'Year of the Nomad Angler' including best times to hit local and exotic fly fishing destinations.
Since 2000, Dax Messett has been a full time, worldwide fly fishing guide, instructor, lodge manager and overall industry professional. His relentless pursuit to find unique, challenging angling experiences has taken him to some of the finest fresh and saltwater venues throughout the world. One of the most experienced and well traveled guides in the industry, he has guided extensively for trout and steelhead throughout Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Alaska, and New Zealand.
Well known as a truly passionate instructor, Dax is widely regarded as one of the West’s finest spey casting and angling instructors. He was certified by legendary Mel Krieger back in 2003 as an FFF Casting Instructor, and has worked with legendary spey casting instructors such as Simon Gawesworth, Scott O’donnell, Mike McCune, and George Cook.
Dax is part of the Sage Elite Pro Team and is a fixture at two handed casting events, such as the Sandy River Spey Clave and Rogue on the Fly. He is also a published writer and photographer, featured in publications such as The Drake, Flyfishing Journal, This Is Fly, Sierra Fly Fisher, and a number of other publications. He has television appearances on April Vokey’s Shorelines Show on the Fishing Network, as well as appearances on ESPN and OLN.
He is also one of the most sought after Hosted Travel Coordinators in the industry, continuously selling out all spots on his trips to international locations such as British Columbia, Bolivia, Mexico, New Zealand, Cuba, and Christmas Island along with domestic destinations in the Pacific Northwest, Louisiana, and the Florida Keys.
His home base is in Medford, Oregon with his wife Leslie, who is also a guide and speycasting instructor and their dog Marlee. His favorite venues tend to be the most challenging ones, such as swinging flies for wild steelhead, and sight fishing for hard to catch fresh and saltwater species.