My first memories of fishing are from the summer that I turned four.  My grandfather made me a pole from a stout tree limb to which he attached a length of line, a real cork bobber and a hook.  We dug for night crawlers from his pile of leaf compost and had a delightful time fishing for "sunnies."  

I began fishing for trout while on a family vacation in Colorado.  We moved to Colorado a couple of years later and I avidly fished the small streams along the Peak to Peak highway until serving in the military and then moving to Montana to complete my education.   

I took a break from fishing while my children were young.  Then got serious again after fulfilling a childhood dream and learning to tie my own flies.  

I took an early retirement from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks - where I worked, first as a white-tailed deer research biologist and, subsequently, in department administration - for more than 22 years.  I am now self-employed as a natural resource management consultant, specializing in collaborative problem solving.