Top two destinations if you had the time

[flytie09]

Two realistic destinations for me would be trout on the Henry's Fork in MT and the Deschutes River in OR for peak steelhead season (if there is one any more).

A few unrealistic options (at least now) would be the Skeena River tribs, Kamchatka, Bolivia for Golden Dorado or Jurassic Lake for giant rainbows. A Mongolian Taimen trip would have to be up there too......

[ggriffi]

Now that I have time, the practical trips for me will be to search out the blue ribbon waters we have here in Missouri and WY/MT/ID now that I have some access (place to stay, 2 weeks a year).

[weiliwen]

I am lucky enough to have visited, and fished New Zealand twice. Tremendous fun, and not only for the fishing. Sure, I'd love to fish Patagonia, Alaska, northern Canada.

But for me, my two places are close enough that I might be able to accomplish them this year. 1) the Au Sable River by Grayling, Michigan, and 2) The Catskills.

Honorable Mention will go to the fabled Pennsylvania streams.

[satyr]

Would love to hunt big browns in New Zealand. I would also love to fish Kamchatka. Alaska and Patagonia are more practical for me though.

[cwb124]

I am lucky enough to have visited, and fished New Zealand twice. Tremendous fun, and not only for the fishing. Sure, I'd love to fish Patagonia, Alaska, northern Canada.

But for me, my two places are close enough that I might be able to accomplish them this year. 1) the Au Sable River by Grayling, Michigan, and 2) The Catskills.

Honorable Mention will go to the fabled Pennsylvania streams.

I live in PA and for the most part the fabled PA streams are overcrowded and overrated. Sure if you catch Big Fishing Creek or Spruce Creek during a hatch you can bang out a few with 20 of your closest friends. Private land and access issues are such a pain in this state. I hardly put my fly rod together here and bide my time for trips out west where you can explore and go into the wilderness and find wild trout without worrying about trespassing or finding a parking spot when every pull out is filled with cars.

[rangerrich99]

Practical? Hmm . . .

Well, I've recently been dreaming of fishing the Rocky Mountain Fly Highway, one week at a time. I'd have to move or delete some of my regular fishing trips, but it could be done, and I've actually started making plans in that direction.

The second trip would be to Alaska, fishing with Ard. Since joining the forum I've been fascinated by the stories Ard has posted over the years and the few pics he's deigned to post have been icing on the cake. Again, it's a trip I could make, if I deleted a trip to MT or WY one year.

Finally, I have no idea yet how practical a trip to tarpon-town would cost, but if it were feasible then such a trip would have to be on the list, as it was a water color of a fly fisherman fighting a tarpon that ultimately got me on this addiction/obsession train in the first place.

Peace.

[Ontarioflyguy]

Too many places too little time... but to play along,

Practical destination would be around Yellowstone for a month of hiking and fishing.

Fantasy destination would be the brown trout stream in the video called "Trout Heaven" I believe it is called the river Ätran and is located in Sweden. I would be fishing a bamboo rod during the Danika hatch with Anders as my guide. For lunch we would be eating stream side (hamburgers, with cream buns for dessert) and drinking coffee with the occasional shot after a big fish is caught.

Regards,

Tim C.

You said it best with " too many places too little time"
Practical and fantasy was perfect. As I near 50 years old the practical is important.

[Ontarioflyguy]

Great Slave Lake trib Northwest territories for Inconnu, the tarpon of the north.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Sweet!!!!!!

[Ontarioflyguy]

My entire adult life has been a fishing adventure. My work took me as far north as Brook Trout in Labrador and as far south as Sea Trout in Tierra del Fuego. Now retired I still get to spend a quality amount of time on the great Catskill rivers in May and my favorite Idaho and Montana rivers and creeks in June/July. While I've fished bonefish in Florida, the Bahamas, Mexico and Belize there are two destinations in the Bahamas that require a mother ship...too far from conventional fishing lodges and I fancy two weeks in both locations, one in April the other in October. I have the time but not the money. I've only scratched the surface of the Indian Ocean and far as it is I want more. My salmon and steelhead fishing is in the rear view mirror for me, not that I didn't love it back then and while now is not the time to travel to Russia, there are some salmon rivers at the tip of the Kola Peninsula and some fascinating spring creek steelhead/rainbow rivers in Kamchatka that I wish I had gotten to during my professional journalism days. And, I have never fished the historic Chalk Streams of the south of England, yes, I'm willing to cast my Mayfly (E. danika) upstream.

Unless family and other high priority obligations preclude it, there is no reason to postpone angling anywhere you would love to pursue it. Climatological indications are it won't last forever. Already in my short human lifespan I've been witnessing precipitous decline and it is accelerating. 20% of the planet's coral has died in just the last few years and the seas are rising, desalinating, acidifying and plasticizing. Insects, mollusks, bivalves, crustaceans, amphibians, fish, birds and mammals as robust as rhinoceros are disappearing alarmingly fast. I am an angler therefore an optimist but I don't perceive a scenario where we turn this around...are we rapidly heading toward a world where the green is gone as in the Edward G. Robinson movie, "Soylant Green"?

Go fishing now.

Wow...you have lived and live the fishing life most people dream of. Awesome! I think I need more vacation time lol

[Ontarioflyguy]

I've been itching to fish the Driftless and western North Carolina for a while. Life keeps getting in the way. Pretty humble compared to many, but those are mine.

Not humble at all...we all have our favorite spots we would enjoy going to...its about enjoying the element you want to be in.