I believe there are two paths ahead of us in the pursuit of fly fishing. One path is easily found and traveled. Worn, and in plain sight, the path is in fly shops and guided fishing trips. It is in catalogs and online advertisements. Along this path you will go fly fishing. You will catch fish. And, over time you will learn about fly fishing. You will have fond memories of the fish you have caught and places you have been. Happily, you will tell people “I go fly fishing”. It is a fine path. I have been on it. But while I was there, I discovered the other path.
The other path is harder to find. It is not worn. It is not easily trekked. It is camouflaged with the things that make it hard for us to make it to the river. It is harder to find, because our lives can take us away. Our jobs. Our responsibilities. For some of us, even our military service. But if we follow the other path, we are always looking out towards the river in our minds. Out to the next time we will wade out, wet a line, and set the hook on a fish we hoped was there.
The other path is harder to find, but it is never beyond us. It is harder to travel, but never impassable. We take it when we can never really leave the river in our hearts. It is the path you take when just going fly fishing is not enough. You have to learn, and to share what you have learned. Although it is hidden, the other path stays with us. We search and find it, and then it escapes us. It seems within reach, and then it vanishes. We walk towards it, and with every step we wonder, are we on that path?
At Wadeoutthere we are searching for the other path.
Welcome. I created Wadeoutthere because I know what it is like to be on the other path. In my life I have been away from fly fishing.
I have been busy with work or military training, deployed overseas, or stationed far away from a trout stream. But I was always a fly fisherman. Now I am going back, and I want to share the journey and what I have learned. After all, the journey is what makes us better.
Wadeoutthere is dedicated to helping people stay connected, informed, and motivated to progress as fly fishermen and women.
My goal is to provide words, images, and art that bring value to the people who are seeking the other path in fly fishing. I hope that by sharing my travels, experiences and stories, we can continue to go, to learn, and to teach each other about this wonderful sport.
I believe the story of fly fishing is the story of something beautiful that happens between each of us and the rivers where we go searching. There is beauty in that story. There is the excitement in the moments before the take, and the next time we have a fish on. The fight that ends when the smooth familiar colors along a trout’s back, slide out of our wet hands, and back into his cold home. That is beauty we will always chase. But we do not go fly fishing, only to catch fish. There is more to why we fly fish than snapping a selfie with a monster slab of trout flesh. We are chasing something more than the biggest, or the most fish.
We go back to the river because we must go, and because the river transforms us. Over the years it molds us into something that attaches us to the cold water. It flows out of the rocks and mountains, and into our bones.
At Wadeoutthere we are not just going fly fishing, we are becoming fly fishermen and women. Wadeoutthere.
VR,
Jason Shemchuk
WADEOUTTHERE
@wadeoutthereflyguy
jason@wadeoutthere.com
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