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Opening Day of Trout Season
We
came off the mountaintop and hit the stream branch two
miles up from the river on opening day, 2008, and I
headed straight to a sweet little spot I’d fished
before, twice last summer. A deep run there drives
swiftly down into a sharp bend, creating a cutbank at
the curve. I tossed upstream and let my offering drift
naturally down to the pool, where a brook trout slammed
it and fought briefly before I brought it to hand. He
was a fine fat specimen seven inches long,
salmon-colored around the belly and fins and gray-green
and intricately patterned along the back. I snapped a
picture before releasing him, this wild native brook
trout, my first fish of the year.
Later I caught up to Brad and Todd, and we worked our
way downstream, catching and releasing six brookies
along the way, to the confluence of the north and south
branches of Redtail Run.
We sat down on a streamside log then, took our
sandwiches and water bottles out of our backpack
coolers, and relaxed by the gently flowing stream. We
sat and looked around at the majestic steep hillsides
rising grandly up from the valley floor and the dark
green hemlocks sheltering the cool waters.
“If you could pick the five best places to have lunch
in the world,” said Todd, “this would have to be one of
them.”
I glanced at Brad and we both nodded. “I agree,” I
said. “Let’s just sit here and enjoy this for a while.”
Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.
~ Don Feigert, 4-23-08
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