Jeff Northrop is a legend in the fly-fishing community. He was the first light tackle guide to bring a flats boat to the Northeast where he single-handedly developed and promoted an unrecognized shallow water fishery for striped bass, bluefish and false albacore in the skinny waters of western Long Island Sound.
Jeff was born and raised on the banks of the Saugatuck River in Connecticut where his earliest forays into fly fishing were chasing trout in the headwaters. His first encounter with saltwater gamefish came when he took his flyrod to a cove off the Sound and hooked a fish that took his fly, leader, fly line and backing leaving him in disbelief. The experience changed him forever and left him wanting more. His family roots in the Westport area stretch back to pre-Revolutionary War times. His ancestors were watermen, farmers and landowners with property holdings obtained through grants from King George III. Some of his relatives still make their living in the area’s lucrative oyster business as does he by growing seed oysters in a salt pond on property that was one of the original grants.
After graduating high school, he skipped the college route and told his stepfather he was taking his fly rods and going to Bimini in the Bahamas. He fell in love with the fishing and the laid-back island lifestyle. He was tutored by the island’s most famous shallow water guide, the renowned Reverend Bonefish Willy. They first met at a congregation meeting and later Jeff became a favored student. Under the reverend’s guidance he learned the ways of shallow water fish and acquired the wisdom that would help him chart his course through life. As a result, he became one of the most intuitive shallow-water guides to ever climb onto a poling platform and he did it in a most unusual place.
Upon returning home from Bimini with his wife Tomi Ann he started guiding fly fishermen and in 1984 they opened Northrop Yacht Sales on the river he grew up on. He rigged a small Aquasport center console for his charter fishing but he quickly found it drew too much water to get onto some of the skinny flats that stripers and bluefish frequented. While attending the Miami International Boat Show® in 1986 he approached Scott Deal, the president of Maverick® Boat Company and inquired about becoming a dealer, but Deal had other plans. Since Maverick® built a limited number of technical poling skiffs and only sold them dealer direct, becoming a Maverick® dealer was out of the question, but Deal was in the process of purchasing Hewescraft®, the largest and most famous flats boat brand in the country. A deal was reached and as strange as it might seem, Northrop Yacht Sales became the first flats skiff dealership north of Florida.
The first shipment of boats included a Hewes Redfisher® that would be christened Godzilla and because Hewescraft® and Maverick® were packaged exclusively with Yamaha outboards, the boat sparked a love affair with Yamaha that lasted for forty years and is still going strong today.
“In all the years I have been guiding, most days running two trips per day and during the height of the season three, I have never lost a single day to an engine problem with my Yamahas’” Northrop said. “I’m talking about thousands of hours on the water, running my rigs hard and I have never experienced an engine failure.”
By the early 1990s, Jeff had sold dozens of Hewescraft® flats boats and was allowed to represent Maverick® as a dealer. His success fishing the shallows of western Long Island Sound sparked an explosion in interest in shallow water fishing and not just in his area of the Sound and around the Norwalk Islands. Suddenly, flats skiffs were showing up in Massachusetts chasing stripers on the sand flats around Monomoy and in Cape Cod Bay. The area’s undiscovered sight fishing became fishermen from all over the country. The same thing was happening in the waters around Montauk on the east end of Long Island where places like Gardeners Bay see stripers hunting sand eels in mere inches of water through most of the summer and fall months. Jeff and Tomi Ann’s marina had become home base for a dozen shallow-water guides and the docks were packed with upwards of fifty Yamaha-powered flats boats, most sold to private boat fishermen who wanted to get in on the action. Many more rested on trailers or in other marinas and private docks that opened onto the Sound.
The marina with its boat and Yamaha outboard sales and service were hopping, Jeff’s guide service was booked solid, and the premiere specialty tackle shop they opened on the property quickly became the go-to source for fly fishing in the New York/Connecticut area. In 2007 a gentleman walked into the marina with an offer to buy everything for a price they could not refuse and almost in an instant, it was sold. Jeff kept his charter business and expanded the oyster seed farm on the little salt pond, and the two settled back into a more relaxed lifestyle. He did more traveling to fly fish for tarpon, bonefish and permit and together with Tomi Ann took more time to enjoy life.
Today, Northrop charter fishes from his Yamaha-powered Maverick® technical poling skiff, but only with a select group of clients and he also has a Yamaha-powered Southport® 35-foot center console he runs to more distant waters.
“I’ve owned over 30-boats over the years, all with Yamaha outboards,” Jeff says. “All of the engines I have owned from 150’s to 300’s were all totally reliable and the performance speaks for itself. The four-cylinder models literally last forever with little more than the recommended maintenance. I don’t know what more you could ask from an outboard, they are simply the best.”
On a recent visit, we met Jeff at the dock where he keeps his Maverick® skiff with its 150-horsepower Yamaha outboard. The plan was to sit for an interview and sneak out to throw some flies for stripers and shoot some pictures. It turned out to be one of those days with skies so blue it almost hurts to look at it for too long. Fluffy white clouds drifted overhead, and the Sound was glass calm. He showed us some of his favorite spots and we caught a few small stripers in about a foot of water, but the bigger fish had not arrived yet. The next day he took us out a few miles with promises of big bluefish and he found them. We watch them surfing down the wake created by a tugboat and barge and got them to hit poppers and sliders on the surface. During a break for lunch, Jeff took out sub sandwiches from an amazing shop near his marina and we ate and talked about his life, the waters he loves so much and his boats.
“There aren’t as many flats skiffs on the Sound anymore, but during the heyday of this fishery there were hundreds of them,” he said. “Most of the remaining shallow water anglers are running bay boats now and I sold a lot of them when we became a Pathfinder dealer, Yamaha powered, of course. I still have my Maverick® with its Yamaha 150 for fishing with friends like you guys and for charters. I can’t kill the 150, it’s as close to indestructible as you can get. At 70-years old, I still enjoy chartering, but not at the pace I used to. Most of my clients are people who have fished with me for years and who appreciate this type of fishing. It’s changed a lot over the years. We’ve had some lean years with the stripers, but the last few have been good. There was a period when monster bluefish would invade the flats, just a foot or two of water. Imagine 20-pound bluefish with no place to go but up once you hooked them. They put on quite a show and after hooking a few, most clients would just give up they were so tired. Writers from all the major magazines would come for the experience and write about it.”
Life for Northrop is still all about boats, fishing and friends. His accomplishments are indeed legendary and after forty years he is still Mr. Yamaha in the Northeast.
Back to Blue Life
Jeff was born and raised on the banks of the Saugatuck River in Connecticut where his earliest forays into fly fishing were chasing trout in the headwaters. His first encounter with saltwater gamefish came when he took his flyrod to a cove off the Sound and hooked a fish that took his fly, leader, fly line and backing leaving him in disbelief. The experience changed him forever and left him wanting more. His family roots in the Westport area stretch back to pre-Revolutionary War times. His ancestors were watermen, farmers and landowners with property holdings obtained through grants from King George III. Some of his relatives still make their living in the area’s lucrative oyster business as does he by growing seed oysters in a salt pond on property that was one of the original grants.
After graduating high school, he skipped the college route and told his stepfather he was taking his fly rods and going to Bimini in the Bahamas. He fell in love with the fishing and the laid-back island lifestyle. He was tutored by the island’s most famous shallow water guide, the renowned Reverend Bonefish Willy. They first met at a congregation meeting and later Jeff became a favored student. Under the reverend’s guidance he learned the ways of shallow water fish and acquired the wisdom that would help him chart his course through life. As a result, he became one of the most intuitive shallow-water guides to ever climb onto a poling platform and he did it in a most unusual place.
Upon returning home from Bimini with his wife Tomi Ann he started guiding fly fishermen and in 1984 they opened Northrop Yacht Sales on the river he grew up on. He rigged a small Aquasport center console for his charter fishing but he quickly found it drew too much water to get onto some of the skinny flats that stripers and bluefish frequented. While attending the Miami International Boat Show® in 1986 he approached Scott Deal, the president of Maverick® Boat Company and inquired about becoming a dealer, but Deal had other plans. Since Maverick® built a limited number of technical poling skiffs and only sold them dealer direct, becoming a Maverick® dealer was out of the question, but Deal was in the process of purchasing Hewescraft®, the largest and most famous flats boat brand in the country. A deal was reached and as strange as it might seem, Northrop Yacht Sales became the first flats skiff dealership north of Florida.
The first shipment of boats included a Hewes Redfisher® that would be christened Godzilla and because Hewescraft® and Maverick® were packaged exclusively with Yamaha outboards, the boat sparked a love affair with Yamaha that lasted for forty years and is still going strong today.
“In all the years I have been guiding, most days running two trips per day and during the height of the season three, I have never lost a single day to an engine problem with my Yamahas’” Northrop said. “I’m talking about thousands of hours on the water, running my rigs hard and I have never experienced an engine failure.”
By the early 1990s, Jeff had sold dozens of Hewescraft® flats boats and was allowed to represent Maverick® as a dealer. His success fishing the shallows of western Long Island Sound sparked an explosion in interest in shallow water fishing and not just in his area of the Sound and around the Norwalk Islands. Suddenly, flats skiffs were showing up in Massachusetts chasing stripers on the sand flats around Monomoy and in Cape Cod Bay. The area’s undiscovered sight fishing became fishermen from all over the country. The same thing was happening in the waters around Montauk on the east end of Long Island where places like Gardeners Bay see stripers hunting sand eels in mere inches of water through most of the summer and fall months. Jeff and Tomi Ann’s marina had become home base for a dozen shallow-water guides and the docks were packed with upwards of fifty Yamaha-powered flats boats, most sold to private boat fishermen who wanted to get in on the action. Many more rested on trailers or in other marinas and private docks that opened onto the Sound.
The marina with its boat and Yamaha outboard sales and service were hopping, Jeff’s guide service was booked solid, and the premiere specialty tackle shop they opened on the property quickly became the go-to source for fly fishing in the New York/Connecticut area. In 2007 a gentleman walked into the marina with an offer to buy everything for a price they could not refuse and almost in an instant, it was sold. Jeff kept his charter business and expanded the oyster seed farm on the little salt pond, and the two settled back into a more relaxed lifestyle. He did more traveling to fly fish for tarpon, bonefish and permit and together with Tomi Ann took more time to enjoy life.
Today, Northrop charter fishes from his Yamaha-powered Maverick® technical poling skiff, but only with a select group of clients and he also has a Yamaha-powered Southport® 35-foot center console he runs to more distant waters.
“I’ve owned over 30-boats over the years, all with Yamaha outboards,” Jeff says. “All of the engines I have owned from 150’s to 300’s were all totally reliable and the performance speaks for itself. The four-cylinder models literally last forever with little more than the recommended maintenance. I don’t know what more you could ask from an outboard, they are simply the best.”
On a recent visit, we met Jeff at the dock where he keeps his Maverick® skiff with its 150-horsepower Yamaha outboard. The plan was to sit for an interview and sneak out to throw some flies for stripers and shoot some pictures. It turned out to be one of those days with skies so blue it almost hurts to look at it for too long. Fluffy white clouds drifted overhead, and the Sound was glass calm. He showed us some of his favorite spots and we caught a few small stripers in about a foot of water, but the bigger fish had not arrived yet. The next day he took us out a few miles with promises of big bluefish and he found them. We watch them surfing down the wake created by a tugboat and barge and got them to hit poppers and sliders on the surface. During a break for lunch, Jeff took out sub sandwiches from an amazing shop near his marina and we ate and talked about his life, the waters he loves so much and his boats.
“There aren’t as many flats skiffs on the Sound anymore, but during the heyday of this fishery there were hundreds of them,” he said. “Most of the remaining shallow water anglers are running bay boats now and I sold a lot of them when we became a Pathfinder dealer, Yamaha powered, of course. I still have my Maverick® with its Yamaha 150 for fishing with friends like you guys and for charters. I can’t kill the 150, it’s as close to indestructible as you can get. At 70-years old, I still enjoy chartering, but not at the pace I used to. Most of my clients are people who have fished with me for years and who appreciate this type of fishing. It’s changed a lot over the years. We’ve had some lean years with the stripers, but the last few have been good. There was a period when monster bluefish would invade the flats, just a foot or two of water. Imagine 20-pound bluefish with no place to go but up once you hooked them. They put on quite a show and after hooking a few, most clients would just give up they were so tired. Writers from all the major magazines would come for the experience and write about it.”
Life for Northrop is still all about boats, fishing and friends. His accomplishments are indeed legendary and after forty years he is still Mr. Yamaha in the Northeast.