Breakaway / by Jen Bachelder

I moved to Chicago in the fall of 2009 after spending most of the summer applying for jobs (The recession was wonderful, wasn't it?). By the time I arrived, I had arranged five interviews, one for each day of my first week in the big city. Fortunately, I was offered a few positions and the opportunity to make a choice. I did what any optimistic, naive recent-grad would do; I picked the only unpaid gig.

While I was excited about that position, the job search didn't end as I still needed to make ends meet. Thankfully, I picked up additional work as game-day staff with the Chicago Wolves.

I spent each of my five Chicago winters with the Wolves.

A New Role

I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to layout the April 2017 feature story for Breakaway, the organization's game-day publication. The write-up featured Wade Megan. After diving into the story and learning the details about Megan's eccentric fishing habits, it was quite clear that storyline would be the lead.

“I pretty much always have my fly fishing stuff in the car,” he said. “My girlfriend and I will be driving out of town or around the Adirondacks or whatever. We’ll pass a place where the stream comes close to the road and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to pull over for a second.’
"So I’ll get my fly rod out and zip a few casts in there to see if I can get anything. I’ll fish a spot for 10-12 minutes or whatever and she hangs out. She’s pretty tolerant, but it’s funny. She’ll be up by the road and I’m zipping flies halfway across the road into traffic and into the streams. It’s pretty funny.”

In the search for inspiration, Field & Stream made its way right to the front of the pack. The publication's use of bold color, simple images, and large title text was exactly what I was looking for.

Direction: Christina Moritz | Images: Ross Dettman | "The Biggest Catch": Lindsey Willhite

Post Title Image: Jeremy Bishop via Unsplash