"L' America è qui.".

 

Italian for  "America is here"; with these words my uncle walked me to the international departures check in gate where I was about to board a United flight to Chicago O'hare.

America might even have been there, but arm long trout,steelhead,salmon and tarpon for sure weren't.
The lakes and rivers in the Italy I grew up in were paying the price of decades of post WW2 indiscriminate poaching and most of the trout stream were almost sterile,the lakes were being fished out with no regard to seasonal closures,bag limits and minimum legal size.

And I was tired of dreaming of the fish and locales I used to see in my father's fishing magazines.

I picked up my fly gear and simply left.


I wanted the life you would see in the old Patagonia, Hardy and Orvis catalogues; now I am 53, my own boss ,earning minimum wage, an over anxious girlfriend and two large dogs that love me nore than I deserve and with a baby on the way.

My tree quarter (once) fulfilled bucket list keeps filling up,I had to dump other puruits and projects but I can say I had a good go and finally I can see the future bringing me more adventure.