Michael Bennett

Owner

Michael Bennett is Pacific Fly Fisher's principal owner and, as of 2026, works remotely from his home in Chelan, WA. Michael works closely with the rest of the fly shop staff on a daily basis. He will be quick to tell you he manages all the boring parts of operating the fly shop, including finances, payroll, IT and other burnensome parts of the shop. He also manages marketing, the PacificFlyFishers.com and BigTimeFlies.com websites, and assists in major product orders for the company.

Michael grew up fishing along the Umpqua and Rogue rivers in Southern Oregon. He then spent eight years in Southern California attending college and working as a fishing department manager for a sporting goods retailer. He returnd to the PNW motivated by a passion for steelhead and worked in computer and software sales until opening Pacific Fly Fishers in 2004.

Michael enjoys fly fishing for a wide variety species and spends much of his time fly fishing for bass these days. He still makes time for his original love of swinging flies for steelhead, salmon or wading a trout stream. He considers himself lucky to have fished many of the top fly fishing destinations in the U.S., British Columbia and the Yucatan area of Mexico/Belize.

Michael became a Federation of Fly Fishers Certified Casting Instructor in 1994 and has been teaching fly fishing, casting, and tying classes since the age of 22. He has been a contributing author and photographer in Northwest Fly Fishing magazine and is a fly designer for Solitude Fly Company.

Michael is a proud alumni of the University of Southern California where he attended the Marshall School of Business with an emphasis in Entrepreneurial Business.

Things you'll hear Michael say:

• "We have a spreadsheet for that"
• "Feel like driving? I'm falling asleep"
• "It should only take a couple hours"
• "Just put some Aquaseal on it"