Fishing With a Time Machine

If I had a real time machine I’d probably return to a few scenes of fly fishing failure and try to make amends, but that would be cheating.

Instead, I prefer to capitalize on the bipolar weather/elevation change in Colorado and use it to my advantage. The flies that worked so well in March have already shifted on the freestone river I call home, so in order to turn back the clock I’ll have to fish near Leadville or somewhere in Grand County to find clear water again—unless I fish a crowded tailwater.

Clear Creek will still have snow on its banks in an area I fish once a year, and as the days pass and temperatures rise I can still find water that will look and feel like March. You can relive the same month several times over in the high country and unlike Bill Murray’s nightmare in Groundhog Day, this type of familiarity is a good thing.

Life is that way too. None of us possess the ability to go back in time and fix something we said or did that we regret. There’s no magic wand, but we can learn from our failed experiences so we don’t repeat them over and over again.

Fishing is similar and maybe even better because we never get a true “do over,” but we can learn from mistakes and perhaps even fine tune the same skill or use the same flies from February to May in hopes of obtaining angling perfection, even for a fleeting moment.

As I slowly age I am learning some of the same lessons over and over and even relearning lessons I forgot about. The point is that life is a journey and even though we don’t have to relive February 2nd like Phil, we can learn from our experiences in order to make the next opportunity, the right one.

Things might be falling into place at work or with a loved one, but that takes effort, time, compassion and failed experiences. If you’re like me and you keep making the same mistakes, focus on what you learned and keep hold of that until the next opportunity presents itself. Maybe you’ll land that job (or big fish), make a genuine connection with someone new or even improve on what you thought was your personal best.

Life and fly fishing have a lot in common in terms of failure, success, or moments of bliss and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Go and experience something new and revel in it because time machines aren’t real. At least not yet.