Tom Rosenbauer is standing by my side as we gaze over a pretty, meadow-lined stretch of Vermont’s Battenkill River. “Get your fly tight to the other bank,” he tells me, pointing across the water. “Then let it sink a bit and start stripping it.” We’re in Manchester, my favorite place to get away during the dog days of summer, where the quickening cool of mountain air replaces stagnant heat.
When Rosenbauer talks about fly fishing, I listen. I’m not the only one. Through his popular podcast, books, and videos, he has arguably become the sport’s most influential teacher and promoter. His official title at Orvis—which is headquartered just a few miles away and where he has worked for the past forty-seven years—is Chief Fly-Fishing Enthusiast. Even now, at a whiskered and wizened sixty-nine years old, Rosenbauer is more into fly fishing than anyone else I know.
His enthusiasm is so infectious
