Day 0: The Approach

Time spent on the water is precious – so says the introductory paragraph to Carp on the Fly. Happiness is only real when shared - supposedly scrawled by Chris McCandless in the wild of Alaska. Considering those two statements then, one can understand why a person would board an aircraft and fly over the Platte River in Nebraska, southwest to Denver, and then northwest to Portland to fish with a good friend.

In my bag were waders, wading boots, two reels (4 wt and 7 wt), lanyard, three fly boxes, a load of tippet, a few leaders, a bunch of clothes I knew I’d never wear, the Pentax Optio, my Twins cap, polarized glasses and a copy of What are People For? by Wendell Berry. I had a couple rods along too. And a Dunn Brothers travel mug.

Got to PDX around 1130 or midnight. John Montana was waiting. There was some anxiety and discussion regarding conditions. We got it handed to us on our MN trip this year by rain/snow/cold/wind/highflow/poorsun… we felt like we were in for some good fortune, but in the days leading up to this trip we were in fact fearing the worst: snowmelt had driven the Columbia River system to a swollen state. Even after close study of river gauges and fishing reports, it was difficult to tell exactly what we’d encounter in the field. We knew we’d have a good trip – we just weren’t sure how the fishing would pan out.


To bed around 1:00 AM and up again, out the door around 5:30 AM. Did not feel the effects of lack of sleep.