by matt » October 8th, 2012, 2:59 pm
Not sure if this is the intro section or not, but figured it was as good as any other place to start!
I grew up on a fish farm in the San Joaquin Valley outside of Fresno, so I was exposed to fish and fishing at a young age. Did a lot of warmwater conventional fishing for bass and bluegill and catfish in the farm ponds, as well as a few trips up into Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks for colorful little stream trout.
In the middle of high school, a combination of a family vacation to Alaska to visit an aunt and uncle who were park rangers at Glacier Bay National Park and a backpacking trip into the Sierra really instigated and established my love for trout fishing. I had caught my first fish on a fly at the age of 7, but this was different. I was hooked.
I spent a lot of time in high school and on breaks from college fishing the Lower Kings (at 15 minutes away from my house, this was my local water), but gradually my focus shifted more and more toward the higher alpine fisheries. More fish, easier to catch, prettier, and fewer people around. I began coordinating fishing/backpacking trips with college buddies on fall weekends, and always did a few longer trips with my father each year. That sense of exploration and discovery is great when it comes to backcountry trout fishing, as there are so many lakes and relatively little information known about them.
Now I primarily fish backcountry lakes in the Sierra. I'm not a purist; I fly fish and spin fish as the situation dictates, as often there are no fish within fly casting range at many of the large, deep, sterile alpine lakes I visit. Still, my favorite kind of fishing remains sight-fishing dry flies for large cruising alpine trout. These are the moments I live for, and the memories I treasure afterward, and the experiences I seek to replicate on each new trip.
Cheers,
Matt