Final Post

I'm supposed to write a self reflection about my progress towards the goals of my project, and I'll get to that, but first I think I ought to fill you in on what we have done this week. This week we planned a trip to Braden's family's fishing cabin at Camp Sherman on the Metolious River. Kellen and I shopped for all of our meals which (which were nothing short of spectacular) and just like that we set off early Wednesday morning, arriving around 12. We fished during the afternoon, after dinner, and again in the morning on Thursday. The Metolious was very different from any river that we had fished before in the project; an abundance of food, very large and smart fish, and jarringly clear and cold water. We tried lots of different techniques and took advice from the local fly shop, but unfortunately came up empty handed. Then Saturday afternoon, we had what I might characterize as the coolest experience of our project so far. We got the opportunity to sit down with Dr Jeffry Gottfried, a fly fishing "expert but still a student of the craft", a biologist and an avid environmentalist. He talked to us about his life and how he learned to fish Tenkara-style, the role and responsibility of humans (specifically young humans) surrounding conservation, and the importance of fishing and salmon to the world's ecosystems. It was incredible to hear him talk so passionately about the causes that he believes in, and to get to learn from his was a pretty awesome experience. The conversation with Dr Gottfried was a big step towards accomplishing my initial goals; we had struggled to find some way to get involved with the greater cause around the world of fishing and establish some awareness around our own role in the ecosystem that we had explored throughout the project. Reading Stronghold by Tucker Malarkey also helped with this; I found myself learning tons about the role that salmon play in the world and how we as humans can help them. This learning felt like a very solid way to reach my goal and was also eye-opening to the importance and relevance of what we were doing in our project. Our second goal was to try new things and I definitely got to do this. I fished new spots, tried fly-tying for the first time, planned a overnight trip, and kept a blog about my whereabouts for four weeks. Finally, I hoped that we would catch some fish and have a lot of fun! The fish were harder to come by (at least substantial ones) but getting to spend time with two of my closest friends, out in nature, having fun and doing something that I really enjoyed was a recipe for success and lots of fun. Because of all of this, I would definitely reccomend this project to another student. The opportunity to get to spend time with friends, outside, disconnected from a screen, especially after this last year was truly a needed change in my daily routine. It allowed me to relax and have fun while still doing something interesting and learning things throughout the project. Here are some photos from this last week: Breakfast on Thursday morning

The Metolious

Thanks to anyone who spent thir time reading any of this blog, hope you have many fish in your future!