Just a friendly reminder that we will be OPEN on Christmas Eve from 10-5!
Rumor has it that there will be some amazing deals going down in the shop! Will be worth stopping by if you are in the area.
Also a reminder:
Mad River Outfitters Gift Cards can be e-mailed to you up to 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve!
You simply print......and present!
Click HERE to purchase an MRO Gift Card!
833 Bethel Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
614-451-0363
Mad River Outfitters was founded in 1994 by Brian Flechsig. After managing and guiding for other fly shops in Southern Ohio, he realized that the Midwest needed a better fly shop with better service. At that point, Brian moved to Columbus, Ohio and opened Mad River Outfitters to the world.
With the help of a great team, friends and family, Mad River Outfitters has become one of the largest and most recognized names in fly fishing, with our goal being to welcome everyone to the sport of fly fishing.
We are both proud and grateful to say that it has become a place that fly anglers from around the world call their home base. From learning the basics of the sport to buying fishing tackle, flies, hosted travel and so much more.
With that said, let's celebrate the past 30 years and cheers to the next!
Come into the shop through the month of December and become a part of the Mad River Outfitters Legacy by signing our 30 Year Celebration Commemorative Art Piece during the month of December. At the end of the month, we will feature the artwork in a video on our YouTube channel and hang it permanently in the shop. When you sign the artwork, you receive one free raffle ticket to win prizes that will be awarded at the end of the month.
Limited Edition Prints of the artwork featured below are available now!
Visit the shop starting December 3rd, during regular store hours until the end of the month of December to leave your mark on Mad River Outfitters' legacy by signing the artwork.
How does it work? You can purchase as many raffle tickets as you like for whichever prize you want, your name will then be put in the drawing for the number of tickets purchased for that prize. At the end of the month we will announce four winners for the prizes below!
Raffle Proceeds will go to Children's Hunger Alliance
Thank you for supporting Mad River Outfitters!
Cheers to another 30 years.
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***This is a wonderful tribute that was sent out by Robin Reeve and our friends at 3-Rivers Lodge/Labrador via e-mail. We reprint it here, with permission, as we simply admire Robin's passion and love for his dear, departed friend. RIP John.
Many of you know that Jacob and Jason Oake bought Three Rivers Lodge at the end of last year. They enjoyed a wonderful first season, and they will enjoy future success, I’m sure. They will no longer have the honor, the thrill, of hosting Mr. Gierach as did their forebears for two decades.
John Gierach loved Labrador, its fishing, its wildness, even its quirks. He found comfort and quiet at Three Rivers Lodge. So he came, a dozen or so times, to take it all in, to find his stories. Many of you shared time with John in camp and recall the rich conversations - his humor, his insight and his deep passion for our pastime and its faithful proponents.
After John’s first visit, then after the published the story about his visit, on the Top Twenty chart of questions I answered daily, the #1 question, “How bad are the bugs?” began to fall down the list, soon to be replaced with “Is this the place John Gierach fishes?”
“Why, yes it is,” I’d answer, “ but it’s Gear-rock, not Guy-rash.”
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First trip, no doubt, John came for the fishing. He loved brook trout, as those who read his stories have learned. As the years passed and friendships grew, he came more for the people. He loved the Newfie and French Canadian guides, their sturdy confidences, and the stories they’d tell that revealed nuances of their cultures. And he loved Frances, Kev and Judy.
"He once told me that “he couldn’t understand a single word that Jordan, his Newfie guide, said. And I’m not so sure that he does either.”
He went on, “I do know that without him, I wouldn’t have caught a single fish, nor had near so good a day.”
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“Do you enjoy being recognized in airports and such,” John was asked one day. He paused, then said “Well, yes, yes I do. I suppose it confirms that your life’s work has made some impact, right. And you get to meet some really neat people along the way.”
I never sold a trip on John’s back. Never advertised “come fish with John Gierach.” Can’t recall his mentioning it to me directly, but I think it was part of the reason he was so partial to TRL. Guests would arrive Wabush and see him there in the hotel or at the plane base, then once in camp, they’d come find me.
“That’s John Gierach, right?” they’d whisper. “My god, it’s gonna be a great week.”
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John and I found our way together to many places, some very wild. Here in the north of Labrador on the outflow of an impact crater lake, we were marooned for five days due to poor weather. We made the best of it, ate fire-blackened char and granola bars, and made coffee with yesterday’s grounds, and towards the end, day-before-yesterday’s grounds. “True cowboy coffee,” he called it.
The two day trip turned into a five day stay, but John never complained. “There’s worse things, Robin,” he mused, “than being stuck here, out on the edge of the world, with, as far as the eye can see, big char rising to blue-winged olives.”
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Mike Dvorak, a good friend of John’s, took this image of two gray beards relaxing on the front porch. John loved dogs. Told me he didn’t have one of his own because he traveled so often and it wouldn’t be fair to the dog. So he adopted camp dogs all across North America. Never forgot their names nor just the right places to scratch their ears.
John never commented on any of my newsletters, so, wanting to confirm that I had his correct email address, I once wrote and asked if he was receiving them.
“Robin,” he wrote back, “I look forward to them like letters from home.”
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I first met John Gierach back in 2001. He had only been in camp for a couple of days when he motioned me to the front porch, lit up a smoke, and looked in my eyes. “Just want you to know,” he said, “that I’m probably going to write about this trip. And when I do, I’m going to tell the story exactly as I see it, just the way it goes down.” Then that smile, “So you’re forewarned. If you don’t want to read it, don’t say it.”
As much as that promise might sound like a mild threat, the warmth through his coffee-stained whiskers softened its impact. In that moment, one angler to another, on the edge of Crossroads Lake, we had an understanding, and John opened his friendship to this admirer.
Like most of us, I felt knew John long before we met. We’d all travel with him, wouldn’t we, bouncing along backroads in the front seat of his old pickup, kneeling stream side by a twig fire with the bum and a strong cup of, well, an easier world. We’d watch him unravel the whims of his high country trout, and Lord knows, we learned to never kick our coffee pot across the campsite.
John took us on some really cool rides. On his vivid, witty insights, we traveled along a deeper but equally perceptive view of the journeys where he explored the values of truth, and the truth he found in values – respect for nature, little patience for the petty, and compassion for fellow travelers. Between all those beautiful lines, his paramount lesson - don’t take all the noise so seriously.
Truth was John’s lesson plan, his master plan as I saw it. Truth, and that a day on the river is as good as life can offer.
John’s gone now, and I’m sure he left knowing that we all thought of him as a friend. I was John’s friend. He said so a few times in his books, “my friend, Robin, the owner of Three Rivers . . .” or words to the like. He came up to fish with us a dozen times. He would take his rod and I would go with him and carry the lunches and point to the fish. He said exactly that in one of his stories, that all he expected from his guide was to carry his lunch and point to the fish. I’d point and he’d fish.
Our better times were at midday when we’d break for lunch, build a small fire, then lean up against a mossy log to eat one of Frances’s sandwiches. He’d ask me about my life and how I was getting on and he’d tell me something of his. Sometimes we’d talk about fish.
I’ll always think of John as my fishing buddy. “What kind of love can have for a fishing buddy?” we once pondered.
“That,” he said, “just might be the easiest kind of love.”
Robin Reeve
This year, Scott proudly celebrates their 50th anniversary. It’s been a journey filled with fun, firsts, camaraderie, and a half century of handcrafting high performance fly rods. In celebration, they are releasing a limited run of some of their iconic and "game changing" rods.
Featuring Flip Pallot and Brian Flechsig
Held at Flip's House in Mims, Florida and the Renzetti Company Factory in Titusville, Florida
January 24, 25 and 26, 2025
March 14, 15 and 16, 2025
You should plan on arriving in Orlando during the day on Friday (or before if you wish) and renting a car. The festivities will begin around 6:30 at Flip's house in Mims so give yourself enough time to get from Orlando (or Daytona), get situated in your hotel room and grab a quick bite to eat.
Friday night, the group will meet at Flip's house around 6:30 p.m. for check-in and meet-and-greet. Around 7:00 p.m. we'll have an official orientation and go over the plan for the weekend. We'll then have some more Frigate Reserve Rum, tell some stories and wrap things up around 9:00 p.m.
On Saturday, we'll convene at 9:00 a.m., again at Flip's house and get the ball rolling. The morning session will include discussions on Rods, Reels, Lines and Flies, as well as general techniques. We will also have a discussion and presentation on Advanced Fly Casting Techniques, that will of course be applied later in the day.
Lunch on Saturday will be from Noon- 12:30 p.m. and will be basic sandwiches and fixins. After lunch we will conduct the Knots and Leaders seminar, which is of course a highlight of the weekend......and a very important part of the school.
At approximately 2:00, we will travel to a nearby "casting location", and spend the rest of the afternoon in a hands-on, advanced fly casting clinic. Flip and Brian have promised to "blow your minds" and promise to make you much better fly casters! You'll want to have an 8-10wt rod rigged up for this.
***Please note that this will be a fairly "advanced" fly casting class. It will be assumed that all participants are good casters and fairly well versed at double hauling and the like. This class is designed to make good casters into excellent casters. If not.....don't worry.....they can handle it and will still.....make you better!
The day will wrap up there at the casting pond around 4:00 p.m. and you can head back to your hotel and enjoy some supper and the evening.
Sunday morning we will again meet at the casting pond at 9:00 a.m. and Flip will conduct a "Fly Casting Final Exam" to ensure that you come away from this weekend a much, much better fly caster and can continue to improve, based on what you have learned.
This "exam" will include a video of you casting with Flip coaching and will be sent to you after the class. A keepsake memory from your experience with a legend!
At around 10:30 or so, we will head back to Flip's house and conduct a seminar they call....."Now What". We will a touch on subjects such as starting your presentation, properly hooking, playing and landing fish and more. This will include some presentations by Flip from the bow of his East Cape Skiff, right there in the driveway!
Lunch will again be provided around Noon, and will be grilled up by Flip and Brian on Flip's famous Traeger grill and will most likely feature some game that he harvested himself. This will certainly be a celebratory meal!
After lunch, from 1:30-2:30 p.m. we will squeeze in an hour of Q & A and open discussion to make sure that you get your questions answered by these two veterans.
From 2:30- 3:00 p.m. we will close the school, take some group photos and dismiss the group. You can then head to the airport or back to your hotel, depending on your travel arrangements.
***If anyone is interested in doing some fishing while in Florida, on either end of the trip, Brian and Flip have mentioned that they would be happy to put you in touch with some good local guides. Just let us know and we'll be happy to pass along the information.
Included in this trip: Happy Hour and Orientation on Friday night, School, Lunch on Saturday, School and Lunch on Sunday. All school materials related to the Knots and Leaders Class.
Not Included in this trip: Transportation to Mims, Florida, Lodging, Rod and Reel Set-Up for the Fly Casting Clinics
The Fabulous Brookwood House!
