Exploring New Water: The Best Part of Fly Fishing

Exploring New Water: The Best Part of Fly Fishing

This past weekend, my wife hit me with the “GTFO and go fishing” card for Father’s Day.  She is my good woman.  Piece of advice for the unmarried: when the wife says go fishing, you go fishing.  I was fortunate enough to join two good friends, Matt and Nick, and we made the trek from Durango together.  Sometimes solo missions are fun, sometimes it’s better to be with friends.

We planned on fishing a stretch of water that I had never fished before.  Water I had never even seen.  It was beautiful, even “inspiring” if you go for romanticism.  It made me realize something too: exploring new water may be the best part of fly fishing.  Exploring new water creates for the adult fly fisher an atmosphere of bated anticipation.  We become kids on Christmas.  Wondering things like “will there be lots of bugs?” or “I hope I have the right flies”.  We even build these experiences up in our minds, subconsciously expecting to be the one who figures it out right away and catch 100 fish.

Often, the day does not pan out how we envisioned.  It can be better, sometimes it is worse.  A lot of times it is worse; especially when we have no intel, hoping that it becomes our new “secret spot”.  We make the trek, only to find the water devoid of fish.

For the explorers; the ones who strive for new experiences, exploring new water is and will always be the best part of fly fishing.  Even if the fishing was not so good.

However, this past weekend, the fishing was good.  Granted, we fished water that is already known to be good.  It wasn’t so much how good or bad it was though.  It was that I was exploring new water (to me), with good friends, in one of the most beautiful parts of Colorado.

Here are a few shots from the day.