North Woods River Runner: "Home" Waters

"With rivers as with good friends, you always feel better for a few hours in their presence; you always want to review your dialogue, years later, with a particular pool or riffle or bend, and to live back through layers of experience. We have been to this river before and together. We have much to relive."
(Full Creel by Nick Lyons, Grove Press-New York 2000)

The Path In

Two days ago, after finishing up all but a few things yet to be "tied up" at school, I headed out to my "Home" creek. It's water that I cut my teeth on, and quite frankly, have been spoiled with. I can get to it relatively quickly. I can fish it with my eyes closed, I've fished it so often. In fact, come to think of it, when my kids were younger I had them squeeze their eyes together like the shells of a frightened clam as we approached it's location. That way the secret couldn't be pried out of them, and they could be truthful when they said they didn't know where Daddy had taken them fishing. I've seen this creek at every stage of water level, and fished it in every type of weather. I've come away several times when it's seemed that every living thing within a ten mile radius was obliterated. I couldn't get anything to hit my lure on those days. I've also caught some of my biggest trout in the bends of this little, nonchalant, trickling creek. The things I know about fishing for trout (and I know I've only hit the tip of the iceberg) I learned here; from watching water, to seeing hidden locations, to pitching a lure. Deer, wood ducks, otters and blue herons are but a few of the creatures I've seen over the years; many times it's been up close and personal. The river itself has changed a lot too over the 15 years that I've fished it. Bends have busted through to the other side of the snaking water, leaving only a trickle to run in the original creek bed - soon to be oxbow.

Fallen Log Covered In Moss

Fallen trees, that created gurgling holes, have long since rotted or been ousted during rain-swollen washouts; only to be replaced by new ones, now lodged at a slightly different angle, creating a whole new way to go about fishing it.

Moss Spore Pods

Home waters. Fishing them, walking them, and knowing them helps you feel grounded; and yet, there is still that constant change that keeps you learning and appreciating it for both its familiarity and newness.
See you along The Way...
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"Now I've fished in a number of places over the years, and there are few things I love more than the adventure of wading into a new river for the first time or finding a new mountain lake. Still, the home water infiltrates your consciousness in a distinctive and comfortable way. It becomes an inescapable part of daily life."
(The View From Rat Lake by John Gierach, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks-New York 1988)

A Quick Pic Before Release

"The only way to become acquainted with a river or lake is to embrace it: Walk the shores, wade the shallows, cast a line into it, paddle a canoe on it, rig up a rope swing and drop, shouting, into the heart of it. Knowledge comes with experience, a word whose root translates into 'being in peril.' Risking peril puts us closer to a place than we can ever get by standing at a safe distance, watching."
(The River Home by Jerry Dennis, St. Martins Press-New York 1998)

Released Back Home

A Brief Glimpse Of A 14" Brown

"I've been fishing this little trout stream off and on for as long as I've lived here, which by now feels like forever. I could say I learned how to fish for trout here and not be far wrong. I've seen it in all of its moods and all of mine. I've spent time on it with old friends who are no longer alive. I guess you could say I've gotten a little sentimental about it."
(Standing In A River Waving A Stick by John Gierach, Simon & Schuster-New York 1999)