea what you're complaining about. And we laugh, but they always come back healthier and happier and better communicators and we just, we're trapped on a boat. So we're constantly working through our communication styles with each other and we're constantly annoyed with each other and it's been amazing and it's just trapping us in these opportunities. The flag crash has given us so many conversations about everything.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
So my brother hooked a giant fish today and I'm really bummed he didn't catch it. That was his personal best and I really wanted that for him. But it's just like it is what it is. I think it's just so much fun to go on the river with my family to have all these coolest experiences and it's just like, it's just the best time of my life. It's just like I'm so lucky. It's amazing to have those giant fishes come out of the water for a streamer. Just watch it happen. Scares you. It scares me a bunch of times. Plus it's just really cool to watch and this learn all of the cool things my dad taught me and I learned all of this stuff from him and I got in much better every day. He's telling so much stuff. It's just like, it's mind blowing what he knows. I love fishy. It's my favorite thing to do. And fishing with my dad is a great time with my brother, with my mom. So much fun with them. It's unbelievable. My best thing of dad is just like, he cares. He loves me. He takes me fishing. No, dad would do that. My dad is super special with those moments. And this is the coolest thing in the world.
Speaker 3 (08:47
Dad. I kind of fixed my sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, that's great.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Have you ever had any bites over?
Speaker 5 (08:53):
No bites so far. Many. Have you got all on the streamer?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Not really, except for that one I just caught.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Nice. How many they got, Isla?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
None. They have no bites.:
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Getting smoked by some skeets. Found a river, a stretch of river that is running really, really shallow right now. That was perfect for kind of our boats and not so many people get to. And very technical, very, very difficult kind of to row and to fish at the same time. And this is one of the rivers we kind of grew up on. So we came here and we threw some streamers, threw some dry flies, had fish on both and caught some what we thought were really big fish and a couple 20 inches and axle lost the biggest tribe I've ever seen. And then at the very end I lost a giant too. But we had a great day, really fun day and seeing all the different fish and seeing a bunch of different wildlife, tons of moose, eagles, bald eagle, golden eagle, just super special.
(10:00
Well, it's funny because when we did our first film, I felt like you did a great job editing because she really was not a super rower at the time. At the time she could row the boat, but then we put her on the freaking one of the toughest rivers in the western United States with 16 mile hour wind. And so it was tough, but now it's like with another year of growth, she's just become an absolute stick. She's become a great rower. And then axle's become a great dryly fisherman. As we saw today, I was kind of getting on him. And as far as our fishing growth, it's actually becoming super fun now where I had to fish to catch big fish and then Isla started doing it. And so both of us started doing it and we'd catch big fish. And so Axel kind of started last year, but this year with them taking turns and 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off, 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, as soon as they get tired, it's been way more enjoyable.
(10:55):
And today Axel hooked the biggest try I've ever seen by far. And Isla almost caught another personal best for her. So it was like being here in this part of the country is like who knows if we're going to fish the rest of our lives, but we're definitely going to be on these rivers for the rest of our lives during this time of the year. And it's like there's certain places at certain times of the year, no matter what we're doing, we're going to be there and we're going to be fishing. So it is too valuable to our kids from what they've become. So we're just going to keep doing it. Hey, you think you could river dance over there? For me
Speaker 1 (12:18):
It's good and bad. I'm very much a planner and what this has taught me is I can't plan because so many times we follow hatches, which seems incredibly crazy that I couldn't tell normal people this. But we can't plan where we're going and that's what I want to do is I want to plan. We've so often, particularly with Idaho, we go there and we could get rained out and we have to leave, which is incredible that we can leave. But then it stinks because out of all these plans and then we can't do any of the plans. So that is a negative for me and my personality type. I don't know, the negatives just is so trivial compared to all the good that's outweighing itself. That's probably the only way I'd say the best part about all of this. If I had to sum up one thing is our communication with each other is we're learning. We're having so much more self-awareness and I am extremely proud that my coach can now articulate, I need alone time or I just need a minute to myself or I'm just frustrated or I don't feel like you're listening to me. I don't feel like at a seven or 8-year-old that I could do that. And that's just an amazing thing for me as a mother to hear my kids be able to articulate that.
(13:22):
It makes me happy because it was one of our main goals. But it also makes me happy looking towards the future that as we do grow and as they do start having their own lives with sports and friends and different school programs, that we have this core bond between all of us that we can all center and come back to. Lot's changed in him. He's added on skills he already had. Something that he's naturally extremely good at is he is not afraid of taking risk and so he'll just run into any situation. He was already good at that. But this has built his confidence in a way now that now he gets excited before he get nervous or anxious about going to a new river or new city as the father and the protector of his family keeping us all safe and happy as well.
(14:05):
But now he has the confidence to be like, I know it's going to work out if we just go and we just put our best foot forward and we're positive. I think when we meet people out in these different places, a lot of people will approached and tell us that they're considering this or considering going an RV or getting a fly craft. And the first thing, I mean I cut them off and I'm like, do it, do it. Don't hesitate. And this is what I say, you'll never regret it. Like Eli and I talk about this is money and time we will never regret in our lives. So if it's at all a thought, especially repeating thought in your heart and you're in your head, this is your signal to absolutely do it. There's a lot of ways as parents that we waste money and we waste our time.
(14:48):
And being out in nature with your kids and being on the river in the water in the boat, none of it will be a waste. And so I just want to encourage everyone to absolutely pull the trigger. And you don't have to obviously do it full time like us, but we tell all of our friends, if you can even start with a week, two weeks, a month, however you can make your schedule do it. You'll never get this time back. And it will absolutely change you as a person and your family all for the better. And I also kind of warn and heed people before they go. It's going to start out rocky. It's absolutely going to start out rocky, but that's part of it. You put in the work and you're going to get the results. And so yeah, if you're thinking about doing it, do it.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Can I get a squeeze of the rubber chicken over the walkie-talkie please. Jared and Michael need a little help. Affirmative, much appreciated. Over.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
So my name's Axel. I'm seven years old and my best thing that happened today with my big fish, it was the biggest fish I ever hooked and I'm really surprised it snapped on 3x. If you're going to catch a big fish, catch it. Don't snap it like me.
It's just like he is like when he grows it makes me more happier. He catches more fish and since now we got a dog, it's just so much fun for him. He's not sitting in the back and having the worst time he can go up there and catch a monster like that rainbow. He missed. I wish he caught that fish so bad. It's just unbelievable how many fish you miss and you catch up with a giant. This has been so much fun to hang around my family. It's the specialist moment I ever had in my life.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
What axle? What's something this rivers taught you the past couple weeks you've been on it? It
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Taught me that it's actually really technical.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
You're not always going to catch a ton of fish.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
No, you're going to catch fine, fine fish, but in a once in a while you have a big ones come up and snap it. That fish that I caught gave me lots of good experience. So next time when I have a big fish come up like that, I can actually learn from that fish. This river taught me a lot. Yeah, I don't give up. I would tell you that it's not scary at all. It is just flying a fire rod and on a boat. But you got to learn scared of the boat. Nope. Why? Because when I just fall in the water I get my confidence back up and I don't be scared by I falling again. You
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Snap 'em, you break 'em off, you break some flies, it's like, come on, let's keep going. You have to keep fishing and you don't catch one in an hour. You just got to keep going. You cannot just give up. All of a sudden you got to keep going. You got to be tough because you might hook the biggest fish of your life and Axle did that today. So rowing the boat is you have to have confidence and you have to get on that boat and say, Hey dad, I need you to teach me. It's not about strength. It doesn't matter what age you are, it's a matter of confidence. You need that confidence and you got to push yourself sometime and say, Hey, I can do this. Let me get some confidence. And after you do that, but you feel so good after you did it and you are like, that was amazing. That was so amazing. That was my best time of my life doing that with my family. It's just like you'll learn really fast and I would recommend starting on a lake and then you can work your way up like I did. I started on a lake and my dad is like, alright, let's go do a river. And I did a river. I think it's just so much fun to go on the river with my family to have all these cool experiences. It's just the best time of my life. It's just like I'm so lucky.
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