STORY: The Stillwater Fly Fishing Trip That Changed My Life

Before I spill this whole story, I want to extend a thank you to everyone for the great messages and emails over the last few days.  I publish daily articles because I am grateful to be able to share a few things I have learned in the last ten years of stillwater fly fishing, not because I want to become famous in the fishing world or act like I invented the wheel.  Now let’s get down to how the fishing trip that flipped my whole world upside down.

Last June my wife-to-be Kymmy and I set off for one last stillwater trip before shipping off until late October for another season of guiding and lodge work in remote British Columbia.  Our mid-day arrival was followed by a flurry of great fishing before we headed in for dinner and a fire.  Trips like this are special for us when both of our schedules line up.

I woke up with the sun the next morning, spending a few hours tying chironomids and drinking coffee at the picnic table in our site.  Mornings like this really bring the whole experience together and are a good reminder that it’s not always about the fish.  Kymmy and I set off around ten o’clock in the morning after a good breakfast to have another go at it.

The lake was glass, after a few short minutes on the oars we were anchored up in the same spot as the day prior.  Fishing started off quite slow and didn’t really catch fire for either of us before Kymmy asked if I would drop her at the launch so she could make a quick trip to Kamloops to grab a few things.  I knew one of those few things was a pregnancy test, but we both knew we were just being paranoid and didn’t think much of it.

I headed back out solo and fishing was on fire.  Experiencing a great session of stillwater action is my idea of pure bliss, and before I knew it five o’clock had rolled around.  I headed back to the launch to make some leftover spaghetti and start a fire before Kymmy got back from town.  There was a sense of urgency, and to my surprise she was already back at camp with a look on her face that said a million words at once.  “It says I am”, she managed to squeeze out in between shallow breaths and a look of panic on her face.  I got out and had a look, sure enough, there was one more blue line than I was expecting to see.

This was day two of a five-day venture, which was obviously cut short as we both tried to choke down some fried spaghetti and pack up our campsite.  Almost no words were exchanged, not out of any form of spite but due to the fact that we were both clearly in some state of shock.  Have you picked up on the fact that this was not totally planned yet?

We told nobody immediately, we just affirmed that either way we would make it work.  The drive home was quiet, and Kymmy urged me to go back fishing alone the next day to let it sink in.  I barely slept a wink that night and set off the next morning to spend a day in my most comfortable environment.  Then things really changed, the nervousness began to dissipate with each pull of the oars and what was pure panic slowly transitioned into a strange wave of certainty.  Fear slowly turned to excitement, and accepting that everything happens for a reason made everything feel okay.

We both made it through another great season, if you can spend 130 days living outside in a 10×12 wall tent with a pregnant woman without getting your head ripped off something has to be working.  Kymmy had a great pregnancy, and other than the four-hour commute into the closest town for tests and ultrasounds our lives continued to be fairly normal for the remainder of summer.

At the time I was totally unsure of the whole thing, but as time went on the excitement replaced the uncertainty.  Who knows what would’ve happened if we chose to wait until we were what we considered “ready”?  It will be hard, there will be many sleepless nights and I am fully willing to accept that.  Finding out we were pregnant was a great spark of motivation to really push myself in life and in business to be more successful.  I am thankful to be able to make money while spending time on the water, but I couldn’t do it without the incredible foundation of support Kymmy brings to our relationship.

We are now back on regular blogging schedule and I want to thank you again for taking the time to read this and every article.  It is great being able to do a lot of work from home through the winter time, and as always if you want to drop me a message follow this link!

~ Jordan Oelrich