A New Beginning

I have been told that I should blog about my experiences fly fishing and especially now that I live in a place where there are more fly shops then traffic lights in the town that I live in.

I have been told that I have a unique way of telling a story. My mind jumps around. Just bare with me.

First let me tell you about how I do things when it comes to writing. I write. Whatever is in my head lands on this "paper" I do not proof read or at least I don't proof read very well. That is how I do things. I just write. It usually will make sense and if it doesn't I encourage you to read the sentence again and you will most likely figure out exactly what I meant.

I am not an expert when it comes to fly fishing! There is no one that loves this sport more than I do. But I am not an expert and nor do I claim to be. But that said, I catch an awful lot of fish. You are probably better at fly fishing than I am.

I love baseball, between fly fishing and baseball. They tie and I would have to sit down for a long time and pick one. Therefore I won't. They both rule.

I embrace both traditional style and Tenkara style fly fishing. They both hold a place in my fishing life, neither one is better than the other. I am not going to argue that point. They both have their merits and they both are a ton of fun here in Colorado.

I tie flies, and I am pretty bad at it. But they catch fish. I love trying. Sometimes they turn out pretty good, but usually they don't.

I have been fishing for 30 years and fly fishing for 19 of those. In fact that is now the only way that I fish now. And in my opinion it is the only way to fish. Especially for trout. Speaking of that, I haven't caught anything other then a specie of trout in 6 years. Before that it was all largemouth bass and pan fish. My goal in my fishing life is to catch a Bonefish.

I practice catch and release strictly. I do not keep anything I catch, nor will I. I do not like to eat fish and I figure, I tricked the fish, they deserve to go back swimming. I am excellent at hook removal, so my fish live. At least I hope they do.

This blog is called All Quiet on the Western Slope. I live on the western slope and flyfishing is known as the quiet sport. Tricky huh?

My home river is the FryingPan, it is 10 minutes away from my house. Some of you know that river and understand how blessed I am. I love that river, I catch fish on it sometimes and sometimes the river wins. But the beauty of standing in the Pan and looking at the mountains is really whats important.

I have a few secret spots that I have discovered that aren't on the Pan. And they are quickly becoming favorites. I catch fish there.

I will most likely not add a lot of photos to this blog. But once and a while I will.

I will blog hopefully a lot, but more likely it will be once and a while and it will be some rambling.

I moved to Basalt Colorado in May from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota where I grew up and lived all of my 42 years. It was hard leaving. I miss home. Pizza here is terrible.

I am an IT guy at the hospital in Aspen. It is a cool job, I like the people I work with even if they don't fish. Barely.

My goal is to fish 300 days this year. But honestly I really want to hit 200. I think right now I am at 33.

I invite you to follow my adventures and heck even to come and fish with me, please send your comments.

Follow me on twitter for ramblings, of IT stuff, fly fishing, vinyl record talk, baseball and other nonsense @eaphilipp