Something About a Trout

There is something about a trout, 

Something that forces us, pushes us out there like no other fish species seems to on such a large scale. That is not to say I don’t enjoy catching bass on a lure or even carp in some city pond, but neither of those experiences equate, even remotely, to that of fishing for wild trout. 

Wild trout have pushed me to see a world most only guess at. A world right out their backdoors and yet as foreign to them as some realm of the fae. I am fortunate enough to have seen and experienced some of the most amazing natural landscapes. 

I have seen the sunrise over desert cliffs concealing the river below, 

A place where the colors of the rising son cast a god willed image of water color across the cool morning sky, reflected in the moving water swirling and stirring all around me. 

I have watched as big horn sheep battle high above my head, their horns crashing into each other, sending a great crack ripping through the valley around me as my line floats lazily infant of me, attempting to dead drift a fly. 

I have stalked a moose drinking solemnly from the cool Fall River water as leaves cascade from the trees over head, beckoning the changing of the season. All the time waiting for a trout to strike. 

There is something about a trout. 

Their allure and mystery, the challenge of catching, tricking a trout to strike, to rise to a floating fly drifting silently through chilly water. This has driven me to new places, new experiences. Things I may never have seen had I not been bitten by this trout bug. 

I know not everyone may see this the way I do. Not everyone has been blessed enough to hold one of these speckled beauties, hands dripping, standing in a cool river while nature exists all around you. Not simply an observer to some wild place, but an active participant in the landscape all around us. 

And so I know not everyone will understand what I mean when I say, 

There is something about a trout.