The Winds of Change by Kevin Krai
It seems like everywhere I have been this spring it has been extremely windy. At Pyramid Lake it was a good thing, every place else, not so much. I know it is always windy March through May in the deserts and high country of the West, but this year it has been relentless. For Arizona the winds of winter and spring dropped much needed precipitation, filling up lakes and streams around the state. For me the winds brought change. After spending the last several years as part owner and manager of Arizona Fly Fishing in Tempe, we made the tough decision to shut the business down. I spent the first few months of this year on the road finishing up some remaining destination trips.
When I finally returned home I was tired and unsure of what the future held. I knew one thing, I did not want to have to get a “real job”. I have spent half of my working life in the industry I love and could not imagine being too far away from my passion. I had been getting to know the team here at Desert Sportsman over the previous months and fell in love with the store and their plans for the future. The decision to join the team was an easy one and I am really excited about our future together. There have been many familiar faces I have seen in the shop over the last month as well as many of you I am meeting for the first time. I look forward to working with and meeting you all.
There is also change in the air at Desert Sportsman. We are in the process of creating an entirely new online experience for our customers to compliment our physical shop and E-bay shop, so make sure to check back frequently as there are big changes coming. Here is a glimpse of some of the upcoming changes; Full e-commerce store with thousands of items; Innovative and unique ”Sportsman’s Map” to aid customers in their travels around the world; Constantly updated fishing reports of our personal adventures as well as our destination trips; Product reviews on the latest gear and several other features that are under development.
I have had the chance to get out and do some fishing as well over the past few weeks. The first week of May found me back in Nevada for a few days of stillwater fishing. The wind was howling every day which limited our time on the lake, but luckily we were able to find a stream in the area that had high enough banks to protect us a bit. The fishing was incredible with many big rainbows landed.
Closer to home we are finally starting to see the end of spring runoff, giving us access to all of our favorite spots. It is going to be a great year in the state of Arizona, minus the loss of a couple of high mountain lakes to winterkills(Carnero, Crescent and possibly Sunrise). I have been checking out some of my spots and the water is still high and cool, but clear and we did managed to catch some fish. I am really looking forward to spending more time close to home this summer, enjoying the increased water. Here are some photos from last week.
