This morning, I came across this article. I think most of us already know the benefit of time spent outdoors. I need it like I need air. It invigorates my soul.
Go Outside, Doctor’s Orders - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Audio
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Thanks for sharing, it was an interesting read!
I’ve known the benefits of being outside since I was a child. I spent the first 2 years of my life on a National Wildlife Refuge on the St. Marks River in Florida. My father was a Refuge Manager so it was my playground.
My horrible parents let me crawl on the fire tower, go accidentally diving off the dock , and play with the non lethal local critters. Of course I had a dog for company.
Now the best I can do is paddle my kayak or sit in a chair in the backyard which is mostly garden but I will be outside.
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Sometime, have to be “indoors” while enjoying the outdoors. Rained like crazy overnight. The canvas tent roof sounded like a drum. More rain today.
Chasing trout yesterday. Forgot my waders so I went wet wading in my quick drying hiking pants. Water is still running cold, coming down from the mountains. My legs got pretty numb so I kept from going deeper than my thighs. Caught some beautiful lil rainbow trout (natural, not stocked). Snapped two tenkara rods trying to free deeply snagged nymphs (I think my brain was “numb” in not thinking to just cut the leader…). Still have one more shorter tenkara rod to “chase” the trout with.
Happy to be outdoors in the mountains (when I am not outdoors on ocean waves).
-sing
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I have a spare tip for the rod I fish with most, and like you carry at least 2 rods with me. I often set the rods up with different flies, and switch if one isn’t working. We have had days of rain here. I need to do a bit of epoxy work, but the humidity is just too high. I enjoy the sound of rain, but enough is enough!
Some rain would be nice here, hitting our first triple digits today and I’ll be outside moving rocks around. Not going to crank all day but am going to get this project started.
I, like others here I suspect, live pretty close to nature. I’ve been here since '82.
Home, from last fall:
There’s a stream with trout that runs along that line of trees in the middle ground behind the cattails.
Views from front porch:
The problem isn’t lack of time in nature, its in taking enough time away from the never ending battle against the honeysuckle that crowds out all the woodland wildflowers, maintaining a firebreak from the encroaching woods, trimming trees, etc.
Just taking a walk (or a paddle) as advised seems like an act of extreme decadence sometimes. It was much worse back when I was employed full time. But its a high class problem.
The advice is sound.
Beautiful moon last night.
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A flyfisher’s nirvana: sun dappled day in the 60s; moderate flow for small/medium freestone stream, with water at a “perfect” (for trout) 55 degrees.
Quickly immersed into a serene “flow state” - wade up to a promising pocket in the run, or the occasional shadow covered pool; cast close in and then ever further away to thoroughly fish the stretch of water. More times than not, hooked a trout exactly where I “read” them to be. Most of the fish were 3 - 6 inches. But, occaisonally hooked a “giant” 7-8 inch trout that worked with the current to challenged my little tenkara rod that is more designed and suited for fishing the narrow “blue line” mountain brooks.
Communing in nature is a “luxury” that is unfortunately not afforded to all. I am grateful and appreciative for my privelege.
Mahalo!
-sing
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Don’t know about the fishery up there, But why would you want to stress a 3 inch fish let alone a 6 inch fish… where’s the sport in that?
If you ever get out west I know some great spots in UT, ID and WY. Used to be some very close to our farm, but I’m not sure their current state, whirling disease was a problem for quite a while.
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Well my wife doesn’t swim and hates getting into any kind of lake, river or ocean. I did convince her last week she could come read a book for a few hours while I did my weekly paddle on a beautiful blue lake. Winds picked up and she was cold and decided to nap in my truck. I got to paddle in 20 mph white caps on my return trip. Not a lot of adrenaline but I did get a good work out. Helped mentally too.
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Hmmm… Not the question I ask myself when fishing “The River Why…” LOL.
–sing
I hear/feel that. Forecast is for 2’ waves in the 7-8 second range, starting this coming Sunday. I am almost giddy for anything Pond Atlantic throws my way as the summer doldrum kicks in…
-sing
Thanks for the photos! the waters I do most of my fishing on are similar to somewhat bigger to what you were fishing. I don’t fish trout from a boat. I like being in the water I fish. It allows me to avoid the ever-present Twig fish. Trout season is over here with water temps at night over 62 and over 70 during the day. Those temps stress trout. I have yet to figure out how to determine the size trout that will bite my fly on the waters I fish.
No disrespect, I live near the shore of Lake Erie in the so-called steelhead ally From Vermillion Oh to Erie Pa. the only fish that small would be a white perch which is not close to a yellow perch, steelhead, or walleye…I just would’nt think of looking to hook that small of fish
I enjoyed the book after you recommended to me.
Great title. Intriquing author. Thanks for the recommendation.
For me, Robert Travers (pen name) still captured best the intertwining love of trout fishing and the outdoors in his ode:
THE TESTAMENT OF A FISHERMAN
Robert Traver 1964, (Judge John Voelker 1903-93)
I fish because I love to;
Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly;
Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape;
Because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion;
Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience;
Because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don’t want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters;
Because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness;
Because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there;
Because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;
And, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant – and not nearly so much fun.
Amen.
-sing
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The pic is of the Moose River (really a “stream”) that flows ouf the “Presidential Range” of the White Mountains and heads northeast into the larger Androscoggin River. Here is a pic looking towards at the “Presidents” - Mount Madison on the left, and Mount Jefferson on the right. Mount Washington is not seen but is some distance behind Madison. (The Moose River is flowing somewhere in the foreground.)
The Moose River becomes increasingly a narrow “blue line” as one goes up in elevation. Typical of White Mountain streams, the Moose is very clean and cold, but not very fertile with bug life as with low land streams and rivers, or spring fed limestone rivers. The trout are small, scrappy and colorful. The Moose may harbor an occaisonal lunker that comes up from the larger Androscoggin River. The Androscoggin and the upper Connecticut River are the two “trophy trout” Rivers of northern New Hampshire. Here is a more typical rainbow trout (about 14") from the Androscoggin.
What the Moose offers is greater solitude with its steeper gradient and modest trout. Didn’t see anyone for the three days that I hiked, waded and casted to its little darting jewells.
Mahalo!!! Now. Back in Beantown to wait for small Atlantic waves.
-sing
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