Darcy Lohmiller is a middle school librarian and part-owner of a fly fishing shop in Bozeman, Montana. She has been published in Michigan Quarterly Review Online, The Manifest-Station, and the Feminine Collective. Her essays about fishing, hunting, dogs and trailers have appeared in The Drake, The Flyfish Journal, Shooting Sportsman Magazine, and The Big Sky Journal.
After my dad died and my mom's worsening dementia forced her into a care facility, it fell to my sister and me to clean out their house. When we walked inside, it was like uncovering an intact archaeological site. My dad's closet was still filled with his fleece jackets and golf shirts.
Direct your focus to the little butterflies on my ceiling whispered the soothing voice in my head. But there were no butterflies in the steel contraption about to launch 30,000 feet into the air.
This Bahamian island is as good as it gets for fishing. So naturally we tried to change it.
The split-level home was custom-designed for the housewife of the 60s, but it was a poor fit for my mom.
The fly fishing destination of Los Roques, Venezuela, is home to dogs with free reign of the island and little regard for visiting anglers.
Owning a big-running hunting dog comes with an emotional price.