Not a Tale of Gila Trout

This is not a tale of Gila trout, but how I came to have my best fishing experience of 2023. When I first started tenkara, my fishing season would end at the end of summer or sometimes the beginning of fall. This was due to my lack of experience and proper equipment (waders). Though I now have waders, I still have only worn them a handful of times as I prefer to wet wade for as long as I can.

Moving to the Southern US and traveling throughout the area has extended my fishing season at both ends of the year from early spring to early winter. The experience and my yearning of being closer to nature is a piece of what brought me to tenkara, and feeling the water embracing my skin is just another part of that total experience. This late November trip to Arizona will likely be the last fishing trip of the year and it will be one I do not forget for years to come.

I had the honor of fishing alongside Sam Simmons (@rimcountry_angler on Instagram), one of the most informed humans on wild and native fish in Arizona and the Western US. The tenkara/fly fishing/fishing community that I have been able to discover is one of the greatest things I do while scrolling the internet, and meeting Sam was no exception. For the most part, the internet and social media is cluttered with trash, but it certainly has brought me closer to places and people I would not have experienced otherwise.

As Sam resides and works alongside these trout in Arizona, I am lucky to have met him. His philosophy on fishing and nature are in line with how I look at native and wild fish and allowed our first meeting to go off without a hitch. He devotes his life to increasing his knowledge and spreading the joy about these animals in their natural, wild habitats, and I was inspired and in awe just watching him fish. Not only did I catch a wild Gila trout in its native range in Arizona, but I got to learn and be informed on a fish native only to the Western US that was very recently endangered to the point where it was illegal to fish for them. That fact is largely what makes this trip to Arizona my favorite of the year. I ended up catching an adult Gila and a few fingerlings. It makes me proud to say I got to witness these fish surviving and also the product of their reproduction in this creek in their native watershed.

Getting to fish amongst the Eastern Arizona mountains at 5,000-6,000 feet is something that was never on my radar when I began fishing and I hope to only keep finding more and more native and wild fish to fish for as I continue my tenkara journey across the United States. The intricacies of native ranges where each trout in America are found is what motivates me to keep exploring and meeting people who are also passionate about the specific ecosystems they thrive in.

I am learning what truly excites me in these mountains and it is not necessarily only about the fish I catch, but also the people I meet along the way. I cannot thank Sam enough for taking me on a beautiful hike to find an even more beautiful fish. Getting to observe these creatures feeding and living in the high elevation spring creeks is something I will treasure forever.

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This article originally appeared in the 2024 print issue of Tenkara Angler magazine.

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