Starting in the 90s, Maine striped bass guide Capt. Eric Wallace built and to this day maintains his rabidly loyal flats-fishing clientele the old fashioned way; by learning his waters through painstaking research, by watching fish behavior, through incredibly detailed record-keeping, and by just plain being on the water - a lot. One client fished with him to great success and told another one. That one told someone else, and that person told two more. Soon, he was guiding clients two, three, fifteen days a year.
The man eats, breathes and sleeps fish. When he's not fishing, he's fighting for access to the waters he fishes. When hes not campaigning for water access, he's fly tying. When he's not fly tying, he's representing the brands that reflect his style - no frills, no flash, and all about hardcore commitment to excellence - currently those include Thomas & Thomas rods and Hatch Reels. Impressive company indeed.
Wallace uses social media "because I guess I more or less have to these days." But don't look for posts from him to include pics that brag about the size or number of fish his clients have caught. Not because they don't exist. Oh they do. Any quiet evening spent with Eric, if you ask enough times, will produce pictures of monster bass caught in water so shallow it shouldn't hold anything with fins. Wallace's use of social media is used most often to show his acumen with a camera, to catch a special moment with what most would consider an "average" fish, but caught at just the perfect moment, when an appreciative angler is gently returning it to the water, or when the heartbreakingly gorgeous places he guides are just giving way to the first light of an autumn morning as a hungry bass breaks the surface in pursuit of one his secretive flies that no one - absolutely no one - will see unless they fish with him.
The increasingly desperate bragging done by other guides on the 'books and the 'Grams the 'Toks seems lost on Wallace. Or maybe not lost. Maybe ignored. Probably ignored. Definitely ignored. An evening spent talking fishing with him is to understand what so many of us caught between two worlds struggle with; namely, the old world of hard-won knowledge that led to respect based on the humble pursuit of a craft for which you lived. That world was inhabited by Wallace's heroes, guys with names like "Lefty," who he guided numerous times and counted as a friend, and Steve Huff, and Flip Pallot. Compare that to the newer, flashier approach, where a few good pics of someone with an expensive boat and the right clothing "make" you a guide, and it adds up to an odd situation for Wallace. He doesn't dislike it for all the obvious reasons - like that it's fake and not based in reality, he dislikes it because Wallace comes from a time when a guide had a code, and that code dictated that a guide knew EVERYTHING he or she could know (and more) before charging a client to take him or her fishing.
I'm sure I speak for Lou when I say I don't remember having spent as pleasant an evening for a long time as the one we spent with Capt. Eric, sitting in his home during this interview, surrounded by the mementos of his not-insignificant life of fishing, just discussing fishing striped bass on the flats. You couldn't do better than to try to get on his schedule this summer for a chance at a shot at a bass on the flats of Casco Bay. It's a very simple fact that no one does it better.
-Mike
Capt. Eric Wallace's Website
www.coastalflyangler.com
Phone: 207.671.4330
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