Orvis Job Wall for May 20, 2011

The Orvis Home Office in Sunderland VT

The Orvis Home Office in Sunderland, VT

This week, we wanted to shine a light on the tremendous opportunities available within our retail organization. Orvis currently has 50 stores nationwide, with another 20 stores in the UK, and 10 outlets throughout the US.  Many of you may have taken an Orvis trip or experienced a time with one of our guides.  Perhaps you have been a catalog or online customer.

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Guide Tip: 3 Ways to Find New Water

3 way 1

Even on a river as popular as the Madison, you can find solitude if
you’re willing to walk far from the parking area.

photo by Philip Monahan

At the end of April, I and several hundred other Orvis-endorsed fishing guides headed to Casper, Wyoming, for a week’s worth of fishing and camaraderie. As I made my steady descent out of the high country of the Colorado Rockies into the bustling metropolis of Denver, I stared in amazement at the sheer abundance of urban sprawl. I make the drive all the time, and I always find myself wondering where all these people came from and how many more are coming. For most of us in the lower 48, the last couple of decades have been a sobering realization that the good ol’ days of uncrowded. . .

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Enter to Win a FREE Dog Nest in Our “My First Puppy” Contest

Enter to Win a FREE Orvis Dog Bed in our “My First Puppy Story” Contest. There is nothing like that first puppy. This week, we thought it would be fun to have a contest about it. Click READ MORE below and leave us a story about your first puppy or dog in the comments section. Other visitors can then “like” your comment by clicking the “thumbs up” next to it. Encourage folks to vote. The most votes by next Monday, May 23 at 4 PM wins a FREE Orvis Dog Bed. Have fun!

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The Martineau Heavy Helgy

“Big fly, big fish” may be an old adage, but it’s as true now as ever. The bigger the protein source, the farther a big fish will move for it to get a protein fix. I’ve caught plenty of good fish on RS2s and other size 20 flies, but mostly on spring creeks and tailwaters, where you sight-fish and have to all but hit the trout on the nose. In faster, heavier, deeper, or cloudy water, a big trout isn’t. . .

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The Hunt Is On

Big PM Brown

The author with a spring hog from the Pere Marquette.

photo courtesy Chris Raines

As a full-time fly-fishing guide on the Pere Marquette River in northern Michigan, I enjoy year-round fishing to a variety of species of trout, salmon, and steelhead. As the spring steelhead guiding season winds down in late April/early May, the fishing pressure drops and some of the best trout fishing of the year is at hand.

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A Brush with Greatness

June 1980 marked my third year fishing the Battenkill and also the third year of my fledgling fly-fishing career. The previous fall, I had acquired my first bamboo rod after having spent the summer cutting lawns and saving up to earn the asking price for the rod, $175. It was a 7 ½ foot 5-weight Orvis Midge characterized by a rich brown coloring brought out by the hand flaming process. . .

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Mike’s Thin Mint

Is it a caddisfly? Is it a Hendrickson? Is it a stonefly? Do you really care, since the fish are willing to eat it?

Mike’s Thin Mint is pretty much my take on a steelhead Soft-Hackle. Just as the Girl Scout cookie called the Thin Mint is irresistible to me, the fly version seems irresistible to steelhead. When wet, the Senyo Laser Dub lies back across the body, . . .

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Working in the Fly Fishing Industry- One Woman’s Experience

When I was 23, I decided it was time to get a “real” job — the main qualifier for “real” being health insurance — and move away from my idyllic but poverty stricken ski/trout bum life in Colorado.  So I scoured the internet and sent out my resume to anyone who had a posting.  I was thrilled to get one call back about a job at Orvis working as a coordinator for their Fly Fishing product development team and somehow managed to convince them to hire me.

I arrived at my first corporate job ready to learn and prove myself, but not old enough to rent a car.  It was a perfect job for me, and I look back on that first position and the people I worked with fondly.  A few years later I moved on to be a buyer for that same department – what luck!  It was my dream job, and I scoured the marketplace for the latest fishing accessories, technical clothing and eventually waders.

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Tips for Protecting Spawning Redds

The cutthroat, named for the vibrant orange or red slash marks along its lower jaw, is Montana’s state fish. Historically, the westslope cutthroat ranged west of the Continental Divide throughout Montana but their numbers are rapidly declining due to hybridization with rainbows, degradation of habitat, and warmer temperatures. More and more fisherman are catching cut-bows and fewer and fewer anglers are catching true cutthroat. In order to help preserve the next generation of trout in Montana, please avoid stepping on redds this spring. Click Read More to learn more about what spawning redds look like, so you can avoid them and benfit the next generation of cutthroat and rainbows.

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Secrets of Springtime Smallies

Smallmouth bass are some of the most fun fish to catch on a fly. They hit hard, fight hard, jump, and are more than willing to take a fly. Catching smallies on the fly is something that I love to do, and the springtime is my favorite time to do it.

Smallmouth bass start switching into spawn mode at about the same time as the. . .

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