Jean-Paul Lipton

Jean-Paul Lipton, aka, the roughfisher, was born and raised on the white sand beaches of Hawaii with a rod on his hand. His love of fishing never waned as he migrated back to his mother's Land of 10,000 Lakes some twenty-odd years ago, and adapted to a life of freshwater fishing. A nurturing uncle helped him get his start in fly fishing, and the roughfisher never looked back.

Formerly wading the banks of blue ribbon water, J.P. decided one day to seek a challenge of the unknown, and pursue a quarry of which very little is known about, the roughfish. Countless hours were spent on the water studying these magnificent and underappreciated fish. The roughfisher astutely monitored and studied their feeding habits and diets, painstakingly developing fly patterns and the techniques necessary to convince a subterminally-mouthed fish to take an artificial fly. It was an arduous task but the roughfisher persevered and managed to take some of the most notoriously difficult species, like the quillback and greater redhorse, on a fly.

Still not satisfied with his accomplishments, J.P. wanted to be able to catch these elusive fish on a consistent basis, a feat even for a baitfisherman. Realizing the limitations of a singlehanded rod, the roughfisher began utilizing long rods and two handed casting techniques to reach water previously out of the reach of most anglers. No area is out of reach for the two handed rod wielding roughfisherman. Fish beware!

Jean-Paul Lipton resides in Detroit Lakes, MN where he performs fisheries management work for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. When he is not busy working on stream habitat restoration projects for the DNR, he spends much of his free time on the Otter Tail River, pursuing roughfish on the fly. J.P. is a member of the Federation of Fly Fishers and the FFF Guides Association, and is involved with many environmental causes, including the fight against the spread of invasive species. J.P. is a Signature Fly Tier at Idylwilde Flies Inc., and a member of the Ross Reels Pro Staff, Scientific Anglers Pro Staff, and a Mountain Khakis Ambassador.

Visit J.P. at his blog, Roughfisher and his Facebook page.