Tim Romano: Baring it All on the Fly

Late in 2018, I was tasked with setting up a fly-fishing media junket to Anglers Inn’s property at Mexico’s Lake Picachos. I called my friend Joe Cermele, then at Field & Stream, now at Meateater, and a genuine long stick freak, looking for a recommendation. 

“What about me?” he asked. Frankly, I hadn’t thought he’d be interested, but I jumped at the chance to have him join me. His writing is tremendous and his “Hook Shots” series of videos are epic. 

I asked whether he could think of another member of the fly fishing media to invite. 

“I can see if my friend Tim is available,” he said. Indeed, Tim was available, and despite being the editor of one of the fly industry’s leading publications, he’s also a bass freak and a closet “gear head.”  

Tim also turned out to be Tim Romano, which means I would be meeting one of the sport’s leading lights. He’ll probably want to kick me in the nuts for writing this, but it was like adding an NBA player to your three-on-three team (with no offense offended to Joe – indeed, I got two ringers on the trip). He’s a founder and editor of Angling Trade magazine and has had his work in magazines way above my pay grade and displayed at museums and universities worldwide. 

More importantly, he’s fun to fish, drink and hang with. Several days during siesta time I looked down from my casita and Tim would be fishing from the bank (or waist-deep in the Mexican waters). To me that’s a sign of someone who loves the sport. One day he wasn’t there – turned out he’d run “into town” to work off some of the chips and salsa, and ended up not only meeting the local celebrities, but becoming one himself. 

Here’s his story:

HPFC: How did you get started in the fishing industry?
ROMANO: After college I was waiting tables here in town and a friend and I had for years talked about going to New Zealand and just fishing – buying a van and living down by the river. There was a magazine here, so we saved our pennies and basically knocked on this guy’s door and asked if he’d be interested in this photographic piece about living in New Zealand and fishing our brains out for three months. This is pre-Trout Bum, before it was cool. Maybe it had just started to be cool. I grabbed a Hasselblad medium-format camera and a couple hundred rolls of film and he said, “Hit me up when you get back.” So my buddy and I we lived in New Zealand and we fished 70 out of 90 days. Welded a bed into the back of a van and we lived out of this van – actually two vans. Long story short, came back, submitted this piece to this guy, ended up working for him, and learning what a bad businessman he was. We ended up starting a competing trade magazine. I was already running the magazine at his place. Kirk and I left and ended up buying him out like in 2007.

Before that, it was cool. I was basically the office monkey who did some ad sales stuff, but I was basically like his staff photographer. He sent me all over the world in my early twenties and we shot TV shows and magazine pieces. That’s how I kind of cut my teeth.

HPFC: Were you already an avid traveler before that?

ROMANO: My stepdad until very recently worked for the airlines for almost 30 years, so growing up I traveled a lot. My mom and stepdad really took advantage of that. He’d call me and say, “Do you want to go to Paris for the weekend?” Well, yeah, let’s go. So I traveled a shitload when I was younger, which gave me the bug. Whether I knew it or not I was kind of chasing that. I traveled a ton as a kid. I have a couple of brothers and sisters and one brother never went with us. He had an open invitation and he wouldn’t ever go, but I jumped at every opportunity.

HPFC: Other than New Zealand, what are some other places you’ve gone to catch fish or photograph fish?

ROMANO: I’m going to sound like a jerk.

HPFC: Well, how many countries and how many states would you guess?

ROMANO: I don’t know that I’ve actually ever counted. Chile, Argentina, Mexico, British Columbia, Russia, Bahamas, New Zealand, Alaska, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Christmas Island. I don’t know, man. How many states? A lot. Probably 30 or 40.

HPFC: When I think of the fly business, I know that the saltwater side has expanded a lot in recent years, but I still think it’s mostly about trout and then species like bonefish on the flats. Are those your twin passions or is it broader than that?

ROMANO: I think the trout, just by default, by growing up with it and living in the west, I love it. There’s a lot of it and it’s easy to get to. The salt stuff I would say I’m still a neophyte. I’ve fished a lot in the salt, but every time I get there I know that I’ve got a lot to learn.

My salty drug of choice is redfish. I go to Louisiana every year. It started off being Venice, Hopedale, Delacroix areas, but it’s slowly moved west a little. Now we go to a place called Cocodrie, which is south of Houma. Every year we go to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, or we did. I’ll fish there, Florida or North Carolina. I’m a sucker for Louisiana because I just love the culture. I love the marsh there. Redfish, when they’re on, they’re stupid fish. They’re fun.

HPFC: What other exotic species that you’ve caught get you excited?

ROMANO: I hosted a trip to Christmas Island a couple of years ago and everyone goes there for GTs, which are cool. They’re badass, but I really fell in love with the triggerfish. I love carp fishing, too, with a fly. To me it was like carp fishing but with way more badass, stronger, cooler-looking fish. They’re like 20 pound fish you take out of your aquarium. I really, really enjoyed that. I want to go back there and just spend the entire time chasing triggerfish. It was so much fun. It’s one of those fish that I’d love to just go catch for a day, but there’s no way to do that.

HPFC: Is there a single most memorable fish of your life?

ROMANO: I have a few, but I think the coolest one for me was right after I got married I went up and I literally slept in a woodshed at my friend’s steelhead lodge in BC. She and her family homesteaded this property in the 70s. She let me come up and hang for a week if I helped and I only fished behind clients. It was like ten thousand dollars a week to fish there.

I had never really caught a true western steelhead. I had caught fish in the Great Lakes. The first day, the first run, probably my third cast, I walked in behind a client who had just fished a run and I stuck a 20 pound buck. My buddy took a picture of me. I don’t know that that’ll happen ever again. It was just insane. That was definitely one of my cooler fish. Later that day I caught three or four more fish, broke a rod on one, but if I ever catch a steelhead like that ever again I’ll be surprised. And it was done, for the fly world, “properly.” I was swinging a fly, I wasn’t nymphing. It was pretty cool

HPFC: What species have either eluded you or are otherwise really high on your bucket list?

ROMANO: I’ve never caught a permit, which I would love to do. I know that’s kind of cliched, but I would absolutely love to catch one. I’ve had plenty of shots but I’ve just never been able to get it done.

The other weird fish that I’ve read a lot about and talked to friends about, but I’ve never caught or even seen, is a sheefish. They’re basically giant whitefish that can get up to like 60 pounds. I’d like to go to the middle of Alaska, stuff that only drains up to the Arctic. Huge fish that are super-carnivorous, chasing big flies or big lures. That would be super-cool.

HPFC: You’ve been to so many amazing places, some trips that cost ridiculous amounts of money. If someone had no budget limitations and they want to take an incredible trip, where would you recommend?

ROMANO: Just for sheer curiosity, just because I’ve heard so much about it and it’s impossible to get to, the Seychelles. That’s a pretty pricey trip. Even if the fishing sucks you’re still in paradise.

Of places I’ve been to, unlimited funds, I’d go to Patagonia and set yourself up in an amazing lodge. It’s like going back in time. It’s like Montana 150 years ago. I would go in the fall to all of the big river drainages that come out of the lakes. Catch huge trout and it’s just the most spectacular scenery in the world.

HPFC: What about the opposite end of the spectrum – someone who would like to try fly fishing and they don’t have that much money to spend. What’s an amazing trip they can take?

ROMANO: What you and I did. Those Mexico trips are pretty spectacular, and it’s not crazy expensive. You’re getting out of the country, so if you have any inhibition that way you’re kind of getting out of that where we were. I loved that I could go into the town and meet the locals. You’re taken care of – you really don’t have to think about much. It’s fairly exotic if you ask me. For me, of all the trips I’ve done, when I told people that I was going to the Sinaloan mountains to fish for bass and that freaked them out – well, not freaked them out, but they were very inquisitive.

HPFC: In my peer group that doesn’t necessarily seem mundane, but I know a lot of people who’ve taken that trip. It seems to me that there’s such a big divide between bass world and the fly world. I was hesitant for a long time to try fly fishing because I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself. Then I tried it and I was mad that I’d had all of those inhibitions. For someone who is a tournament angler or a regular Joe on the street and thinks fly fishing is something they’d like to try, where is the place to go where you can have a great trip?

ROMANO: You may think this answer is boring, but I would send someone to Louisiana to go redfishing. You don’t have to cast very far. You don’t have to be hucking 100 foot casts on a dime. You can blow your casts and the fish will still eat it – and you’re talking huge fish. You want excitement? A 30 pound redfish on a fly rod is pretty damn cool. You’ve got culture. You don’t feel like you’re in the United States. It’s not that expensive to stay anywhere down there. The most expensive thing you’re going to have is your guide and you can split that with someone. I think that’s pretty world-class.


HPFC: What’s your favorite thing to eat down there?

ROMANO: I’m pretty simple. I love being able to come off the boat and walk up to an oyster boat and grab 15 dozen oysters for thirty dollars and shuck ‘em myself. I think that’s pretty cool.

HPFC: Are you a foodie?

ROMANO: Yes and no. Until this year my parents owned three restaurants and I kind of grew up in that world. I wouldn’t say I’m a foodie, but I appreciate good food.

HPFC: Is there a particular world cuisine or ingredient that completely knocked you out? Something you particularly enjoyed?

ROMANO: Enjoyed? I’ve eaten a lot of stuff that I didn’t like. One of the weirdest that sounds horrible – and I guess it depends who you are whether it sounds bad or not – I had horse tongue in Japan before I knew what it was, and I ate like an entire plate of it. That was effing delicious? What was that? “Oh, by the way….”

I had some weird fruits that I wish I knew what they were in Central America. One time we stopped at a border crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica on a river, way back in the jungle. These guys are checking passports in a hut and they put down something that was between an apple and I don’t know what is was, but it was the most delicious fruit. We ate it while we were waiting, kind of cool.

HPFC: What’s the one piece of camera equipment that you can’t live without?

ROMANO: Two things. Really simple things, but they’re super-important. If I had to take one lens, and that’s all I got, I’d take a 50 millimeter 1.4, a really basic, really fast lens that can do anything. I feel like it makes you do things that you normally wouldn’t in terms of interacting with people. It makes you kind of get off your butt and get closer or try different angle, because it is such a basic lens. I feel like it makes me think a lot more. It’s fast, so I can shoot it in really low light situations.

The other thing, which everybody should have if they enjoy photography and they travel a lot – again, it sounds really boring but I rely completely on dealer cloths from sunglass companies. All it is is a microfiber cloth but it’s like half the size of a towel. I have like 20 of those on every shoot because they’re so much bigger than a standard lens cleaning cloth. You can sop up water, clean your lenses, clean your sunglasses, clean anything with them. They’re imperative for me.

HPFC: What are the biggest mistakes your average angler makes when he seeks to immortalize his fishing trip in photos?

ROMANO: I think that people think too much about the fish. In my opinion it’s so much more fun to tell the story of your fishing trip, rather than just grip and grin pictures. Think about everything but the fish and you’ll get a way better story. It’s not about the fish, man. It’s about your day or your buddy or someone falling in the water.

HPFC: What about non-photography items? Is there something else you can’t live without when you travel?

ROMANO: Ear plugs. Honestly, ear plugs or headphones with extra batteries – if you get stuck in some kind of situation where you’re bunking with someone you don’t want to, or you’re stuck in an airplane for 27 hours, you can go into your own world and be there.

HPFC: When we were in Mexico you found time and energy to run into town during siesta time, which I found to be incredibly ambitious and impressive. When you’re on the road, how do you maintain any semblance of a routine or discipline?

ROMANO: I think just by doing stuff like that. If you fall into the trap on a trip of doing what’s expected of you, or what everyone else is doing, that’s totally fine, but it helps me to kind of get away from what’s going on. Whether that’s a walk or a run, it helps me to get away for a half hour or an hour. That keeps me sane, feeling like I’m not eating too much or drinking too much. Exercising is definitely important to me.

Also, I don’t know if you remember, but on one of those runs I ended up meeting the mayor of the town. That would’ve never happened if I’d just sat at the lodge. There’s nothing wrong with sitting at the lodge but it was a pretty cool experience to go hang with that guy.

HPFC: Have you ever thought you were going to die on one of these trips?
ROMANO: One of the scariest situations was with weather down in Louisiana. I went out a day that I shouldn’t have with a guy who didn’t really know the area. Everyone else wasn’t going out. I was like, “We’re already here.” We drove an hour. The gentleman I was supposed to be on the boat with I didn’t know him. It was super-foggy. With all the wellheads and everything else, there’s so much shit in the water. He was kind of lost and I was calling out stuff from the bow of the boat and it was very, very visibility. I kind of knew that I was seeing something and realized that it was so cloudy that we weren’t noticing that there was a shitload of lightning around us. When we stopped, we realized that there was a lot of lightning and we were probably the tallest thing for 15 miles. We were late, really late. I was getting nervous that we weren’t going to find our way back. It turns out our buddies ended up calling the Coast Guard on us. I think we were four hours late. When we finally broke through all of the weather, the clouds were lightning. If you remember the movie The NeverEnding Story, and the nothing, it was like that. We found out later there was a tornado like a mile north of us. I did not feel comfortable at all. That was very scary.


HPFC: Has being more or less stuck at home through COVID changed the way you think about travel, and do you have a particular place you’re itching to go when it’s safe to travel freely again?

ROMANO: It’s killing me. I miss traveling a lot. It’s funny because I was getting a little sick of it and then being stuck at home for coming up on a year now starts to put it in perspective. I really, really miss it. It’s weird, I miss just sitting on an airplane, which is bizarre.

Honestly, I’d go back, just because it’s so fresh and new to me, I’d love to go back to Christmas Island. Like I said, I hosted a trip there, but I will straight pay out of pocket and go as a paying client because I had so much fun. That place is incredible.

All pictures taken by Tim Romano and are solely property of the photographer and not for reuse.