This is the End

Tomorrow will be the last The Scientific Fly Angler post. It has been a fun ride, and I hope others have enjoyed it and gotten something out of it. But I am ready for a break. I had always had two thoughts about the blog. First, it was my COVID project, a distraction from that time in our lives. I never expected that it would continue as long as it has. It was certainly never my intent to write a blog for four and a half years. That is a testament to how much I have enjoyed it. Second, if it ever felt like work, I would be ready to be done with it. I am ready to call it quits - or at least take an extended break from it. It took much longer than I thought it would for that to happen, but recently, I was feeling that it was time. Then the bill to continue the web hosting came, and it was a great reason / excuse to wrap it up before the renewal date.

Helping the WDNR elecrofish the Coon Creek watershed this past summer.

I am ready for a break from the blog and ready to dedicate some time to some other places - or maybe just take a little break. My day job has been exhausting, rewarding, challenging, inspiring, and a host of other adjectives. I want some more time to dedicate some time to parts of the job that I really enjoy but never feel like I have the time to do. While, I have never felt that this blog has detracted from my work, it does make some days longer. It has also given me some time - and an excuse - to dig into and write about scientific topics that interest me and are related to my day job. In addition to a job that is quite demanding on my time, being a Trout Unlimited chapter president requires a significant amount of time as well.

Me - about 15 years ago - with an Arkansas cutthroat (yeah, you read that right...).

So what's next? Well, there is one more blog post on Sunday, which is a fitting end to the blog. I get to highlight the work I most enjoy, working with students on ecology and management questions about streams and fishes. I get to watch them grow in their skills and their confidence. The last few years, helping mentor some amazing undergraduate and graduate students, has been extremely satisfying. At the same time, I am getting stretched thinner and thinner with grants to write this winter, committees to serve on, helping prepare a couple of new summer courses, and doing what I can for our TU chapter and answering the call when state TU projects that I can help with come up. The stars aligned, and it was a convenient time to call it the end of the blog.

We packed the room with people listening to our aquatic science students and WDNR biologists talk about their research. More on that in the last blog post.

Typically, these posts are more well-thought-out, and I practice what I preach to my students. Good writing is editing at least as much as it is about the writing. Most posts are written well ahead of time and I then I put them out of my mind and revisit them so I can read them as I wrote them, not as I thought I wrote them. This post is not that. It is stream of consciousness, written the night before it will be published. Writing and editing these posts has become a little less fun over time and eventually more like work. It had to end at some point, and it felt like the right time for me.

But it may not be over...

Many of the blog posts may have a new home. I have transferred them to the Coulee Region Trout Unlimited website. They are not currently published and probably will not be published any time soon. However, they are preserved and they may see another life. Maybe they will bring some attention to our chapter's website. Maybe they are the genesis of a book. I do not know what the future will hold. But what I do know is I am not sad it is over, but happy that it happened.

The sunset on one of my favorite places and a place I am excited about re-experiencing this summer.

For those that followed along and enjoyed the ride, I am glad you did and I thank you! Until tomorrow...