“To go someplace new, you have to give up something old”

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Feat11_14Fishing Scott Thorpe (left) and a fisherman on one of Thorp's guided trips, display a big catch. (Photo courtesy of Scott Thorpe)

By JAN WILLMS

How many people have dreamed of quitting their day job and following their passion?

Longfellow resident Scott Thorpe made that dream come true when he ended his career as an architect and started a new one as a fishing guide on his 55th birthday.

“I had spent 35 years being an architect, making my living at it, but it never seemed to be a good fit for me as a career,” Thorpe said. “I didn’t like being an architect, even though I was fairly competent at it. I knew I had to do something I liked, and I set up a plan to get out of architecture.”

Fishing had always been a constant in Thorpe’s life. As a child, he and his siblings would go with their dad on weekends to fish, camp and canoe.

“My father was an escapist,” Thorpe recalled. “He worked as an engineer, and on weekends he really had to get away from the city. In those days, without a laptop or a smart phone, when you went away for the weekend, you were really gone.”

Thorpe’s father came from Winona, and there are a lot of trout streams around that area. “We could fish for trout without a lot of equipment,” Thorpe remembered. “We became trout fishermen, and from there it’s an easy step to become a fly fisherman.”

Feat11_14Fishing2Thorpe said he knew he wanted to try something different, and he knew he was going to be a fly fishing guide. “I methodically went about getting the skills, credentials and experience to become a guide,” he said. “I started planning and did some fly fishing guiding on the side while I still worked as an architect.”

Thorpe said there were a lot of compelling reasons to remain working as an architect. “Some projects take years,” he noted, “and I tried to be honest with my clients and let them know I would be leaving. Everybody knew I was going to quit at 55, but no one really believed me.”

But on his birthday in 2007, he gave himself the gift of freedom. He went immediately to Alaska to work for the Talaheim Lodge. “That gave me a nice, clean break and there was no looking back,” Thorpe said.

He has worked at the lodge in Alaska every summer since, spending the months of June through September there. He operates his own guiding business out of his home in April and May, then in the fall in October and November.

“I have December through March off,” he said. “That’s when I do a lot of fishing for myself.”

Thorpe keeps busy in conservation-related organizations. He is very active in Trout Unlimited and the Lake Superior Steelhead Association. He is also president of a conservation foundation. He said he has his own website, edits the Steelhead News and writes for the Lake Superior Angler and the Irish Anglers Digest in Ireland. He maintains the website for the foundation, also.

Fishing for steelhead trout is appealing to Thorpe.

“The steelhead is native to the West Coast,” he said. “They were stocked in the Great Lakes over 100 years ago and occupy a place in Lake Superior. When the sea lamprey decimated the lake trout population, it created a niche for those fish.”

Thorpe said he likes the places trout live.

“To me, most of my fishing becomes a lot of poking under rocks, looking at bugs and critters, gathering mushrooms and finding agates.”

Thorpe said he recalled a British saying: A beginner is happy to catch any fish; after a while the fisherman wants to catch big fish. Then you care about how you catch the fish. Then you don’t care so much about how many or how big—you finally are just enjoying fishing. Then you’re ready to be a guide.

“Guiding is not about fishing as much as helping others fish,” Thorpe related. “It’s one way to make money doing something you like, and being outside. But I would rather fish than guide.”

Recalling a motivational speech he heard when he was an architect, Thorpe said he had heard a thought for the day: To go someplace new, you have to give up something old.

He said he did give up some things switching from being an architect to being a fishing guide.

“I have no new car or big house, not a lot of clothes and not much money,” Thorpe said. “I don’t travel as much as I would like. But it’s a trade I would make again. You lower your expectations, but it’s definitely worth it.”

For further information on Thorpe’s fly fishing, go to www.scottthorpeflyfishing.com.

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