On Friday, June 18, 2021, at 6:00 P.M. I stepped foot into the Pere Marquette River, just upstream from Green Cottage in Baldwin, Michigan for the very last time. This time was special however; after 47 years of dreaming of flyfishing this river  with my son and daughters, it finally was happening. My son Michael and my two grandsons, Malek and Dylan, were by my side. The annual Gray Drake hatch and spinnerfall was nearing an end and the Hexagenia Limbata, the giant Michigan mayfly hatch, was just beginning. I have fished many of Michigan’s trout streams, but the Pere Marquette River is my favorite. I fished it for 47 years for salmon, steelhead, and brown trout. I fished it through two winter snow storms and  several summer thunderstorms one of which was severe. I fished it in below 0° temperatures and the sweltering heat of some of summer’s hottest and most humid nights. In all of that fishing, the early summer Gray Drake hatch was my favorite. Most of those times I fished the river by myself because not many of my friends knew how to flyfish and I always fished the “flies only” section of the river. But there was something special about being on the river by myself that was refreshing to my soul. Listening to the night sounds of the deep woods, watching some of nature’s most interesting creatures up close and personal, and the “slurp” of the brown trout taking my self-tied fly was truely a spritual experience for me.  Only one thing was lacking… sharing this experience with my children. This Friday evening that longing was satisfied as I stepped into the river with my son and two of my four grandsons. This was my last time fishing the river. The effects of aging had finally caught up with me. I have lost some of my ability to balence myself. That difficulty along with my fading eyesight which prevented me from seeing underwater objects that could cause a fall, or the inability to see the leader on the end of my fly line to tie knots and flies, convinced me that the end of one of my favorite activities was at hand. But what a way to end it. I knew  my son and grandsons had cleared their personal schedules to be on the river with me that night, and they were all flyfishing which is something they didn’t usually do.
By sharing their evening with me they gave me a happy ending to the 47 year dream I had longed for. That’s a gift of love.

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