Why do I love fly fishing, especially in the great Pacific Northwest? Yes, it is a bit hard at first to learn, but once you get it down, there is nothing like fly fishing- nothing!

I grew up fishing. My mother and my grandfathers loved fishing; they could never get enough of it. Fishing in my family was as highly regarded as attending college, or at least acquiring the kind of skill that you could make a great living at.

When we camped, we fished. When we had nothing better to do on a weekend, we fished with the grandfathers, and sometimes with both of them at the same time, which was fun.

Of course, angling was all we really did. We fished with regular fishing rods, and usually in lakes. Yes, sometimes we would venture out to the upper parts of the mighty Rogue River, but lakes were our usual destination.

Once, when my dad came along, who did not fish, my mom’s dad, my grandpa Finley, had bought a new weight for his salmon-fishing rod. It was shaped like a small bouncing ball and was literally made of rubber. It was, as you can imagine, meant to bounce around the rocks on the bottom of the river instead of just sinking and getting stuck- the basic fear of any angler.

Well, he tied on and rigged up, as they say, then let it fly.

SNAAAAAP!

That rubber ball weight and all the gear at the end of that line flew into the forest on the opposite side of the river. My dad started laughing like he was listening to Richard Pryor on a comedy tour! It was really funny, to be honest. But man, was my grandfather mad. And when he turned to look at my dad, the look on his face shut him up in an instant.

It is a great memory of both of them that I shared with my own kids.

Fly fishing was nothing I learned when I was young; my family kept it simple with their love and passion for fishing. I have always wondered why they never dove into fly fishing; it is absolutely amazing!

It is not hard to learn, really. Once you get the basics down, it is the kind of sport or pastime that folks like me love. Why? Well, I am a bit fidgety. Fly fishing requires constant movement. It also requires a little bit of cash, but once you buy what you need, it is actually cheaper than simple angling.

Again, the question you are asking is why? It requires little or no weights most of the time, or at all if you want, so there is little or no getting caught on unseen obstacles underwater. I don’t need to keep buying lines, hooks, weights, or anything else that seems to be the trouble for every angler. And yes, where I live, there are large sections of the river just meant for fly fishing.

It is peaceful. No matter how busy my hands are, I can still think a lot, or not much at all, and I prefer the latter. I love the feeling of catching a trout on a fly; it just seems, well, more exciting and more, I guess, traditional. Call me old-fashioned, and I would say, of course I am!

In the Pacific Northwest, fly fishing is as good, and in some places, better than in the more well-recognized regions around the U.S. There is something about the mountains, the misty mornings, and the deep green rivers that run through them like veins on my arm that makes it perfect.

This year, I am going to try for more than trout in the river; it’s time to step up to the plate for steelhead and Chinook. This is probably because my second-oldest son is leaving for the army, and he was always the one to bring home the salmon. For me, this is a way to connect with him, even when he is far from home…

Wish me luck!

Featured image by David