Restoring Rivers for Flyfishing and Health
Flyfishing on the Firehole River, Wyoming (credit: Wikipedia)
Fly-fishing is both a sport and an art form which can almost be considered a meditation practice.
You are constantly trying to realize the perfect cast or select the best fly for the given situation. Whether you hope the cast will entice a rainbow trout, migrating steelhead, or tropical bonefish patience and keen knowledge of the locale, insects, and seasons is required. When you combine all these multiple elements, and have weather conditions that change abruptly, the challenge can get complicated. In spite of these myriad factors, flyfishing on clean, free-flowing, streams and rivers, and estuaries, which sustain fish populations, can represent some of the best time spent on an outdoor activity. This also takes place in locations that can display exceptional beauty.
American Rivers, the conservation and advocacy organization, prepares an annual report on the status of rivers in the US with their latest release of America’s Most Endangered Rivers for 2024. The group also produced a video on their efforts to maintain and restore river health and why this is so vital. Their commentary illustrates why the great western writer Norman Maclean once wrote: I am haunted by waters. WHB