TroutLegend

As the Fall 2009 Steelhead Season stutter steps toward our door we spend early mornings starving on the lower branches of our tributaries and then retreat to honey suckle summer upper branches to tango with little wild trout. Some men speak of “last outings” and “hanging up inland gear for the season.” I love those huge silver bullets as much as the next man, but these are foreign notions. Steelhead are like wandering pirates. They are well built, brooding vagabonds with simple palates. They feast in large barbaric fashion upon any meaty morsel that may cross their table, but when tested with weather and spear choose to decimate their bodies with starvation for the sake of their glorious journey. They have seen great shores and the depths of many blue caverns. Catching and releasing a piece of Steel is an honor indeed… like sharing a story and brew with a passing sailor.

Inland trout live in a much different world. To some extent they are peaceful little scientists watching and studying the small world they have chosen to live in. Dissecting the intricate way light shines upon a stretch of water as the sun turns it’s great circle. To watch the seasons pass and the trees turn. Listening to the birds and the migration of men. They culture a delicate taste for varying aquatic insects and salivate at upcoming hatches/feasts. Inland trout take time to study their faults. If unfortunately fooled by a stealthy angler… and released… they will take stock of their miscalculations and correct them in time. After all, at any time a little stream based brown or rainbow could gain a wandering eye, travel a few miles, jump a dam, and in time become a servant of the high seas.