Your
Fish Nerd
Correspondents

Our good friend, Dr. Erika Martin, serves as our lifeline to the scientific and research community. She is a super-duper nerd with a Ph.D. in Biology and is a faculty member in a University Biology Department, and concurrently a thesis-seeking graduate research assistant in Physics. (Nerd Alert!) Beyond being the chief science correspondent for the Fish Nerds, she values her role as an educator. Says the good doctor:

“Working with students, institutions, and the public is my career and I absolutely adore it. I pursue a variety of extracurricular activities. I have created several brand new courses at my university, all of which are cross-disciplinary (mostly biology, physics, analytical chemistry, and statistics). I am active in community outreach, where I volunteer teach K-12 students at the Children’s Museum. I believe science can be understood and enjoyed by everyone. Thus, another one of my current projects is an adapted general biology laboratory manual for students with severe visual impairments. I am actively learning Swedish. My grandparents immigrated from Sweden as young people, and my mother is a first-generation American. I love to read books! I prefer non-fiction science, biographies/autobiographies history, philosophy, and politics. If I read fiction, then I prefer dystopian and dark novels. I play the guitar. I was actually in a professional drum corps when I was 17 playing lead trumpet and struggled with the decision to major in science or music when I began college. I taught myself how to play guitar when I was finishing graduate school and love it. I love to do parodies about science for the Fish Nerds Podcast and occasionally play at local informal venues. Though, I did play at the House of Blues in New Orleans once! My biology expertise is in ecosystem dynamics, conservation, ontogenetics, and studying how aquatic organisms, habitat, and nutrients interact across various levels of diversity. My physics expertise is in cosmology, as well as atomic, molecular, and stellar emission spectroscopy, studying how quantum-level processes influence astronomical properties. I also enjoy conducting and collaborating on research projects across disciplines that require scientific data analysis using program R, of which I am proficient as long as I can occasionally use certain four letter words (ha!). I live in a tiny cabin in the woods. I have the coolest dog and cat to hang out with. The cat doesn’t really like me, but my dog and I run a 5k every Saturday. I am super into recycling, reducing waste, gardening, and eating sustainably. But most of all, I’m happy to be a Nerd!”

Thanks, Doc. You Rock!

Rich is a jack of all trades with a background in high-tech, having done some professional podcasting and radio broadcasting back in the day (though you would never know by his voice). He has been fishing since he was a kid for walleye, bullhead and perch (of course) in the waters of Oneida Lake in Upstate New York and has since moved on to fly fishing, primarily in the Great Granite State of New Hampshire. Rich spends the majority of his time between the Seacoast/Portsmouth area and the White Mountains (Conway/Mount Washington Valley) region chasing fish anytime and anywhere he can. In his professional life, Rich works as a freelance web developer and marketing/media consultant to small businesses which gives him enough flexibility to fish way too much. https://thirstproductions.com

“My thumb ring gives me the power to target the smallest of fish, the absolute non-preferred target species, and the ability to serve as a banana on any boat, period. You do not want to fish with me unless you dislike catching fish.”

Rich enjoys his two dogs, Scout and Cassie, a little too much and blames them for scaring away all the big fish, and he generally only speaks in sarcasm/wise-ass. Check out his adventures on Instagram under his handle @Livfreeordietryin. Or contact him via any of the channels below. He devoted many long hours of his talents developing this amazing website, so please donate to Patreon so Clay can start paying him as he needs some more gear to catch fewer, smaller, non-target species.

Jeff is a nerd librarian in the Kansas City metro area who grew up in Missouri, spent a decade or so moving (and fishing) around the West (California, Washington, and Idaho) before returning to the Midwest.

“My family owns a cabin on Lake of the Ozarks, so I grew up fishing, starting with the classic “’stick with 20 lb mono tied to the end, a bobber, and a hook with a minnow, worm or cricket on it’ combo. I enjoy all kinds of hook and line fishing, from soaking bait for catfish to tenkara fishing for trout. I’ve even been bitten by the micro-fishing bug. You know you’re a Fish Nerd when other people around you are fishing for trout and you’re stalking minnows and sculpins!”

Jeff serves as our FN Librarian and bookworm, managing the FN Book Club and contributing to the podcast using real facts from real people from real books. He is particularly interested in Japanese fixed line fishing methods like tenkara and keiryu and the techniques developed around them. On his website: OZARK TENKARA, Jeff seeks to bring the simple and effective fixed-line fishing methods of Japan to this region with it’s wild trout streams and natural beauty. Podcasting is a natural next step for this book lover as a way to share his passion for information.

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“I caught my first fish, a big, stiff-necked, slab crappie, at the age of three back in 1965 and have been after’em ever since  No matter what I am doing in terms of career, chef-ing, truck farming, or consulting, fishing has always been a major part of my recreational life. In 2015 Kathy, my wife of 35 years, and I founded Glasswater Angling LLC to give anglers more and better lead-free alternatives to leaded fishing tackle. We have invented a lure named AngleKing which is the only underspin with two, independent successive blade arrays.  That, combined with our three line tie system, make this lure more versatile than anything that has come before and, yes – it catches fish, lots of them! We are at 14 species and counting, two of which were added by fishing guide and FN Chief Executive Nerd Clay Groves, those being yellow perch and rainbow trout. We live in eastern Kansas in our old stone house (built in 1857 it is the oldest continuously lived in residence in Johnson County) out in the country. We like to grow flowers, design all sorts of things in addition to fishing tackle, go picking for vintage and antique items and just enjoy our time together. Our daughter Sarah lives in the NE and one of our main joys is the rare occasion we can road trip to see her. It was a happy accident that I came across The Fish Nerds podcast and it has been a great experience to find a school of fish that swims the same waters I do. It is an amazing community and I am glad to be a part of it.”

Hugo Medeiros is an avid recreational fisherman and home cook. Born in Portugal, raised in central Massachusetts and having traveled and lived abroad, Hugo brings these influences into the dishes he cooks. His passion for fishing brings him all over New England in both fresh and saltwater. His passion for cooking led him to establish the social media group The Culinary Connection on Facebook.

For the last three years, Hugo has focused on kayak fishing in both fresh and salt water and with a particular love of New England groundfish such as fluke, black sea bass, and tautog. Check out his segments with the Fish Nerds “Killing Time and Fish with Hugo Medeiros.”

Mike Vallese is a wild man and avid fisherman who hails from Easton, Pennsylvania. Mike runs the AverageJoeFishingShow and does a lot of work with local groups to get people out and fish and enjoy their time on the water.

“My main focus in life is to fish and to get more kids out of the house and onto the fish. My motto is: stay in school eat your vegetables and FISH ON!”

Mike is one of our newest Fish Nerd correspondents and enjoys being part of our nerdy fishing community, particularly about what’s happening in his neck of the woods in PA. Mike likes nothing more than to fish as much as humanly possible and sharing this passion with others by taking people fishing. FISH ON!

Andrew is a Marine Science and Conservation Communicator that is addicted to podcasting. He loves being on the Fish Nerds podcast because its fun to hang out with Clay and talk Oceans and be silly. You can find his own podcast “Speak Up For Blue” on all the usual podcast channels or via http://www.speakupforblue.com/

Michael Frank, the FN Guide Corner segment contributor, is living the dream as owner and operator of Frank’s Fly Arts guide service in Columbia, SC. An admitted damn Yankee, Frank grew up fishing the beaches and streams of Long Island, New York and spent his 20s walking the streets of our nation’s capitol with a fly rod on his shoulder. His understanding of what it takes to be a fishing guide comes from making the decision to do it at 38 and following through, learning along the way. Ten years in, he’s got experiences, lessons, and reality checks to share with all of us Nerds who consider this a dream job!

Hailing from the edge of the San Francisco Bay where he’s raising his two Amazing Boys with his Amazing Wifey, Amazing James balances a wide array of interests with his obsession for fish. When he’s not running a bay-themed nature center (the one where Fish Guy Josh keeps the fish alive and happy), or playing with Legos and Hot Wheels (with his kids, not by himself…), or making amazing balloon animals at parties (a side gig from which he’s temporarily retired because he loves hanging out with his kids way more), he’s either fishing or wishing he was.

James bought a boat a couple of years ago, and he’s regretted it ever since.

“Maybe the kids will become outboard mechanics instead of expecting me to pay for college. Shit. I hope so. I really, really hope so.”