If you're a "mature" fisherperson, perhaps its time to think about giving back and paying it forward. Crimp your barbs. Buy your last landing net -- a rubber one. Be meticulous about picking up and packing out your old mono and your granola bar wrappers. Be kind to other fisherpeople. If a dad and his son are headed to your favorite spot ahead of you, don't run to get there first. Even better, if you know there are fish left in the pool and they walk up on you, give them the pool, and tell them what has worked.

I had too many fishing secrets when I was younger -- trying to "protect my opportunities". It didn't take long to realize a return on my information sharing assessment, and here's a great example. I was working in New Mexico, and stopped by the Rio Grande one night after work to fish. I didn't know the area, so went to a very public access and decided to hike to some open water. I probably passed 20 people fishing. I tied on a Kreelex, and started slaying fish. No one else was hooking up. One of the guys walked over and asked what the heck I was using. I showed him and gave him one -- he started catching fish too. I had about a dozen -- the fishermen had never seen them -- and neither had the fish. I gave them all away -- got some "sure thing flies" in return (which clearly weren't sure things, as they hadn't been catching fish) but more importantly I got some great tips on "secret spots".

There are plenty of fish for everyone, plenty of places to fish, and it only takes your time (and/or your money if you can) to make a difference.

There are a lot of great fishing related charities out there. We likely wouldn't have the fishing opportunities we have today without Trout Unlimited. Fishing has helped kids focus, do better in school, have better relationships. Fishing has literally saved the lives of some or our National Treasures -- the men and women who served so selflessly to defend our freedom and way of life. Support one or more or all of them if you can.

I have a personal favorite charity -- Heroes on the Water. They, along with other veteran support organizations, are doing amazing (and critical) work. Here's a link: Heroes on the Water. Give what you can. Your time is perhaps more important than your money, but every penny helps.

Update:

Above I posit "there are plenty of fish for everyone". Apparently that's not the case in a growing number of places. I'm afraid global warming will make it much worse. If you've fished the west you've seen the impact of fires -- while it is nature's say of renewal, the way we're screwing with the environment is driving nature in ways it has never been driven before. I'll do all I personally can to lower the human impact -- try hard to never buy single use plastic, move to an electric vehicle as soon as I can, continue to recycle everything possible. I was wondering what more I could do to help and one thing I'm going to do that will help directly is no more photos of fish out of the water. My goal is never lift another fish out of water between catch and release.