I started fishing when I was 9 or 10 years old in Pennsylvania with my dad. We fished some of the small creeks and large lakes in Western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh using spin casting gear. After moving to Colorado some 30 years ago, I transitioned from spin casting, to floating flies behind a bubble on my spin casting gear, to full fledged fly fishing. I bought my first fly fishing setup in 1996 and have been fly fishing mostly in Colorado and the surrounding states since.
For the past seven years, I've kept a written journal in a notebook. It is/was a way to track the fishing conditions, what worked, didn't work, etc. It has served as a handy reference and really has help me to focused on what I did out on the river. I also have a camera that I take along - and besides the litany of fish pictures - I began to take pictures of the various landscapes, canyons, and river scapes where I was fishing. Lately, I thought it would be nice to include the pictures with the journal. And that's what let me to start this blog.
Mountain view from the Dream Stream in winter.
I have 3 sons who are grown men now - and they haven't gotten the fishing bug, even though we went out often as they were growing up. Although we do go out with guides once a year and fly fish different rivers in Colorado. We started doing this about 5 years ago - and it's my treat as their birthday present. It's been a lot of fun and they enjoy getting out in the wilderness and spending time together.
A friend of mine for some 30 years - Brian Kenney - and I go fly fishing about once a week. We both recently retired and took fly tying lessons. So now we tie most of the flies we fish with and we're trying to up our game by chatting about different fly patterns, fishing strategies and techniques, reading fishing books and magazine articles, etc.
On pretty much every river I fish - there are high level maps that call out various holes and runs - but most often I haven't found them detailed to every hole, pool, or run that I encounter. I'm pretty sure this is by design - you've got to leave some stuff on the table for the fishermen to figure out for themselves. I often make up names for the places that aren't already named - or that may be named, but I couldn't identify from other maps. I draw these places in my written journal that shows where I fished - I will include some of these in the blog. But my favorite holes - will remain anonymous!!
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