When you go on a fishing trip in Southern Louisiana, you usually end up on a boat on the bayou. You have a cool beer in your hand and sit on your leather seat until a fish bites the bait. Fishermen in the Rocky Mountains do not have such a relaxing day when they go out fishing. The creeks are much too small to run a boat in them, so they mostly do fly fishing. So forget the beer, because you need to aim accurately with the fly rod. And forget the comfortable leather seat you just got recovered for the new season, because you have to stand in the cold water.

Now this is probably a little bit too harsh on fly fishing. Locals and visitors of the Rocky Mountain area really love fly fishing. Brian Glass came all the way from Philadelphia, Penn., for a week in the mountains. After lots of outdoor activities, like hiking and wildlife watching in Rocky Mountain National Park, he convinced his fiancee, Julia Scharff, to try fly fishing. Now both are standing in the cold water of Big Thompson River dressed up with waders and a fly rod in their hands. The stream runs through a canyon about 50 miles northwest of Denver, Colo.

"I always wanted to know how to do this," Glass says, while his guide Jonathan Wright attaches flies to the fishing line.

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Then the two wade out into the stream again and swing the fly rod back and forth, waiting for a trout to jump out of the water and catch it.

"On a successful first day you catch one fish," Wright emphasizes the difficulty of fly fishing.

But he is optimistic about his two students from the East coast: "They should catch about a dozen today."

Rico Moore, a local fisherman from Fort Collins, which is just north of Denver, has set himself higher goals.

"On a good day I catch at least 40 or 50," he points out, while fishing at Moraine Park inside Rocky Mountain National Park.

He at least tries to fish, but it is just too windy.

"We're probably gonna head back to the (Big Thompson) canyon and just fight the crowds," he says, a little bit disappointed.

On a busy day there are cars parked on each side of Highway 34 that follows the Big Thompson River, and fly fishermen are testing their luck all along the stream to catch trout.

The only native trout is the greenback cutthroat and the Colorado River cutthroat. But today, rainbow and brook trout also swim in the waters around Colorado. They were stocked in the early 1900s to improve the sport. Fishing was so popular with early settlers and visitors that the native trout species were nearly instinct.

By 1937, it was actually believed that the greenback cutthroat was extinct. Two small populations were found just outside Rocky Mountain National Park. By a cooperative effort of universities and government agencies, the greenback cutthroat is on his way to recovery. Since 1982, sport fishing for greenbacks has been allowed. Strong regulations, especially in the National Park, remain. Still, only 48 of the 156 lakes inside park boundaries have reproducing populations of fish. In most high altitude lakes, cold water temperatures and lack of spawning habitat prevent reproduction, so most of the fishing in the Rocky Mountain area is catch-and-release. There are also certain possession limits, and every angler needs a valid license. It costs $9 per day or $56 annually for non-residents. Residents pay $26 for an annual license. Many fishermen agree that the money spent on a license is definitely worth it.

"Fly fishing gets you out and interactive with the environment," Wright emphasizes, "it provides connection (with nature) because you have to interpret everything that's out there."

The guide works for Kirk's fly shop, a local fishing supply shop in the town of Estes Park, located right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. Owner Laurie Bien got started on fly fishing by her dad. Today, she goes out to the rivers with her husband Kirk every day.

"There's always great fishing year round," she points out. "I love it because I can get away from everybody, it's such a peaceful sport."

Legally there is no season, fishing is allowed year round. Peter Berntsen, manager of Kinsley Outfitters offering guided fly fishing, describes it like this: "In Colorado, we fish from putting the skis away in spring up to getting them out for the winter."

You might not have that many skiing and fly fishing opportunities in Louisiana, but there are leather seats and beer cans aboard the boats on the bayou. You decide what you like better.