The crisp cold air catches me off guard as I step outside, sending a shiver down my spine. Frozen grass crunches under my feet as I make my way to the truck only to find a windshield coated in ice. The truck takes awhile to warm up and I am still quite cold as I approach my destination. Sliding into a pair of waders my breath fogs up my polarized glasses causing my eyes to water. As I make my way down the path, the sun is emerging through the trees slicing through the fog hovering above the tiny freestone stream. After a few errant casts, the small stream rod becomes familiar once again, like riding a bike, and a roll cast under some evergreens provides me with my first trout. A young of the year wild brown. A perfect contrast compared to the spectacle about to unfold in the coming weeks. The spawn, which will produce next years yearlings, and the coming years adults.
The first frost of the year means more than just the beginning of the spawning period for brown trout. It means hunting. Hunting for deer, hunting for fish, and hunting for a meal to fatten up for the upcoming winter. As I change destinations, I spy a red tailed hawk on the side of the road with a fresh kill. A groundhog. As I am exiting my car, an older man and his son drag a doe out from the woods with their bows dangling at their sides. A product of their morning in the outdoors. As I make my way into the woods, several gunshots are heard in the distance and a pack of wild turkey fly over head just before a cast produces another wild brown on an orange stone fly. Squirrels run about as they make their way to and from their nests harvesting acorns. A weasel prances about along the opposite bank and several birds sing in the trees. As I make my way upstream, I am just another cog in the food chain, except I am not doing this out of survival, I am doing it to escape. This is why I love to fly fish.
4 comments:
Very cool post and pix. I have been out myself last weekend with my tenkara rod but we haven't had much frost if any yet. Fall this year is meaning it well for us on the Front Range.
Karel (Goneflyfishing @ www.tenkaraonthefly@blogspot.com)
Beautiful language + stellar pics = phenomenal post.
Great read, awesome pictures and excellent blog. It made my morning.
Love all of the salt & steel posts lately, but something comforting in looking at some nice brownies. Great stuff as always guys.
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