Dave Richey OUTDOORS

There have been sunny days with 25 mph winds. There have been other days when the monsoons arrived just in time to put the fish down. Other times have seen clear and cold or almost too warm temperatures for pleasant fishing.

Today was close to being average, and much depended on where you fished. I found some rain, and more wind than I would like. I chose to go my own way, and skip  fishing the Holy Waters with others. Some days it just seems right to be self-indulgent, and do my own thing.

Few days have been perfect. Wonderful water levels and temperatures, warm air temperatures, sunny skies and very little if any wind and heavy hatches of Hendricksons, Blue Wing Olives and Black Stone flies. That was not the case on today's opener where I went.

I went out to do a patrol of some little brook trout hotspots. For the most part, I was well hidden from the wind that troubled many anglers in open areas.

Once in a great while a small creek or beaver pond will produce a good brookie.

The brookies were there but all I could find in the first spot were six-inch fish. The longshank hook was gently eased out without taking the little speckled beauty from the water. They were gently released with the fond hope they will continue to survive.

Another small creek was tried on state land, and I inched along at a snails pace while working the cedar swamp. It was a bit tough going for a one-eyed gent, and I took one small tumble, but hooked a brace of brook trout.

Both were seven inches long, and both were caught on four feet of line off the end of my rod-tip. A No. 0 Mepps Aglia spinner with a longshank No. 8 hook was lowered into the creek water flowing between the roots of the cedars.

Many of these little holes didn't hold a trout or the water was too shallow to fish. This is blind fishing; it's nearly impossible to see under the root wads, and hooking roots is part of the problem. It's difficult to avoid losing some spinners.

There was one savage little jerk on my spinner, and this fish was more substantial. I tried to raise the fish to this hole in the cedar roots which was about the same diameter as an ice-fishing hole. He didn't want to come.

A furious amount of splashing continued almost under my feet, and I caught a brief glimpse of a 10-inch brook trout squirming below. The fish kept flopping around, and as I kneeled down to hand-land it, the hook pulled free.

A nice fish lost but that's OK.

The fish was gone, but what remained was the image of a slender and sleek fish with blue haloed spots along its sides, a darker colored belly, the worm-like vermiculations on its greeenish colored back, and ivory-edged fins.

This, what I consider one of nature's most beautiful game fish, are becoming more difficult to find. Many streams are warming up, road work near creek edges always result in some erosion. Both take their toll on this small game fish.

I don't always preach catch-and-release. It's fine in flies-only water, and it works very well on a voluntary basis, but brook trout are almost too lovely to catch and keep. I enjoy an occasional meal of fresh-caught brookies of 10 inches, but I seldom keep one these days.

This is not fly fishing, and although they are easily caught on live bait, I discourage people from using bait. Too many small  (sublegal) trout swallow the bait. Even though they must be returned to the water, most are severely injured  while being unhooked, and most likely will die.

Wild and free brook trout always appear to me.

Brook trout are a truly special fish, and one well suited for the rituals of opening-day fishing. They are lovely to look at, sleek in a water-wetted hand, and they are a reminder of all things wild and free.

Find  some wild brook trout, and it's difficult to find one over 12 inches except in a lake. They make up with beauty what they lack in brawn like a river brown or rainbow trout.

They are the canary in my environmental birdcage. They are a barometer of our times, and a fortune teller of what will soon come.

Once brook trout disappear in all but the most remote wildernesses of North America, and are no longer available to the average fisherman, we will know that global warming is indeed true and we must mend our ways or we also will join the brook trout on a one-way trip to far worse than what we have today.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors