Trout camp is a special place for storytelling, ribbing comments, and enjoying good company. Every May a few of my closest friends and I migrate south for a long weekend of fly fishing for very large and very hungry rainbow trout on the Deschutes River. After seven months of wet soggy Western Washington weather, the dry hot arid temperatures of Central Oregon are a breath of fresh air. We make it a point to fish the Salmon Fly hatch and tan our pale skin. Selfishly I get to hang out with people I love, do something I love (fly fishing) and be in a place that I love. For me, this scratches all the necessary itches all at once. Maybe you’ve witnessed a Labrador Retriever receiving a good scratch from a loving owner with their tail wagging and one back hind leg thumping on the ground with that look in their eye like, “I hope this never ends.” Well, that’s what I feel like come late May on the Deschutes.

Although my buddy JR would never admit it the trout I am holding is bigger then any trout he has ever caught. Notice his jealous grin…

My brother Seth and I share a special bond through fly fishing.