Cheers to Johnny B.

The earliest conversation I remember having with Jon Baiocchi is some time around 2001. I was in college and working at Fish First in Chico, CA. One of my early jobs at the shop was to call around and get fishing reports for the “Whats Hot, Whats Not” bi Monthly fishing report that was emailed out and posted to the website. I would call Bob Baiocchi, lovingly known as Battling Bob, Johns dad, for reports on the Middle Fork Feather, Davis Lake, and Gray Eagle area. At the time Bob was still fishing, though he was battling cancer I think ,and we would talk fishing and then usually diverge into talking Giants baseball and just life… things that were a great distraction from the hours of calls asking for fishing reports I had to make.

I am not sure when, but at some point, John started answering the phone (this is when land lines were the only way to reach this part of the world) and I naturally started talking with him as he had moved in with his dad to maybe take care of him or just hang out for a few months between snowboard, motor cross, and fly fishing around the west. I know we always had conversation about bugs, fishing, and we just connected on baseball and life. We were both super passionate and obsessed with fly fishing and tying flies. I think he also had developed a respect for me based on the connection his dad and I had and the time and respect I devoted to his dad.

The conversation I remember I am sure started with the normal fishing report, how are you, etc. but what I remember is John telling me how his or his dads dog had eaten an entire brick of Tillamook cheese off the counter and had not shit for like days and he was getting concerned. Now John, and Bob, for that matter and I were as close as people that talk on the phone twice a month can be, but I always laugh that John shared with me his concern for his dogs bowel movements right among discussing hatches and baseball. I also remember having  this weird sympathy for the dog as I can only imagine the “back up” that eating a huge block of cheese would cause.

There was a period where I lost track of John, but he was on the radar as he was guiding Lake Davis a ton and really building a career as  “the guy” on Lake Davis and the Middle Fork of the Feather. At some point during this time he pulled roots and moved to my home town of Grass Valley/Nevada City. I want to say he followed a girl, but I am not sure. I visibly remember being in a state of fear that one of the sharpest minds that I had ever run into was going to start guiding my home water the Lower Yuba River! In my mind I saw John in a drift boat as a weapon of mass destruction that I did not want to have to face as a young guide. It seemed for like a good year or two I was just holding my breath for the moment I showed up on the Yuba and there was John with a new boat putting in with clients.

He never showed up though with a boat … he decided he was going to walk and wade guide the lower Yuba, NF Yuba, Truckee, MF Feather, and then fish the lakes as well. In my mind I thought this guy is nuts…there is no money in walk and wade fishing the lower Yuba and these other fisheries are realistically 3-4month a year fisheries (at this time)… and how can you walk and wade guide the yuba in the fall and winter.. it blows out, you have to have a boat… AND who takes people out on walk and wade trips and shows them how to go do exactly what they are paying you to do on their own WITHOUT PAYING you… This is a horrible  business model! No restaurant or bakery hands you your food with one hand  and the recipe and instructions with the other!!!!

Then came the clinics, the articles, and blog posts, with brutal honesty and more accurate step by step instructions then I would share with my closest guide buddies. They detailed  how to catch fish and be successful on all the waters he was guiding. It was like the guy was purposely trying to put himself out of work, it really made my head spin and I kinda wrote the guy off as nuts! Right around the same time he started to get in some confrontations on social media and began to take heat for calling people out without the correct permits and what not. In the end he was saying a lot of stuff I think personally we all thought, but knew we shouldn’t say or at least post on social media…. It was kinda that grimace feeling we all can have….  ya he is kinda right but you don’t say that.

We had reconnected around this time (maybe 10 years ago) and started swapping texts and phone calls, shooting the shit when we saw each other on the river and such. Every time I saw him the excitement and stoke that just poured out of the guy was absolutely insane. As much as I had thought that he was nuts for doing what he was doing I also started to be jealous of just the enthusiasm he had for life, fishing, guiding, and what I saw as the absolutely hardest way to be a fly fishing guide in the world… and lets be honest being a fly fishing guide in general is not easy.

What happened was absolutely insane to me… he blew up. PEOPLE booked trips, he guided all over the place, taking people into water that I would be honestly scarred to go myself. While I would feel guilty if people had to walk to far from their Mercedes to my boat at the ramp, john would take the same guys on a 3 mile climb/death march into the Middle Fork Feather or North Fork Yuba and they would LOVE IT! The would book multiple days the following season to do it again even, like some kind of masochistic fishing ritual…

He would create maps to all the places that were good to fish on a given piece of water and give them out in his clinics, tie his MONEY making flies, and sell them or hand them out on the river to random people for free. He would write fishing reports and articles that literally gave blue prints of the hardest earned information a guide like himself had. To say he was an open book just doesn’t give his sharing of knowledge its due… He paid to make copies of the book, and then like johnny Appleseed gave then out to anyone that he made eye contact with.

I was literally dumb founded. His success proved everything I thought I knew about being a fly fishing guide wrong. What I began to realize about John was that he was one of the most genuine people in my world and flyfishing here in Northern California. There was absolutely no doubt about where he stood, what he believed, and what he was all about. He told me many times with a smile that he was just a fiery Italian and he shot from the hip sometimes…He was all about sharing the love, the passion, and stoke that he got from fly fishing with others. When I look at how he lived he lived off a tank of passion that many of us may never know. He had so much love and passion for the rivers and lake of northern California he just had to share it.

 I realized a few years ago was that John at some point must of made a deal with the river gods, that if he gave it all away they would pay him back ten fold. There was a meeting some where between John and the river goods (especially the lower yuba god and middle fork feather god) and they said we will give you all the secrets, all the knowledge, and our fish will always rise to your dries and eat your clients flies always… BUT you have to share this knowledge and in doing this create disciples of what we teach you and share with you, so that others after you will love and protect our waters and fish. He error’d carelessly on the rule that if you share everything and treat everyone that lives by the right principles with gratitude and compassion life will work out.

 I saw John a lot the last few months as it was a low water winter on the Yuba and he was out there nearly every day pounding the banks and taking people on his Batton death marches to get away from the crowds and find the skwala eating trout… In the end many people blamed him for the crowds. I never blamed him for them though, even though I knew that in reality he had a lot to do with the popularity of the hatch and the fishery during the winter months. I knew that he believed that the more people that fished and loved our river the better our river would be after us. The more people would protect it, care for it, and nurture it long after we were gone. This is true, and logic I can not argue with. The selfish person always wants the river, run, or the hatch for themselves. I can not say that I am above this.

What I will miss most about John is that how he lived his life held me in check the last few years. When someone asked me how the fishing was …  my first instinct  was to lie, or say something totally general that gives them no hint as to how I am catching fish… I know that is not what John would do. He would stop,  explain to the person what to do, and even give them a fly or two he tied that morning. Sharing the love returns that love ten fold, he forced me to remind myself daily of this.

That last time I talked with John was Easter Sunday. He randomly called to wish me and my family a happy easter. We talked fishing and he said he really wanted to get out fishing with me and my boys… not me so much as my boys. I thought how awesome is that… he wants to fish with my kids, and what a great treat for my kids to fish with such a passionate person. He was always sharing like he was up against a clock to give it all away before it ticked away. Maybe he knew he was, I don’t know, but he embodied what it means to share the outdoors, share our sport, and spread love for the wild places of Northern California. His passing will give pause for many years to come when my selfish nature rises up in me, I will remember how much John shared and how much came back to him I think because of it.

Cheers Johnny B.