
Hello again from the old retired guy.
I’m still finding things to do as a retired person. One of the more enjoyable things I did growing up and one of the things I often shared with my kids while they were growing up was fishing. I learned to fish from my dad who was an avid crappie fisherman. We spent many days sitting in a boat on some lake with pole in hand trying to entice a fish to gobble up a minnow for lunch. It was always quality time spent together, but later, as I got older I became intrigued with fly fishing. At some point after I got married and moved away I decided I was going to give it a try. I began small, like bream small. One of my first fond memories was my pastor and myself going to a lake to try our luck at catching a few shell-cracker bream. It was a blast and I was hooked. Although I was excited about catching these feisty fish I guess my mind was always dreaming of the idea of wading the streams or rivers and hooking into the awesome trout. I had to learn to trout fish, I had convinced myself.

One of the first memories of my trout fishing experience was with my little family on a river in my home state. My father-in-law had given me a few flies that a friend of his had passed on to him and since he had no intention of fly fishing he passed them on to me. While my wife and I along with two small children were taking a vacation on a trout river, I decided to try out one of the new flies. Not having a clue which to use, but observing the water around me and seeing fish rising to take little white flies off the surface of the water, I picked a very small white fly I thought I’d try. Watching me casting this tiny little white fly out onto the water probably was quite a sight, but after a few tries I managed to get somewhat of an idea of what I was doing. I couldn’t cast very far, which was a good thing because I couldn’t follow that little white fly on top of the water very well anyway. I watched and if I saw a rise and a ring anywhere near where I thought that fly was I set the hook. Several misses finally turned into success and not only had I hooked a rainbow trout but I had hooked myself on fly fishing for trout for good.

In retirement I thought I’d have plenty of time for wading and casting to that elusive prey – the trout. I had introduced my own children to fishing and I figured that would be my ticket to many hours of being on or in a river passing the day catching trout. The thing I guess I hadn’t figured on was that they now have families and they have jobs and they have responsibilities that wasn’t going to allow for my many hopeful hours of fishing. However, we have carved out some great times to be on the water and have spent many days exchanging barbs about who has caught the most fish or the biggest fish and I am thankful for that, but still that hasn’t filled all the day or hours of time since retirement.
Retirement is an everyday thing and diversity of activities is what I needed to fill the days – activities I’m still trying to experience today.