From Kamchatka to The Keys, Oman to Baja or the Maldives, whether he’s guiding clients into fish or off on a hunt, Noah Thompson lives the dream of the globe-trotting fly fishing guide.

5 best things about where you guide? 

1. In Kamchatka, the sheer remoteness and isolation. Something happens and we are three hours from care and that’s if the weather is good enough to fly. Not many places are that wild. 
2. Whether wintertime snook and redfish or summer/fall permit and tarpon, in Florida there is always something to do, no matter what time of year. Plus the offshore options. 
3. In all the places I’ve worked, sure you remember certain fish and certain days, but the people you get to share it with are one of the best parts of the whole gig. 
4. The guide teams I have gotten to work with. You sweat together, bleed together, live together – and by the end of a season you are a family. Having a team of strong cohesive guides and a tight crew is huge.
5. In Florida, it is clearwater tarpon fishing. I discriminate against no fish that is willing to eat a fly, but watching a string of tarpon come down the edge from 100m away will change a man. When they are around, I have a hard time targeting anything else. 

5 fishing-connected items you don’t leave home without before making a mission? 

1. Sig Sauer stabilized 16×42 Zulu binoculars. Worth their weight in gold…
2. Van Staal 7” pliers.
3. A Turtlebox.
4. More nicotine than I think I need…
5. My Smith low light yellows. Unlike a lot of yellow lenses, they don’t feel yellow yellow like you’re looking through a urine sample. Sunny, cloudy, early, midday, they are my 24/7s unless I’m offshore. 

SHOP THE MISSION

5 things you are loving right now?

1. My soulmate, Wesley Locke.
2. September – my favourite month of the year. While fishing pays most of the bills, I’m at a point where fishing is just another form of hunting, and hunting is what I love. Archery season in the elk woods is my happy place.
3. Nock Performance IG and podcast – advice and coaching on accountability, fitness, taking action, how to be a better partner and a better hunter. Just good clean masculinity – something the world needs more of right now.
4. Pointy rocks. Native American history and artifacts have always been my jam, but in recent years it has become more of a passion. Not a lot of things cooler than finding something man made and knowing that it hasn’t been touched in thousands of years.
5. Theo Von—a national treasure. 

5 indispensable flies for saltwater?

1. Crease fly variants.
2. Hollow fleye/ Deceiver variants.
3. Spawning shrimp variants.
4. Strong arm variants.
5. EP baitfish.

5 indispensable flies for freshwater?

1. CDC Sedge-type caddis. 
2. Hotspot hare’s ear.
3. Sparkle minnow.
4. Weightless pheasant tail.
5. Squirmy worm.

5 of the most difficult guiding/teaching experiences so far?

1. One day in Baja, we had just made our morning run to the marlin grounds. After fighting last night’s demons all morning, I pulled up my stabilized binoculars and was immediately sent into a tailspin from hell. Like seasickness but something worse. All equilibrium was lost, as was breakfast, but the dry heaving didn’t stop until we were back on land that evening. Not my finest work. If you’re gonna be dumb, ya gotta be tough. 
2. Once in Kamchatka, I had a guy who refused to use his backhand, and as the day went on he got sloppier and sloppier, heaving a large Dolly Llama across my nose. Just when I begged him for the 14th time to please try his backhand, he came through the boat again and clacked it off the back of my skull. It hurt so bad I couldn’t even find words. Before I could say anything, he came through once more, again skulling me with the musket ball. I said, “Dammit Bill, that’s two casts in a row!” Unsatisfied with his previous offering he went into another stroke, and skulled me a third time. Three casts – three concussions. The odds. Finally I snapped, and Bill was swiftly demoted to a friendlier offering. 
3. This spring in the upper Keys, I had left a client’s rod with him one evening so he could try his hand at some small tarpon in the basin where they were staying. The next morning when I picked them up, my man was quick to tell me my knots were no good because he had broken off the point section of his leader when he had hung bottom. But not to worry, he had retied a piece of 12lb in the hopes of tangling with his first bonefish – so our first stop that morning was a falling tide bonefish spot. Everything changed when out off the deeper edge of the bank, a very large permit flanked us pushing a head wake through the dusty water. A well placed shot and the fish broke his neck to eat the spawning shrimp. Far too many minutes later, I was a couple of feet away from tailing what would’ve undoubtedly been the largest permit I have ever grabbed by a long shot. What happened next was a devastating lesson. Take the time to re-tie knots if something is in question, and expect the unexpected. 
4. June 9th of 2013 myself and two others were clobbered by an undetected storm 25 miles offshore of the Texas coast. There were 8-10-foot breaking waves and wind gusts were north of 70mph. Somehow our 22-foot panga made it through. Without a doubt the scariest day of my life, but one of the best lessons I could have ever learned as a captain. Nature don’t give a shit, and you have to always be prepared for the worst she has to offer. 
5. During the middle of my third season in Kamchatka, I slipped one night coming down some steep stairs, and when I went to catch myself only my pinkie and ring finger caught the edge of the stairs above me resulting in a double 90° dislocation at the middle knuckles. I had to row the rest of the season with three fingers on my left. That, combined with a case of giardia, rearranged my life for over a year. Needless to say I was not bummed to wrap that season up. 

Read the rest of Noah’s High Fives interview in issue 54 below.