Intro

I've always wanted to make a blog, but never really had the drive to do so until now.  All my friends and family say I should do so, so I guess it's about time!

I grew up in VT, fishing since I could remember.  The things I remember the most about my childhood in Bolton, VT are the long days spent fishing alongside my father and my dog.  As time went on, childhood friends moved away, my family life had changed....and I ended up living in Winooski in my early teens.  I kept in touch with a select few childhood friends, but eventually they were pulled away with their families as well - some to other States.

The thing that comes to mind first is the movie, "The Sandlot" in terms of friends growing apart.  It seems like I can relate.   I guess my love for fishing dwindled away after moving to Winooski, as did my relationships with childhood friends.

Enough with the personal info - let's fast-forward to the present (sort of). My love for fishing came back 5 or so years ago after spending a few days on the riverbank fishing with my girlfriend Katlyn's father.  I slowly began to get more into it - finding out about the steelhead and salmon runs that Champlain has...when to fish for them & how.  Not until the past few years has it become an addiction (I don't have a problem, I swear!)  Like most anglers I know, I prefer coldwater species like trout and salmon, but tend to dabble in others from time to time, especially in the summer months.



I've met a lot of great anglers and friends over the past few years while on the water, and have been continuously learning as much as I can about the species of fish VT has to offer, and the different locations to find them. Like many anglers, I began spin fishing, but after a pretty successful Fall landing dozens of steelhead on the Winooski river a year and a half ago,  I picked up a cheap flyrod I'd purchased a year prior and only tried out a few times for trout where I grew up in Bolton (Catching fallfish on big dries!)

I hit the water early in late Fall, not a single person around....

I tied on a big weighted white bugger and began to throw it out as far as I could (it wasn't pretty)  I did what came natural, and let the bugger dead-drift and then tight-lined a swing at the end of the pool I was fishing.  Not long after I began fishing my line tightened up right as the bugger began to swing...fish on!  I somehow managed to land this 24.5" beauty of a steelhead!  Not bad for my first steelhead on a fly.

 

Sure I'd landed bigger even a few days prior, but not on fly rod.  There was something magical about it that made it one of the most memorable fish I'd ever caught.  It seems I have a lot to catch up on in terms of blog posts, so I'll cut my intro short to make room for future posts about the past!  It's been a fish-filled Winter and Spring so far, so surely there will be more posts to come!

My philosophy on fishing is, as long as you're fishing legally and ethically, the means of fishing is irreverent, as long as you're enjoying it.  Even though I fly fish the majority of the time now, I'll never look down on a spin fishermen or any other kind of angler as long as they're ethical and legal!  Some fish to relax, some to eat....and others like myself fish for a means of escaping the drama this world has to offer while at the same time feeling the adrenaline rush from a tug on the end of my line.  At the end of the day, all anglers alike enjoy fishing.  To each his own.