One thing we don’t have to worry about west of the mountains in the Pacific NW is snakes - that would definitely put me off.
I’m not much of a hand at fly casting, but enjoy trying. I’ve gone to British Columbia, Kamloops lakes area a few years with my fishing buddy, got some good practice in and had some epic days dragging leach patterns in smallish lakes. We use small inflatables with flipper or oar power and have hit one lake, two lines in the water and lots of time both going off, clear one, throw it back and it’s going off while cleaning the other. The eagles have learned to watch fishermen, and I had one stolen complete with the fly, about 3’ from me.
I do envy how many species you guys have in the east - with the diminished Salmon runs here, I’m working on targeting more species. Fishing’s nice, but catching is better.