By JACKIE TAYLOR | April 22, 2026

Time well spent

I went fly fishing a few weekends ago – a solid 24-hours that included hauling my camper, setting up, and fishing a few hours before hooking back up and heading home. But a few hours fly fishing at Roaring River is always worth it.

I didn’t quit make opening weekend at the spring, but I managed to get a weekend where the other half of Kansas City, Joplin and Springfield all rallied to go fishing. It’s all good…spring fever hit and it was time to get out.

After a long winter of brain-sucking issues, it was time to go fishing. With that came the usual first-of-the-year blues where me and my fly rod were not in yin and yang.

Many of my flies ended up tangled in trees behind me; fish were not seen that bit my fly, and many more sagas of a brain that had too much piled up in it.

One of the most beautiful sights for a fly fisherman is to watch a hungry trout surface for a top-water fly presentation. That happened to me; I got to witness a nice trout surface for my fly, mouth it, spit it back out and me stand there like I was licking lollipops at a circus.

I think for anyone that fly fishes, if you haven’t pulled the fly out of a million fish’s mouth, missed seeing the quick nibble of a trout, or lost one that jumped off the hook – you haven’t fly fished enough.

With that, I’m paying back for my lifetime of fly-fishing enjoyment. I was invited to help teach a class for women beginning their interest in fly fishing. Each year the Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW) meets at Rock Spring Ranch south of Junction City where the organization offers 20 or so skills for women to become involved in. 

Skills range from fly fishing, hand gun shooting, processing wild game, archery, orienteering and so much more. I have been fly fishing since I was 10 years old, or thereabouts, but my real teeth were cut at the BOW I attend 20 years ago.

They offered fly fishing and had a fund raiser auction one evening; what did they sell? A fly-rod with reel combo that I bid on and bought – my first! I used that rod for years before upgrading to better equipment, spending more money, of course – but honing my craft.

The BOW event instructor took women signed up for the class to the creek and showed us how to cast, retrieve our lines, and other information we’d need to fly fish.

Years of enjoyment later, I’ve been asked to co-instruct with a Game Warden from northeast Kansas; teaching two groups of women how to fly fish.

I just hope some of these women can take up the sport like I did and gain a hobby that will last for a lifetime. I’ve traveled to Alaska, Louisiana, Missouri, Colorado and more to fly fish. I see different territory, use different flies, but the love of the sport remains the same.

I’m not saying there aren’t days where my timing is so off I can’t tie my shoes; but I’ve never been involved in a sport where if my brain isn’t engaged, nothing clicks and I might as well go eat a sandwich, I still keep coming back for more.

My plans include learning how to present a class; then, hopefully, put on a beginning fly fishing class locally. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks organization I’ve been working with in Kansas City will help locally through Fisheries Biologist Don George and work to teach others how to fly fish.

I like hunting; but once you pull the trigger, there is no going back. Fishing, on the other hand, is such that if I want to eat a fish for breakfast, I keep it. If I just want to fish and enjoy catching them, I can release them back into the stream.

I hope all of you can find a hobby that you enjoy like I enjoy fly fishing; it makes time at work worth it so I can afford what it takes to lose flies, line, etc. when my brain is not in fishing mode.

Fish on!