Thanks for visiting my blog!  My name is Chris Duerksen.  I hope you will find this site informative, interesting, fun, and maybe even a little provocative.  I have recently retired from a professional career as a land-use lawyer and city planner who worked across the nation on smart growth, sustainability, and natural resource protection issues.  Now I have more time to explore this beautiful earth and indulge my twin passions of fishing and writing.  My focus here will be on off-the-beaten path fishing trips—from the high country in the Rocky Mountains to the backcountry in the Florida Everglades….and points in between.  Many will involve the gentle art of fly fishing, but I am not a purist so others will involve chasing big inshore saltwater fish with spinning gear.   All will be catch-and-release:  These water-world denizens are just too beautiful and precious to keep.  It will also give me a chance to pontificate and sound off about some of the critical issues of the day like sustainability, the state of sport fishing (increasingly commercialized, mechanized, and technical), and politics in general (I served two terms on a city council in Fredericksburg, Virginia, so can’t pass up that opportunity!).

I will do my best to share the where and when of my angling peregrinations, and offer tips and advice from my modest store of wisdom regarding gear and technique.  But mostly I just want to share the joy and satisfaction I get by exploring unspoiled wild areas away from the madding crowd and understanding the cycles of life and nature in those pristine places— there are more of them out there than one might expect for those willing to work at it a bit.

My thanks to my boys and occasional fishing buddies, Matthew and Ben, for helping put together this site.  Matthew came up with the name for the blog, and Ben did the hard work of design and setting it up while schooling Dad on the technical aspects.  I absolve them of any blame for content herein.

I hope you find locales here that pique your interest and thinking that will stimulate.  Most importantly, I write with the intent that these tales may inspire others to work to preserve these special places so that future generations may enjoy and cherish them as we have.  Look forward to your comments.