Put yourself in the shoes of Rich Schwend, a hard-rock miner from Billings, Mont., but also a rabid fly fisher.
“Being a miner in a fly fishing community isn’t easy,” he says. He gets that, in today’s fly fishing world, protecting our trout resources often means that anglers are at odds with the mining industry. In Montana, that couldn’t be more apparent, with the controversial mining proposal on the fabled Smith River garnering headlines almost daily. But, in the video below, produced by Redington, Schwend offers up a unique perspective on how he, his passion for his local Bighorn River and mining all coexist.
Schwend makes a good point.
“My job is essential,” he says. “So are these rivers. Don’t we all want people working these jobs who care about what happens to our rivers? People like us? Fly fishermen?”
Indeed, we do.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m a miner. Regardless of what I do for a living, I’m the same as the next guy on the river,” he says. “I’m a fly fisherman.”
—Chris Hunt