What Matt Mendes' Indigenous-Focused Approach to Fly Fishing Can Teach Us

"Cast, lift, mend, and follow." I've heard that phrase 20 times already, and it hasn't yet been an hour since I waded waist-deep into the fast-flowing Deschutes River on the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon. It was intoned to me by professional fishing guide Matt Mendes, who stands by my side in the current. About 100 yards away, my 17-year-old son Savir has on a shit-eating grin—he's already caught his fourth rainbow trout. He mouths "Game on" and mends his line the way Mendes showed him moments ago—with a small flick of the wrist and an upstream swing—to buy the fly a few seconds of drift before the current drags it under. This is his first time fly fishing, and Mendes watches with the patience of someone who's taught this motion a million times, to strangers he'll never see again and a handful he'll fish beside for life.

"You're looking for walking speed and lazy water," Mendes tells us. We learn that fast water at the head of a run is like a highway that fish blow through to get somewhere better. “What you want to look for is the seam where the current slows enough for a fish to hold without burning energy.” Holding water, he calls it. “Foam is home, slack is evil,” he adds, just as a fish rises exactly where the foam line is collecting along a fallen branch.

I didn't bring my son all the way out to Oregon from Chicago only to catch fish. As an avid outdoors enthusiast, I'm familiar with the contradictory yet grounding sensation of standing still in fast water while trying to read the flurry of activity underneath. I want Savir to experience that connection too, and it takes a particular kind of instructor to impart that element of fishing.

Matt Mendes

Being One With the Land & Water

Mendes is Warm Springs, Wasco, Modoc, Washoe, and Pit River Native on his mother’s side, with Portuguese ancestry on his father’s. He moved from Central California to the reservation with his mother when he was 12. Today, as an enrolled tribal member, he lives on the reservation with his Native American wife and their five children.

For Mendes, guiding is a way to share the Indigenous practices and beliefs that center on his role as a guardian of the land. On the drive in from his home on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Mendes told us about a spiritual song his family sings that describes a golden light everyone carries that ties them to the Earth. "When you go out to fish, when you gather berries, when you harvest roots through the season, that light burns a path behind you," he says. "And wherever your footsteps go, you're leaving a fertile light trail behind for the following season."

Before he guides, Mendes has a ritual where he smudges sage, fills up fresh water at a reservation watering hole, and listens to traditional Wasco songs on the way to put-in. This is his way of paying homage to the water he was raised to read, which he regards as both an inheritance and a responsibility.

Mendes admits that this way of seeing wasn’t always a part of his life. It actually began with his grandfather, Al Bagley, who watched the water from the sidelines for decades before deciding he wanted in. After a stint as a farm team baseball prospect with the Baltimore Orioles, Bagley worked 30 years at the reservation lumber mill, watching state guides launch drift boats each evening.

Bagley was still a night-crawler fisherman when he decided to become a fly-fishing guide on the waters that flowed through the reservation. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs hold exclusive rights to 22 miles of the Deschutes' west bank, guaranteed by an 1855 treaty. But this stretch of water sat unguided until Bagley decided to start River Bend Guide Service in 1997, becoming the first Indigenous fly-fishing guide in Oregon.

Mendes showed up a few years later and started driving his grandfather’s teal 1996 Ford F-350 pickup—the same one we rode in on our second day of the trip—to shuttle his grandfather's fishing clients to and from the put-in, much to his mom's amusement. By 16, he was guiding and working for his grandfather, eventually becoming a partner and buying out the business in 2016 to build his own outfit, Spin the Handle. Mendes describes his grandfather as old-school. “He has no filter, and if he isn’t flipping you crap, he doesn't like you,” he jokes.

Conservation & Stewardship

Making casts next to Mendes on his favorite drift boat, it's easy to see how much at home he is on the water. Every run has a name like Nirvana, Plywood Hole, or Pitcher's Mound. Some are named after the dead, others after whatever had been lying on the riverbank the day Bagley first fished there. Overhead, dozens of ospreys circle our boat, distracting me enough to swap my fly rod for my camera. That earns a chide from Savir: “Mom, are you here to fish or photograph birds?” he says. That, in turn, draws a hearty laugh from Mendes.

“It’s like watching the National Geographic Discovery Channel on steroids, isn't it?” he says. “I can’t believe I live in the greatest place on Earth.” Before the day ends, we see wild horses, raccoons, river otters, and a bald eagle fishing.

But there's also a real strain running within the river's currents. Each year, the temperature gets warmer than it should, and the dam upriver, in which the tribe holds a stake, draws blame from every direction, including the tribe itself.

“The temperature and water levels impact the fish, especially the wild summer steelhead that return every year to spawn in these cold waters,” Mendes tells us. For him, guiding is also about stewardship. As an enrolled member of the tribe and a River Steward for the Native Fish Society, he removes trash, marks spawning areas, restores riparian habitat, and plants willows to keep the river cool. He also partners with the tribe's Department of Fisheries on habitat restoration and youth outreach.

Beyond a Mother-Son Trip

By the end of our two-day trip, my son had landed 25 rainbow trout and whitefish while I tallied 15. Mendes grinned every time Savir reeled one in. There's something heartening about watching my son figure things out faster than me. He'd spot a seam, ask Mendes a question, then turn back to me with a bright look I knew to mean, Mom, I am better than you at this. I find myself watching him as much as the river, seeing a version of him I don't get to see much at home—curious, competitive, completely absorbed, and away from the constant challenges of being a teenager. For once, I am not the one telling him what to do, and we are learning together.

"This kid's a natural, and there are a lot worse things he could be getting into instead of enjoying the water so much," Mendes notes at one point. I couldn't agree more. Casting into the Deschutes, we stand side by side and say very little, but there remains a feeling of complete connection. It feels innate and wholly natural, and I can't help but think about Mendes and Bagley, standing in a similar spot on this river years ago, feeling that same link go taut between them.

Mendes's song and its idea that every walk and every cast leaves something behind for the season that follows has stayed with me in the weeks since I returned home. Savir has already left his mark by learning to read the river and respect the water, and that trail of light has followed him back home to the city. Hopefully, he'll return one day to fish it again.

How to Fish with Matt Mendes

Location: The Warm Springs Reservation is 40 miles north of Redmond, Oregon. Fly into Redmond Regional Airport and rent a car to drive to the reservation. Spin the Handle is based out of Mendes’s home, and directions are provided after booking his services.

Accommodation: Stay at the Bunk House at Cross Keys in nearby Madras, about 15 miles southeast of Warm Springs.

Fly Fishing Gear Rentals: Fin and Fire Fly Shop is a full-service rental and retail store in Redmond where you can rent out waders, boots, and other gear for a full day on the water.

Meals: Mendes provides lunch on full-day guiding trips, but you can grab a hearty breakfast and pack some fresh pastries from Great Earth Cafe and Market in Madras.