Part 1 - Blackborow Stories - Ode To Trout

A Lifetime of Learning with No Chance of Mastery

I often tell my son, and my nephews, that there is nothing better than finding something in life that you are passionate about.

I’ve been lucky in that regard, I guess.

I grew up in Korea, loving the outdoors and playing in the pine forest around our home and the neighboring hills, hiking the majestic Sorak mountains of the west coast, and living in the waters of the Yellow Sea for as much of my summer each year as possible. The outdoors became a passion for me, in many ways without me ever realizing it. It was inside me waiting for opportunities to come out.

I was born in 1965 in Seoul, and much of what we consider outdoors sports, like hunting, fishing, backpacking, and cycling didn’t really exist in Korea during my youth. Growing up, I never had exposure to hunting besides knowing that my grandfather sometimes did it. He did introduce me to fishing, however, and during the summers that were spent stateside he always took me out a few times, usually in his small aluminum boat, with rods armed with bobbers and a bucket of worms from the farm. Those were always fun adventures.