A United States Coast Guard certified Captain, Brian is one of a small group of full- time fly fishing guides in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and has been guiding anglers to steelhead, musky and smallmouth bass since the early 2000’s. His decades of experience exploring the region’s waterways and studying the fish that live there allow him to provide customers with the kind of unique outdoor experience that comes from in-depth, first hand knowledge of the resource.
Brian moved to Duluth and the western shores of Lake Superior to attend college at the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2001, where he studied business, but spent as much if not more time learning about fly fishing for steelhead. The opportunity for a ‘real’ job was not his top priority after finishing school, and he eventually started working at the Great Lakes Fly Shop where he would begin his guiding career in 2006, and develop an interest in photography along the way.
Growing up Brian spent a lot of time musky fishing with conventional gear (mostly due to an uncle and father with an affliction for these fish), but starting in 2007 he began fly fishing for them and became part of a small group of anglers that helped to develop and document the process of hunting these fish with fly rods and push musky onto the mainstream fly fishing scene, creating the opportunity to make a living hunting and guiding for these fish across northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
An all-time career highlight came in November of 2011, when Brian had the good fortune to put his dad on the biggest musky of his life- caught on a fly that he created. His younger brother also caught the first musky of his life that day, on a fly as well. The high point of that season for sure, and one of the most cherished moments in his angling career.
“I really enjoy giving folks a totally unique experience and showing off the amazing variety of fisheries we are blessed with in the northwoods. We live in an ever-advancing world of man-made technologies and it’s easy to lose sight of what is natural and ‘real’. Guiding has given me the opportunity to spend a majority of my time outside studying what goes on in nature and sharing what I’ve learned with other people. For me it couldn’t get any better!”
-Brian ‘Lucky’ Porter, Owner and Guide