“The water itself, being the most passive of elements, happily
takes on the character of the country it runs through – fast, slow, deep,
shallow, whatever you want – and the trout are very much like the water. They’re numerous or few, they grow big or
stay small, as conditions dictate. They
do exactly what they’re supposed to, no more, no less.”
John Gierach – The View From Rat
Lake (1988-Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, NY)
Droplets on a Spider's Web
I’m not going to write
too much tonight. I don’t need to. The pictures and videos will speak for
themselves and document the story. This
morning I was up at 5:00 and in the water by 7:00. It started to drizzle about then, and
throughout the morning it actually rained hard several different times. It was under those conditions that I thought
I’d have a lot of hits while trout fishing.
In actuality it was marginal; but throughout the course of the day the
action picked up significantly. In the
small little spring creek I was fishing, there are both brook and brown
trout. When I fished a different section
of it two weeks ago (A Simple Day), I mostly caught
brookies; and they were no bigger than ten to eleven inches.
A Twelve Inch Brown That I Ended Up Keeping
Today I mainly caught
brown trout throughout the morning hours.
I like to “keep score” of how many I catch of each species when the
fishing is good. The browns took a
commanding lead today, and continued to add to their score even if I brought a
brook trout to my hand. The brookies
were sure and steady, however; and they eventually surged ahead, as the weather
cleared, and didn’t look back. What was
the final score you ask? Brook trout 17,
Brown trout 13. Amongst the fish that I
caught were several good sized ones. I
landed a sixteen-plus inch brown, in addition to 3 twelve inchers. For the brook trout, I caught three or four
in the twelve to thirteen inch range. I
have never caught so many fish in one outing.
It was a lot of fun and I hated to quit.
When I ran out of water, with my total count of trout at 30 total fish,
I took one more cast. It was then that I
caught an eight inch chub. It was a sign
that I needed to call it a day. From
those I caught today, I released all but 2 that I kept for a meal later this
fall (one of the 12” browns, and a 10” brookie).
A 16+ Inch Brown That I Caught And Released
A Beautiful Brook Trout In Fall Colors That I Released
It was 2:30 and I still
had a forty-five minute hike out on the trails to reach my Jeep, and then an
hour’s drive to reach home. It was a great day, in a secluded setting,
with beautiful scenery and fish. It’s a
story I won’t soon forget.
