The Mountain Dog Days

Alex Ausmus

​Man, it feels so good to be back… 

When we started Mountain Dog Angling, we were just 4 young guys with a shared passion for fly fishing, and a desire to make a place for ourselves within the fishing community. After one of those great days of fishing, while we were drinking some cold snacks in the basement of our childhood home and riding the high from an afternoon of bent rods, the idea of creating a fishing company was born. We knew very little about how to establish a social media presence, about how to make videos, or really about how to run a business at all… We were also flat broke! But - lucky for us we had a supportive Father, who also shared our love of fishing, and has graciously sponsored the Mountain Dog team from the inception of this dream. We were younger, we had 0 real responsibilities, and all we thought about every day was trout and Rocky Mountain freestones…  

I am starting this blog talking about the very beginning days of Mountain Dog because quite frankly they seem like a lifetime ago… 

Since those early days - The Pack has: 

• Graduated with 4 college degrees. 
• Graduated with 2 Doctorate degrees. 
• Played in nearly 100 combined NCAA games (Football & Baseball). 
• Lived separately in 4 different states. 
• Watched a Pack member live out his lifelong dream of becoming a banker.
• Celebrated 2 Pack member weddings – and another engagement.  
• 2 bachelor parties. 
• We started a book club. 
• Little global pandemic.
• 3 trips to Vegas. 
• & Finally – welcomed the newest member of the MTN Dog family - Adam’s daughter Charlotte. 

The list could go on and on… but you get the point. Since those early days LIFE HAPPENED! Life happened for the Mountain Dog team… & We all get that! Every single person on earth can relate to that statement… LIFE HAPPENS MAN! No matter who you are, we all get swept up in the events and transitions of life. It is inevitable. We all wish we could be cowboys in Arizona, or pimps from Oakland, but you gotta grow up Peter Pan! Real life is a grind. It is hard, it is ugly, and it takes GRIT! No matter what it is that you do, to succeed in life you have to grab your proverbial (or literal) hard hat and lunch pale and clock into work every single day. Rain, shine, snow, sleet, it does not matter… You have to swallow the punches life throws at you, and just keep grinding. 

I guess the point of that long rant was – that is exactly what Mountain Dog is all about. And our group is living proof of that. We are about the reality that life gets crazy and time can get away from us… but we will always have fly fishing to keep things in perspective. We aren’t Orvis, Simms, or Patagonia… and we most likely never will be. We are just everyday guys, grinders, who get up and go to work every single day knowing that the only river we will be seeing is the one in our day dreams. Guys that find their minds wandering to buttery browns at night when they take their ties off and hang up their suits after a long day at the office. This reality in no way dulls our passion, or Mountain Dog’s love for fly fishing. In fact, it only enhances it. Knowing that our days together on the river are few and far between makes the days we do get out on the water that much sweeter. Those are the days that I live for. Those are the Mountain Dog days. 

My closing message is this… Nobody will ever be able to stop the bulldozer that is LIFE. LIFE is undefeated in that respect. All we can do is embrace the grind, and use the Mountain Dog days to keep things in perspective. Don’t take for granted doing the things you love; with the people you love. Enjoy the ride, and be sure to enjoy the Mountain Dog Days.