Mark Martin

Mark was born and raised in northern Maine: a place and culture where “going for a walk in the woods” is still a legitimate way to fill an empty afternoon. He spent most of his free time fishing, hunting, canoeing, and skiing, and his dad taught him to flyfish and tie flies when he was eleven. Several years of education and work in fisheries conservation led him to a realization that no wild river’s heart and soul could ever be characterized by a series of equations….and right about then he discovered central Idaho and the Middle Fork. It was, as they say, love at first sight. Since then, his natural habitat has become the rower’s seat of a fishing boat.

Mark ties all his own flies for fishing, sells a few, and brings a selection of favorites to the Middle Fork for each trip. When not guiding for MFRE, he finds work as a server at an off-the-grid backcountry ski-in restaurant in the winter in McCall.  Somewhere in there he finds the time to fly fish obsessively for steelhead all over the Northwest, and explore Idaho’s mountains on his skis…all while daydreaming about last Middle Fork season, and the next.  Mark has worked with MFRE since 2009.  He is also a favorite amongst our guests and is an incredible fishing guide and has the patience of a sage.