An almost decade-long effort that began as a small grassroots campaign and grew to an international effort to stop dam construction on two of Patagonia's most wild and celebrated rivers has finally come to an end. Yesterday, Chile's Community of Minsters, its highest administrative authority, made a unanimous decision to formally cancel the HidroAysén plan, a $8 billion project which sought to build a five dam hydroelectric generation system on the country's Baker and Pascua Rivers. The Baker and Pascua rivers flow through Aysen in Patagonia, a mostly roadless, remote region of Chile where powerful rivers that teem with wild trout descend from their Andean roots flanked by glaciers and course their way to the sea through breathtaking mountainous scenery and lush green countryside.

According to International Rivers, "the Committee, which consists of the Minister of Environment, Health, Economy, Energy and Mining, Agriculture, and Tourism, evaluated 35 appeals which were filed by the Patagonia Defense Council and local citizens in response to the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment after it was approved in May 2011. Though it [took] more than three years, with meetings and decisions being repeatedly delayed and eventually passed on to the new administration, [the] decision is a recognition of the technical and procedural flaws surrounding HidroAysén as well as the significant impacts the project would have had on one of Chile’s most iconic regions."

The people of Chile have been vehemently against to the project since it was proposed, with over 75% of Chilean citizens opposed to the HidroAysén plan being approved.

I think somewhere around half of my success as an angler is accidental. I'd like to think that I've built some skill over the years but the facts tell a different story. Daydreaming on the stream, I've watched my indicator swim away and then half-heartedly raised the rod tip and been rewarded with a fish too lazy to spit the hook. I've caught more fish on the dangle while searching my fly boxes than I care to admit. I've caught trout when I was fishing for bass and bass while fishing for trout. The catching seems like a random mystery but that's probably because that's what it is.

Sunday was supposed to be an afternoon on a big river with a small group of friends but for a variety of reasons I didn't get out the door at an hour reasonable enough to justify the drive. In the past I've driven two hours to fish for two hours so it's not as if doing something foolish is out of my comfort zone but on Sunday the mojo wasn't right. By the time I had my gear assembled the sun was heading for the hilltops and skeeters were buzzing like they do on a warm summer's evening.

I took my black lab, Ripley, with me to fish a small stream about five minutes from the house. She's a good girl who generally doesn't cause trouble but she does distract me so she usually stays at home when I’m fishing. But this was a lark so along she came. She stood next to me in calf deep water as I cast, seemingly confused at our purpose but reluctant to abandon me. She's a good team player.