Our 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, has passed away today at the age of 100. Carter served this country as President from 1977-1981. I was just eleven when he took over the office but have heard good and bad things as far as how his one term went. But one thing I do know is that over the years he was always giving back and very active in community service. He was seen for years building homes for Habitat for Humanity, like thousands of them.
Carter was also an avid fly fishermen. He fished all over the world. In the below image he sports a Catskill Fly Fishing Museum hat so he must have spent some time on the Beaverkill, Willow, or one of the Upper Delaware Rivers.
He ran a good race, and did so with his wife Roslyn at his side. She passed away in 2023 and they were married from 1946 until her death. He did good for himself having started out as a peanut farmer, becoming President of the United States, and of course becoming a fly fisherman.
And if you look to the right you can see the traffic ticker has hit over 1,000,000 unique viewers who have clicked on the blog since it's start in 2009. I must be doing something right
because it has grown exponentially in the last few years. As of today we come in as the 21st most popular fly fishing blog in the world as rated by Feedspot. I haven't dipped in under twenty
but maybe this year I will. What's funny is I've never been on Twitter, don't have Instagram, and have no You Tube Channel. Unlike the top blogs out there that have multiple authors or whose content is just hyperlinked from other content creators, mine is all original. Although from time to time I do use images I find on social media. The blog is something I love doing, but it isn't easy, in fact it's hard work. Lots of time editing images, researching for posts, and then going back and correcting mistakes, which I have tried to cut down on in the last few years.
So keep reading and enjoying it. I'd like to expand it a little bit. I flirted with the idea of a podcast but there are a million of them out there and I suck at technology so it would be a mess. What I am thinking of is doing something like a fish along. I would come and fish on your boat, or on foot, either local or a ride away if I can crash on your couch. It's not meant to pimp out guides, charter operations, or lodges. Just average anglers who fish and wouldn't mind sharing the water, no spot burning I promise, a little conversation sharing your story, and then a blog post outlining it all. Could be fun for me, the other person, and the audience. We'll see where that goes.