A sense of plenty

A couple weeks ago, I became acquainted with a young couple ( 30ish ) who are early into a seven month 48 state tour to fish and find waterfalls. A recent entry in their blog reminded me of the first five times I fly fished, on the Henry's Fork, 16 years ago. The first four days I was skunked, but every day folks fishing the same stretch gave me information, ideas, and generally helped me get started with my fly angling adventure. Day five I caught my first fish on a fly, the first of many thousand over the years.

Quoting from my new friends' blog is a reminder how little has changed, how helpful so many fly anglers still are when given the opportunity to share what they know with strangers getting started, and not just knowledge, but actually rigging up and providing flies.

"Dan sent us on our way to the famous fishing town of Craig and from there our last 4 days in Montana were a blur of epic fishing and even more epic helpful people. Everywhere we fished people offered to check out our setups and show us what flies they were using in what order. Many even gave us free flies and tied on setups for us! We fished the Missouri River, Rock Creek, Bitterroot River, Big Hole River (our personal favorite and definitely best conditions this time of year), Beaverhead River and finally the Madison River. Highlight was Amy catching her first fish on a fly on the Beaverhead River thanks in LARGE part to all of the people helping us newbies on the river that day. On June 4th we said goodbye to Montana and hello to Wyoming on Beartooth Pass which is by FAR the most amazing drive we have done so far (photos to come with Wyoming blog)."

John