I came across this photograph the other day and a flood of memories came back of being a twenty-something rambling around northern Michigan on solo fly fishing and camping trips in a less than reliable Ford Escort.  I was a poor college kid with a couple of part-time jobs, not doing too great in classes, and when I read my journal from back then, I couldn't have been happier.    

On this trip, I had spent a few late summer days camping outside of Grayling, and this photo was taken on the South Branch of the Au Sable River from a sandy pull-off on the Mason Tract.  This was long before digital cameras or mobile phones with a camera.  I had a pager, which should put into perspective of where in the digital age we were back then.  We barely had the internet.  To get this image, I had to set up a tripod that I traveled with to my film camera, and used the timer to capture this still life of sorts.  One film capture and I hoped that I got it right.    


The two page journal entry that I penciled from this trip was dated September 7, 1996, and it had been an overcast day and though I had seen fish rising, I caught one smallish brook trout.  That didn't stop me from casting a small hopper or caddis flies into likely places on the river throughout the afternoon.

A few gear items that I wish that I still had from this photograph are my first "expensive" fly rod with the two-piece Orvis Rocky Mountain 8'6" 5-weight fly rod, which was paired with a Battenkill Disc 5/6 fly reel.  The entire outfit might have cost me $400, but that was months of me saving for it back then.  It's tough to see but on the hood of the car is a Wood River Sidekick gear bag that was just big enough for everything that needed on the river.  I believe I ordered it from one of print fly shop catalogs, maybe Kaufman's Streamborn?  And, as I noted at the end of my journal entry from this day, I had purchased the Filson Tin Cloth Packer Hat from Ray's Fly Shop in downtown Grayling on this trip and felt like it "completed" my look as a fly fisherman.  That is a smart looking fly fishing guy in that photograph...

 

I kept a hardbound handwritten journal from 1995 until 2000.  I started to be active on a handful of online fly fishing forums which replaced journaling with online posts (now mostly long gone) and since 2008, I have used The Fiberglass Manifesto as an online dispatch of sorts.  There's a list of advantages in keeping a fly fishing history on T.F.M. with photographs and hyperlinks but it still doesn't replace the notes made by pencil or pen.  I should get back to carrying a trip journal again.  They are a lot of fun to look back on and I'd like to get back to the places that I used to frequent in the 1990's.  I'd find these places with paper maps, notes on napkins or scratch paper, or directions from a guy at the fly shop.  I got lost more times than not, but always found my way back to the campsite.