Fly Fishing!

Notice the ground fall colors!  This is at Tower in the Park; we had hiked in about a mile to get to the good pools!

A fun find on the way out of the valley!

I made it six days.  Six days of blogging before I broke the streak.  Followed by two days of not blogging.  That tells me that this ambition will fade away within a couple months.  But who knows.  I'm climbing back on the horse today, aren't I?

This summer I have not done much hiking, mostly due to the fact that I waitressed several lunch hours a week, I couldn't find people young enough and with enough free time to really venture out with me, and it's incredibly stupid to hike alone out here when there are more grizzlies per square acre than any other region inhabited by people.  And the fact that the grizzlies out here are often "bad bears" that have been removed from another placed and relocated out here.  The locals don't appreciate it very much, but they also don't have much say in the matter.

Instead of hiking, however, I've learned how to fly fish!  How could I live in Montana surrounded with some of the best stocked mountain trout streams and not learn how to fly fish?!  I love it!  I grew up fishing with my dad on Lake Pepin and other waters around home, but that was always with the standard rod and reel.  The fly rod is much longer and limber and the reel is primarily a spool of line.  It took me about an hour to get the casting down, but I caught six Yellowstone Cutthroats on my first ever fly fishing attempt!  And it was windy that day.  Since then, my numbers have been higher and lower, but I've loved every minute.  I've learned how to tie the flies on the tippet, the different pieces of the line, how to read the water, how to do short casts and long casts, false casts and casting in the wind, how to unhook a fish without touching it, and how to watch the bugs in the area to know what fly to use.  I like it because it's far more hands on and engaging than regular fishing. 

People tell me that a lot of fishers in Minnesota are fly fishers.  In my life I've never seen someone fly fishing at home.  Maybe I'll be a trend setter.  In Mazeppa.  Ha!