Days Gone By.

Dave was by this morning.

Dave likes to talk fishing. In fact, Dave is a fish blogger extraordinaire.

Dave is old school, so he does most of his blogging the old fashioned way--ORALLY.

A typical conversation with Dave will start out always in the same fashion. "So, done any fishin' lately?"

This is typicaaly just a way for Dave to begin his oral fishing blog. He isn't really interested in your answer, nor does he really listen for it. I have learned to just give some sort of generic answer, like " Yeah, I used to like raisins, but they have a tendency to give me gas."

These words are basically transparent, and soon Dave is off onto his daily diatribe. At this point it is usually good for you to start organizing the rest of your day mentally and throw in an occasional "really" or "you're kidding me"-- because Dave will orally blog you to your knees otherwise. It is not that Dave's rant is off target or not worthy of contemplation, it's just that he likes to go around the block a few times before he gets to the point. So, while you mentally ponder picking up your dry cleaning and getting that oil changed in your car, he will go into the complete history of the wooly worm, before telling you that he caught a really nice trout the other day on a green one. The good thing is, you can jump in at any time and feel relatively sure that you can pick up the conversation and pretty much know it's full content.

Anyway, so after Dave gave his customary "done any fishin' lately?" introduction, and I gave my congenial reply, of " Yeah, I fished the Stillwater in Montana a couple a weeks ago."

Something different happened.

Dave must have listened --at least somewhat-- because he then went off on diatribe directly related to the subject. Maybe it was the mention of Montana that did it, or maybe he was ready to tell me this story anyway, and I just happened to hit upon the exact topic that he had already predetermined as today's subject. I'm not sure which it was, but since he was compelled to talk about an old fishing trip he and his dad had taken when he got back from Vietnam, I was compelled to listen.

The trip was in the sixties and Dave and his dad jumped in the car and decided to fish what is now referred to as the "intermountain west." It used to be called the Rockies, and consisted of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. The story wasn't about the healing process for Dave upon his return from Vietnam--although I am sure this took place-- nor was it about the fish caught or time spent with his dad. Instead, Dave's blog was about how "back then" you could pull into town talk to somebody local and within minutes be fishing in a spot where more than likely you would catch a fish.

Dave then went around the block a bit, or in this case the Rockies, as he re- mapped out that obviously meaningful trip. There was that crick in New Mexico, the Animas in Colorado. various other streams near Telluride and Ouray, the Salmon in Idaho and the bug infested waters of Montana.

What Dave remembers was the lack of fences, the eagerness of people to point out Trout rich waters on their own property and the willingness to let you have a go at 'em. Those days are gone now. Nowadays, most people are tight lipped and overly protective of any fishing spot, and in many cases rightly so.

Many fisherman will run roughshod over other people's property, littering and having a general disregard for the property of others. This, and the sheer fact that there are more people fishing has caused this "pay for access" or "pay for information" thought process.

Even outfitter and sporting good stores, really want you to book a trip or hire a guide out of their business, rather than purchase a handful of flies or some relatively inexpensive supplies. Property owners? Well, if they are lucky enough to have river front property, they are now considered a "guest ranch" or "fishing preserve".

Yes, those very same waters that you could drive up to and ask if you could fish for a couple hours, are now posted with warnings and protected like Edward Muench's art. Oh wait, that's not a good example, how about --more like file sharing on the internet!!

I imagine with time it will get even worse as public access dwindles and more people populate the "intermountain west".

As usual, Dave was right on--it just took him a little side journey through time to get there.

Come to think of it----it took me a couple trips around the block to make my point also.

Dave must be a genius...