Everytime I pass by a river or stream, I scan the water thinking about where the fish might be lurking. It’s a habit springing from years of fly fishing with my mom and dad in the Yellowstone region of Montana and Wyoming. Fly fishing has become an essential part of every summer for me––a time to enjoy beautiful places with people I love, while plying the water for unsuspecting fish.

Just in my lifetime, the past time of fly fishing has changed drastically: dozens more fishermen are on the water in Yellowstone and elsewhere in the West every year. It’s painful for me to see banks trampled down and tangles of discarded fly line in once-quiet fishing spots, but the increased interest in the sport means there’s also increased attention on the environment and natural resource protection. I’d like to think I am part of a generation of fishers who see the catastrophic threat of climate change to the waterways of the American West, and who help bring about meaningful policy and regulation to protect those waters and their environs.

This digital short tells my personal story of fly fishing –– an activity I love as much for the ritual as for the chance to be around the most important people in my life.