RANTINGS AND RAVINGS OF AN OLD MAN TRULY RUINED BY SPORT

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Heaven On Earth



Off the beaten path, narrow, deep (relatively speaking) and cold (most urgent), grass-hung (bug factory) wall to wall undercut banks equates to ideal living for trout and heaven on earth for Chuck and Gale (do you suppose Kate the wirehair would agree?).

The trout live here--mostly brook and cuttbow with the occasional cutthroat (to our untrained eyes anyway)and grayling are all wild and fat (in comparison to many living in similar small as often as not infertile environs) and pretty as hell.
One day way downstream from here where the tiny crick merges with a tiny river I hauled two really fat whitefish and a sizeable brown of about 15-inches (perhaps 16-17-inches so long as honest to God truth isn't an issue).

One day several years ago Gale pitched her go-to Orange Stimulator, four times to, as I recall, the first pool she tried that day and hooked--a brook, a cuttbow, a gorgeous cutthroat (had to be pure strain although a fisheries buddy would argue vehemently against it)and an arctic grayling. The fifth cast also brought a vicious strike but no hook up so we had no choice but to officially call the phenomenal run of luck (leavened nicely of course with excellent fishing technique)good and move on...

The bad news to an otherwise paradisical spot is about every three years in four cows are allowed in over summer. In the worst years "bovine stomped" is truly an understatement...and while I can't prove it with each invasion the crick seems to get a bit wider and a bit shallower and damn how we wish the USFS would step in and do something...like a little bobbed whar would do this little piece of heaven a world of good...besides there's plenty of evidence out there nobody, including the cows and the rancher's bottom line would suffer.

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