Feature Article!

Last summer I was presented opportunity to write a feature article for the major fly fishing magazine. The request was for an intensive journalism piece on central Alberta brown trout streams. Having seen what having a feature article on the Red Deer R in 2005 could have done for that river (we had scores of bookings... until the flood hit and changed everything), I mulled over the options of such an article. Should it be written? Should anyone else write it? Who?

You see, Amelia & I love our brown trout waters in central Alberta. We spend any available time poking around new spots and return to a few favorites, but seldom do we milk the same reach of stream more than 4 or 5 times in a season. I'll delve into why in a future blog post. The trouble is that generally every single inch of our brown trout water is publicly accessible if you are willing to walk or talk to land owners.

An in depth article includes access points, hatches, timing of the best fishing per stream. Could I do that? I have the knowledge, sure. I have the photos, the background, etc. Once you get to a point of fishing in the region, it's not hard to know it intimately. With brown trout streams having big browns and big browns doing what big browns do - territorial as hell - it's not hard to pin point what reaches have the best fish and best opportunities.

How would you like to see that in the major fly fishing magazine? Would you want to see 3 cars at every cut line, bridge, or get jumped by someone coming in off private access every time you fished?
Sure, knowing what happened with the feature on the Red Deer R, our guide company would have flown off the handle with bookings. Yay. How irresponsible would that have been of me? How selfish of me to put those kind of needs first? Regardless of anyone else, would I want to do that to my own enjoyment of fly fishing the region? Would I want to be responsible for that? If you consider others then, would you want me to do that to other people - you?
In discussion with the editor, there was no way in hell this article was going to be written how they wanted it. And in discussions, I really hope that I drove home the fact that such an article should never be written about this region. It would simply kill what it's all about.

In future blog posts, I hope to convey some thoughts about responsibility in being part of the fly fishing community. I've watched a few things on the internet and done some dumb things in the past myself that set the table for a growing, yet succinct list of do's and don'ts when it comes to the responsibilities of anglers, but more so those involved in the fly fishing community/industry. Amelia & I have had some unfortunate things happen to us and we simply hope to convey that there are other ways of sharing without crossing the boundaries of appropriate sharing.

This essentially signals my personal return to some writing and sharing of thoughts and perspectives after some time off. The entire decade of hosting the old Fly Fish Alberta Forum really took a major toll on me personally, and it's been 4 years since I've really engaged. I just see opportunity to jog thoughts on sharing perspectives, and some folks I've interacted with have jogged me to share.

Cheers