A City Girl Meets the Joy of Fly Fishing

You might be thinking, “did I read this title right?” The answer is yes. And before you think you have nothing in common with this article, read on.

If you only know me on the surface you know I’ve lived in a handful of cities from Manhattan to Paris, and I love a good night out on the town with delicious food and divine wine, the loud music at a crowded club, fancy hotels, theatre and comedy shows, walking busy streets, and lit up skylines of skyscrapers at night. Heck, loud traffic and people talking outside my window has been a lullaby soundtrack that puts me right to sleep every single time. If you ask where I want to live every time I move to a different city—the answer is right in the center.

BUT I have another side. In fact some might say I am a complete contradiction. I even find it hard to reconcile sometimes. I find so much contentment in long hikes by myself, camping (yes in a tent—not glamping, actual camping), canoeing, kayaking, cooking food over an open fire, and yes even fishing. Now this isn’t some “come to” moment like the movie or book (whichever you most prefer) Wild. I am not here to preach about finding yourself, or about how nature changed my life, because it didn’t. It’s just always been part of my life.

I like the peacefulness of it all, the solitude, the adventure, and hard work that comes with being “outdoorsy”. I have been lucky enough to found the man that I am madly in love with, and helped blossom my love for being in the wilderness. I would probably have never picked up a fishing pole without him. One of our first dates was him taking me out on a boat to fish in a Michigan lake (SIDE NOTE: highly recommend finding your husband in the midwest—they raise them right out there).

I thought it was so sweet all the effort he put into these fishing dates. Getting the fishing gear together, lugging a boat to the boat launch, launching the boat, making sure we had lunch and good beer for the day trip, and teaching me how to tie on the lures, cleaning off the boat after, getting it out of the water, driving it home (yes he’s a very strong dude). It seemed like a lot of work for just a day of fun, and yet he would do it all the time. With some good tunes, and beers you can get me out on the water any day, because even if I sucked at fishing I could drink beers. It was a win win. Now, I have taken my “outdoorsiness” (I definitely made up this word) to a whole new level.

This fall, I wanted to learn how to actually fly fish and be decent (I’m hoping one day we fish in the Rivers of Montana and I know exactly what I am doing). I wasn’t sure I would even like it, if you know anything about fly fishing it resembles (at least to me) a cowboy trying to laso their cattle, but instead they are getting ready to lay out the fishing line on the river in the most realistic way so it looks like a fly is floating down, and then hopefully a fish will come up to eat it. (RIVER COWBOYS! That’s what fly-fisherman should be called. haha)

I am still pretty new to the sport, so while my cast, I have been told is pretty good, there’s so much more intelligence that goes along with catching a fish like: not letting your line bow as it floats down, which fly to use in which season and at what part of the river for what fish you are trying to catch, making sure the line floats precisely over a part of a certain rock where a fish might be hiding out, and the list goes on.

While I don’t think this is for everyone, because some of you definitely think I am insane right now, I hope everyone can find something that helps them stay present. I love fly fishing probably because I am in the moment. This past weekend we were in the Deerfield River in the Berkshires with the tree leaves turning all sorts of colors of a sunset, the sound of nature as my soundtrack, breathing in the fresh air of wood, grass, and fall. I was able to take it all in. No worries, no to-do lists, no what time is it, just stand, cast, and be.

I have tons of hobbies, but usually I end up getting competitive or too intense, which ends with me burning myself out i.e. everything I have ever tried, which is a good thing if you want to become an olympic athlete a bad thing when you are just trying to get the most joy out of life.

Someone told me recently every cast is a new chance. I knew he meant a new chance to catch a fish, but I really took this as a metaphor for life. It resonated with me on so many levels in my everyday life. Who knew the hobby that would have resonated with my life—is one I never thought twice about until recently. And don’t worry, I’ll make waders look fashionable.