When I was only in my 30s I knew I wanted to be retired.

I was so blessed to have a dozen or so dear old fly fishing mentors who were part of the Greatest Generation.

Most of them fished a lot during their working lives and they all seem to retire at a fairly young age. Some of them had 20 to 30 years of good years in their retirement.

My number one fly fishing mentor and friend is Joe Shirshac, 92. He took me with him all over Nor Cal and Oregon. We even fished Christmas Island, British Columbia, Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alaska together.

My favorite fishing with Joe was on the middle Klamath River in the Fall for Steelhead back in the 1970s.

We fished had early and late in the day in the low light. In the day time we would visit some of Joe's old friends who were retired with their travel trailers in an RV Camp Ground on the banks of the river.

These people would come up to the Klamath ever fall for one, two or three months. That way they were there after the rains when the big schools of Steelhead came up the river to spawn.

After seeing that I always dreamed of spending a month on the Klamath River ever fall after I retired.

No matter what you are thinking about retirement, trust em, try to tretire as soon as you can.

This is one area that I think I am more knowledgeable than most here because I spent almost 50 years in the fishing tackle business talking with many as they went through all this. Almost no body I know said they wish they had not retired.

**If you really can't afford to, then that is one of the only good excuses.

Call me or email or PM me if you want to talk about this.

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