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. |