Today we had the opportunity to catch up with Micah Peel, Fishe Wear’s very own Warehouse Manager. Micah is always surprising us; from coming into work on Monday announcing that weekends’ outdoor misadventure (often involving fire and/or some sort of broken vehicle) or thinking up some ingenious new way to streamline our warehouse operations, we can always count on Micah to keep us on our toes! We were lucky enough to have Micah join the Fishe Team in May of 2021 after an arduous journey up the Alcan Highway via a built-out school bus… Despite 3 catastrophic breakdowns, 2 frantic phone calls from Libby making sure her new hire was in fact coming, and 1 missing Subaru Outback (rolled off the trailer somewhere south of the Alaska Range) our new acclaimed warehouse manager arrived in Anchorage. Boy are we glad she made it! 

 

 

How did you first get into outdoor recreation? Into fishing?

“I got into outdoor recreation because I graduated from college right into the middle of the pandemic. With slim pickings in the job market, I ended up moving to Jackson, Wyoming to work at an outdoor gear store. 

As for how I got into fishing, my cousin took me up to a secret lake in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. The lake was quite literally not marked on the map and I was told if I disclosed the location of said spot we would no longer be family. My cousin who is 60 now, has been coming to this lake for years and says that it's the finest fishing he’s ever seen. He’s right - honestly you could’ve fished with a cheeto and caught something. I ended up catching 14 three inch Bookies. Probably just caught the same fish a bunch of times…”

 

My craziest Alaska story started with…

“It all started when my boyfriend Abel and I tried to save money on a water taxi by crossing Kachemak Bay in Homer with our own (unreliable) raft. Early on in our misadventure, Abel broke the raft motor after trying to “catch air” to get over some rocks while going up a river. After a harrowing whitewater journey down said river with nothing but sticks for paddles, we arrived soggy and dejected back in the bay. A whale breached right next to us adding to the ~drama~. After the whale excitement subsided we realized we had somehow got a puncture in the raft and it was leaking air. Ashamedly, we called a water taxi to come pick us up and got charged $200 for the surprise trip. Sincerest apologies to the town of Homer for the chaos…”

Three years ago, where would you have envisioned yourself?

“Three years ago, I was frantically applying for internships in Washington DC and skinning hogs at the on-campus meat processing center at Michigan State for $9.13 an hour. If you had asked me back then what I would be doing in 2022, I probably would have said wearing khaki pants and working a 9 to 5 job in a big city somewhere. If Carhartt counts as khaki pants and if Anchorage counts as a ‘big city’ I guess that prediction lined up…?”

What is your favorite part of your job at Fishe Wear? 

1. Packing orders and seeing what products our customers are liking.

2. Getting to learn about the operations of a small business. 

3. ✨Bothering my supervisor, Libby✨

 

Something you may not know about me...

“I once won a CrossFit competition in Ecuador. I had never done CrossFit before and I kept doing the exercises wrong and getting yelled at in Spanish.”

Authors note: Micah does in fact prefer to go by the name “chica fuerte” ;)

 

 

Other than fishing, how do you like to spend your free time?

“Trying to survive in the wilderness when things evenvitably go wrong. Abels’ and my usual plan of action each weekend is to pick a location and ~let the details fall into place later~ This has culminated in broken snow machines, broken school bus x300, broken truck(s), forgotten sleeping bags, tents almost catching on fire, etc. etc. etc.”

What do you hope changes about Fishe in the future and what do you hope stays the same? 

“I hope we keep up our fun patterns and I hope to see us expand into other countries in the future!”