Tenkara and Fly Fishing

New water … exploring … sometimes it is the last thing that I want to hear. Time on the water can be precious and there are the tried and true streams that I know will produce for me.
Fear of the unknown and anxiety can plague me at times and comfort food is what I crave. The same pools and runs and pockets that I just plain know hold fish. It’s like a hot roast beef sandwich on thick white bread with french fries and gravy on the whole thing. A big pile of easy eating, simple familiar pleasure. No challenges, nothing unknown.
There is nothing wrong with those familiar comforts … after all they are familiar … and comfortable. I can be a creature of habit. The carpet worn out in the same spots, my favorite chair sagging a bit …

An old magazine article from about 4 years ago mentioned an unheralded stream – wild fish, few anglers, many dozens of miles of water, only 1.5 hrs from home, easy access with little posting…
It is an unstocked river with cold tribs adding shots of cool water all along it’s length. But if it was any good why don’t I ever hear about it? The doubting negativity creeps in. Do I want to go outside of my comfort zone? Sometimes new things really suck. Just turn on the pop radio station to see that that’s true.

Well my father was my inspiration. He’s been wanting to try this place for a while. And we’ve been working on checking off all those destinations on our to-do list over the past few years – we did Colorado and the Wisconsin Driftless … and this one is much closer.

So I figured I’d take one for the team and give it a go.
And what a pleasant surprise. Why did it take so long to do it? My horizons were broadened and my fishing world became a bit larger. Once again anxiety was proven to be unwarranted and exploration and pushing back at personal comfort zones was a fruitful and enlightening experience.
I can’t help but feel that their is a life lesson in there somewhere but I can’t quite suss it out.