My Bio

It occurred to me that I have all kinds of information on this site, but nothing really about me personally.  Until my Projects site went up I don't even think my name was mentioned.  Well, I have decided to change that and give you all a little personal information about me.  Like you care, right?  Well, people's indifference has never stopped me from talking before and its not going to start now!

My name is Dan McMartin and I was born in Reno, Nevada in 1966, but my family lived in Carson City and they still do.  I was taught to fish and hunt by my father, Jim, in and around Nevada.  We mostly bait fished, sometimes using lures, but my father instilled in me a great respect for wildlife and outdoor ethics.  My father never poached and always respected the fish and game laws.  The lessons he taught me are still with me today.

While I was a teenager and young adult, I rarely fished or hunted.  I was more interested in partying and such.  I belonged to a local truck club named, Illusion Mini Trucks and spent most of my time working on my truck, attending shows and drinking lots of beer.  As that interested waned (not the beer drinking), I began to rediscover my love of the outdoors.  I began fishing and bow hunting, but had always wanted to try fly fishing.  Finally, when I was 25 my girlfriend and future wife, Jen, bought me a fly rod from Cabela's and I invested in waders and a float tube.  I began fly fishing seriously that summer and fall with friends from work and within a year my spin casting gear was collecting dust.

Since then I have been a devoted fly fisherman.  So much so, that when I had kids and my fishing was limited somewhat I developed a website as an outlet for my love of fly fishing.  That site has evolved into what you see here.  My little corner of the web.  

Now for some personal stuff.  I was married in 1994 to Jen, my wife and best friend.  She supports my fishing, which is, unfortunately, rare in my experience.  I also have two sons.  Henry was born in 1996 and is very athletic and loves fishing.  Owen was born in 1998 and loves trucks and all things mechanical and also loves fishing.  We also have a Yellow Lab named Maddie.  We got her in the summer of 2003.

Me, Jen, Henry (left), Owen and little Maddie.

I live in Smith Valley, Nevada, on five acres having moved here from my life long home of Carson City in 2001.  Smith Valley has about 1600 people according to our communities web site, svtac.org.  We have no banks,  grocery stores or traffic signals.  We do have two tractor dealers, two bars and lots of cattle.  While Smith Valley is small, it is growing fast like the rest of Nevada.  Hopefully, we can maintain our rural, small town identity in the face of all the California retirees coming here with their urban, big city ideals.

I work at the Nevada Department of Transportation as a Project Manager.  I manage design consultants on highway design projects.  You can get a little taste of what I do by visiting www.ndotprojectneon.com, the web site for my largest project in Las Vegas.  While I enjoy what I do, it takes away from my family and fishing time.  I am eligible to retire in 2010 at the ripe old age of 43 and am looking forward to it.  I will continue to work somewhere, but on my terms and my schedule.

One recent and important development that concerns this website and my fishing is my employer's new policy on flexible workweeks.  I am now working four 10 hour days a week.  This means every weekend is a three day weekend and I should be able devote some time to fishing despite my other responsibilities to family and such.  Hopefully, for those of you who use this site this will mean more journal entries and some other enhanced features.

Anyway, that's about all I can think of for now.  I might update this from time to time as I think of stuff.  In the meantime, don't be afraid to send me an e-mail to let me know what you think of the site, or invite me to go fishing.  Sometimes I need a kick in the pants to get out of the house.  Later!!