Joe Rist, owner of Trout Town Flies, in Roscoe, in the Catskills is the 2025 New York Outdoors News Person of the Year.
The accolades and anecdotes shared by Rist’s colleagues are not just stories of a guy who ties flies that catch big trout, or one who even has a habit of helping a new angler put fish in the net (something Rist loves to do). Rather they celebrate his underlying support of military veterans and his innovative approach to using fly-fishing as a means of healing one’s mind.
