My name’s Jeff Diehl. I moved to Brattleboro from San Francisco in 2021 with my wife and young son. Yes, during the pandemic, yes, the cliché. But clichés have a way of becoming real life if you stay long enough and do the work. We stayed.

Now, we’ve decided to start a brick-and-mortar business. A shop my boy could grow up inside of, learning what it means to be present, do honest work, and belong to a community.

My background is in marketing and media production. BrattleFly has redirected those skills to make a business in a town I believe in, rooted in my love of, and my son‘s growing obsession with, fishing.

His obsession started with a spinning rod and nightcrawlers over an epic year together, stalking trophy trout, bass ,and panfish whenever we got a chance. It became something else entirely when I booked guided trips on the Battenkill with Brew Moscarello, founder of Trico Unlimited and one of the most experienced fly fishing guides in Vermont. What began as a father giving his kid an experience turned into a friendship, then a partnership, now a shop at 45 Linden Street.

In my brief five years here, I’ve learned Brattleboro is a town that doesn’t always know what it has. Two rivers converge here — the Connecticut and the West — holding bass, pike, and other species that most anglers never bother casting to, at least not here. And the ones that do don’t seem to know much about each other. Through its partnership with Trico Unlimited, BrattleFly also connects anglers to the Battenkill’s storied trout water an hour away. The point is that there‘s more here than people think. (There usually is.)

BrattleFly is a fly shop, a guide service, and a place to show up. I started it to give my son a reason to forsake screens, give the town something new to talk about, and build something that might still be standing when I’m not. It’s meant to be a place people come back to, to tie flies, ask questions, plan a trip, or just sit for a while. The kind of place that a lot of locals I talk to think should have been in Brattleboro all along, but until now, hasn’t. 

Let’s work together to change that.

Reach out if you have any thoughts or questions. Or, if you're an area angler who guides others or instructs in the ways of fly fishing.

Cheers,