Evan Padua

With 16 years of river and fishing guide experience, I found archery hunting at age 30 in 2021. I met Ted of The Westfork Journal at a Backcountry Hunters and Anglers event in 2023. We hit it off talking about our adventures across our great nation, hunting and fishing alike. In 2025 we crossed paths at another BHA event at Westkill Brewing in the Catskills and discussed writing hunting stories after the “Campfire story” session. Ted mentioned starting a blog, but it hadn’t taken off past his first story.

As a writer, I always enjoyed writing throughout school. I never went to college, but did keep a small bit of writing for radio segments, poems, and the occasional story here and there. But in 2021 when I shot my first deer with a bow. My writing flame was reignited. I wrote the first story you’ll read here by me on the Westfork Journal website, and from there started writing a bit more often. Mostly about hunting, and fishing experiences.

So what you will find here is essentially my hunting and fishing journal entries that I feel like sharing. Some stories will be raw and maybe not edited perfectly, and others may be refined to format and edited well. I find that sometimes writing needs to be shared or (done) before it is ever actually finished. So rather than generate some lame fake hunting story using an AI source, here you will read my authentic experiences as a hunter, fishermen, and adventure seeker.

Want to go fishing with Evan? You can Book A float trip.