I want to share the Trinity River with you.
Fly fishing literally saved my life. I once became VERY depressed after a skateboarding injury to my ACL back in 2016. I went from doing what I love almost every day of the week, to sitting on a couch for months straight. It took a toll on my body and mind. Things got bad. I was partying really hard to numb the pain, and I wasn’t taking care of myself. My mind took the bulk of it. I could say I was sort of “losing it”.
I reached out for help. Thankfully, the help I got woke me up. It was time to make a change and to get my knee right again. Three surgeries later, and after a long break in partying, I got a great physical therapist. She helped me get back to where I was before the injury. Some horrendous medical bills came along with it but it’s the best investment I could have made into my health. Although my mind needed more, I had to leave the rat race and make the move I always dreamed about. It was time to finally leave my hometown. I decided to head the place that was most sacred to me, the Trinity River.
Why the Trinity River?
I caught my first proper trout on a fly rod at the Trinity River in 2013. It was a steelhead. I caught it in the dead of winter on “the swing” 10 minutes into my first attempts to fly fish for steelhead. I didn’t even really know what “the swing” was back then. Blessed to say the least. I am very blessed. The Trinity River gave me something special. To do this, catch a steelhead on “the swing”, sometimes takes days, sometimes weeks, and sometimes years…This fish changed my life. This tug was all I needed to know that fly fishing was my new found love. My purpose. My “it”. I found “it”. Although back then, I was too scared to move away from my life in San Jose to follow my love for fly fishing. It was only after I went into the darkness, did I learn that I needed to follow my light, fly fishing.
From that day forward, the Trinity River became and always will be sacred to me. It’s where I learned how to fly fish, where I learned about fly fishing culture, where I decided to improve my life, where I started my “next chapter”, and where I’ll always celebrate taking the leap.
I look back at it and feel like the ACL injury was huge blessing in disguise.
I don’t want to be sentimental in too many posts, I want to be a dumbass and make you laugh. But if it wasn’t for the Trinity River, Taco Fly Co. would have never been born. I owe a lot to this place and to the people who showed me what’s up with fly fishing. Thanks Stacey, Andrew, Travis, Patrick, Colleen, Megan, Iggy, Cody the Dog, Cody the Cousin, Adam, Lewiston Hotel, Aztec Grill (for the tacos), Stagecoach Pizzeria & Cafe (R.I.P.), Herb, Darren, Patty, Don, Bailey, Jamaal, Josh, Mom, Pops, Trinity Bungalows, and most of all, fly fishing.
#FLYFISHINGSAVESLIVES
-Mario
