Jurassic Trout and Sore Shoulders

Field Journal: 01/19/2024

Weather: 
H 52° L 37°

Location: 
Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Wildlife:
Cutthroat Trout: 25+

Activity:
Ladder Fly Fishing

Harvest: 
(2) Cutthroat 

January 19, 2024:

I’ve found myself in the deserts of Nevada, fly fishing for the world’s largest Cutthroat Trout. This is a place I’d heard stories of and one that held a place on my ever-cliche bucket list. That box has now been checked.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to step outside a niche space that has occupied so much of your life and wander into a new category of it.

I am a fly fisherman.

Standing atop a ladder in the salty waters of Nevada has felt as if a rod had never graced my hand. Switch casting was a phrase I’d read of but couldn’t even begin to describe, even now that I’ve done it. My cast has almost exclusively required one hand until now and I’m filled with absolute elation at the struggle.

I am a beginner again. These beginner moments begin to become fewer and farther between as the years wear on, and I’ve found that the feeling of being new is addictive.

Even with my novice status, I found joy on the icy waters and a few ancient monsters found their way to the end of my line.

There are species of fish I’d aimed to catch in my lifetime, I just never imagined a Lahantan would find me. That was a reach too far from my mountain home and humble beginnings, and yet, here I am.

The fishing is fly meets bobber, excitement meets drag, hurry and wait. It’s fishing my father could do, but I’m not sure he’d enjoy. The stretches of quiet calm might be just too much to balance between the moments of absolute madness when they hit.

With a shoulder that couldn’t help but decide to tear just prior to this trip, I felt pain alongside elation, awe alongside struggle, and calm in ways I haven’t found on my small mountain streams, even over the roaring desert winds.

There’s a smell and a feel that is unique here. It’s almost as if we’ve gone back in time to a place that is untouched by modern man, though it’s seen millions of them.

There is no other way to put it.

This place is pure magic.

For me, this is a work trip; part of my job; something I’m paid to do. That reality is hard to understand coming from the place I’m from. Without truly comprehending it, I can only sit in awe of how grateful I am to experience these places that were, until so recently, so out of reach for me.

Reflection:

I am addicted to not knowing. This adventure to foreign waters cements that truth. I get a rush from telling someone that I’ve never done something before. I’ve never fished here; I’ve never cast this way; I don’t know what I’m doing; Act as if I’ve never fished before.

This is my new favorite drug. I get an absolute rush from being taught from scratch.