The First Day of Winter 2011

Yesterday was the first day of winter, and if every day of winter could be the same as the first it would be OK with me.
After having thunderstorms the night before the day broke to sunshine with a promise to reach temps in the 50's. That's all that was needed to finalize our plans.
Jeanette and I soon packed a lunch and left to locate a new stream, one that was told to me by Kirk, at  Trout Quest Redux. His directions were good, but I missed the stream somehow. So rather searching its location and loosing time fishing we decided to fish another wild trout stream familiar to us.
We had a wonderful day. I had the pleasure of some brookies coming to hand, we enjoyed a stream side lunch, and took in some natural woodland beauty.
We realize days like these are few, luckily we were able to take advantage.

This first deep run of the stream produced a quick response. The trout came from under the wood and missed the fly. Not giving up on the promising water, I let the fly work again and again. I was rewarded with the ability to take a photo of a brook trout.

The brookies were taking the fly in the middle to top portion of the stream.

A stream side lunch. Ham and cheese on rye can be so delicious when served outdoors.

This section of this little stream is a favorite. Its a long run with riffles and some deeper channels. It usually gives a fish or two. The hemlocks provided some cover, and the wet fly was to much to resist. The trout that came to hand was a wild tiger trout.

The tiger is a very strong fish. They fight with the tenacity of a bear. A 2wt gets a workout.

As we were leaving, this tree looked so right.