I went to one of my favorite backcountry haunts this last week, an annual visit during “hopper time” when big trout look up and nobody else is around to laugh at my casting.

But the fish weren’t there.

I climbed to the river’s headwaters where wild rainbows and bull trout congregate in late summer to feast on terrestrials and lounge in sun-kissed, yet snow-chilled water. Everything was different. Everything had changed.

I remember well the day I fished with Lonnie Allen, Three Rivers Ranch owner and outfitter. It's the first time I had a woman correct my cast. That's usually a chore men take on because I rarely fish with ladies. Allen can relate. She jumped in the river long before my legs were strong enough to keep me upright.

"The name outfitter was mainly for men," Allen says. "It wasn't something that women did so I kind of feel like I entered a whole new world."