Photo Essay: Following the Hatch

Fly fishing is an art. To understand it, one must spend time with a river and study the life encompassing it for a long time before a grasp of the cycles involved can be retained in memory. Hatches move and occur in patterns, trout are elusive and the water's flow is constantly redefining itself at every bend of a riverbank. Like life, the river sometimes moves fast, sometimes slow, but always offers a lesson to be taken from it if the angler is willing to become a student.

Over the span of a handful of years and many adventures, I’ve done my best to convey life in the way only a river can reveal. This essay has come from within to disclose lessons of art, beauty, the power of nature and the human experience in the natural world. Three rivers in particular I’ve found myself returning to in Montana when life allows; Rock Creek, the Missouri River, and the South Fork of the Flathead River. These photos were made between 2007 and 2023. I look forward to the ones yet to be created upon my return to Montana in the future.