Backpacking and Fly Fishing: An Introduction

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

An argument can be made for keeping backpacking as simple as possible. Stuff your pack with warm clothes, a tent, your sleeping bag, and any other luxury items you wish to carry. Grab a map, hit a trail, and set off through your local woods, the red rocks and canyons of the southwest, or hike towards high alpine cirques. Unbothered by the distraction of the world back at home, you’ll have nothing but the sounds of nature to rock you to sleep wherever you decide to set up your tent. However, and once you’ve done this enough and surprisingly, the downtime you might have during those times when you aren’t hiking, setting up, or packing up for the day’s trek can leave many of us wishing for an add-on activity to help occupy our time. Some backpackers bring along a full set of photography gear, while others simply choose to hike longer days with little downtime in camp. One solution however is another popular backcountry pursuit: fishing. A backcountry lake or stream often serves as a convenient campsite simply for the sake of water collection without the worry of running out, and while there are many other pursuits that combine well when it comes to the backcountry, it seems that fishing, and in particular backpacking and fly fishing go hand in hand...

@jansenjournals with tips on combining fly fishing with your backpacking, gear selection, and more - take a look at the link below in Issue 45:

Backpacking and Fly Fishing: An Introduction

Issue 45 Page 1