My friends and family members don’t great with me “hello,” or “How are you?” anymore. Instead, I get: “Are you done yet?”

What started out as something between a bucket list check-off and an amusing side hustle—writing a local fly fishing guide—has somehow come to dominate most discretionary hours of my life over the past three years. It has been an adventure. Or, rather, a series of adventures.

Wanna know how sausage is made? No … you don’t. Not really. Not even if you really, really like s...