Whiskey Creek Fly Fishing

Today’s nugget of fun from An Entirely Synthetic Fish is about the Oregon territory in 1848. This comes from chapter 2, Essentially a National Matter.

The discovery of the rainbow trout came about, as most significant discoveries do, during a search for something else. The US government was looking for salmon to restock the decimated Atlantic Salmon of the eastern US.  Oregon was mentioned as a source of salmon, but there was some doubt, as everyone knew that pacific salmon do not take a fly. In fact, according to the story, Britain ceded the Oregon territory to the US because the brother of  Lord Aberdeen was skunked on a fly fishing trip to Oregon. Who needs fish if they won’t take a fly? Who needs Oregon if you can’t catch the fish with a fly?

Now, with all our modern technology and rich history, we know that getting skunked on a fly fishing trip to Oregon is not unheard of. The last time I was skunked, I thought of ceding my spey rod to the river, but not the whole territory…