Monday, January 23, 2017

The Mainstream: Willing to Walk

I have most often been somewhat leery of the mainstream. If the crowds at school were all telling me I needed to try this or that, I was skeptical. I often walked away and found my own quiet place. This approach in life extends into my fly-fishing. 

If it seems that everyone is fishing a particular mainstream run I tend to shy away from such places. Of course, I know there are lots of fish in the popular holes and while guiding, I often feel a need to put my clients in these mainstream runs. Yet, when I am willing to wander from the mainstream, often I find nice fish holding in unlikely water. I learn to fish and live on the edges. I just have to be willing to walk.

This winter I spent $600.00 on a Summit County Ski Pass so I can ski the wide "main-stream" runs of Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapaho Basin. Yet, how strange that while I am skiing among the masses on these beautiful runs, I find myself looking for narrow, quiet little runs through the trees. Once again, I tend to slip away from the noisy crowds. I just have to be willing to walk a little.

I know of other fly-fishers who also have this approach to fly-fishing. I guess we are looking for a quiet narrow tumbling stream that we can call our own and offers us a true sense of belonging and solitude.

Sometimes we just have to be willing to walk. 

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