A Visit To Brook Trout Forest

This was an outing that I took on the last day of February. As I entered the dirt service road that leads to the stream I was amazed to see it was actually driveable by something other than a 4x4. The only issue was the shoulders which were very suspect. The morning felt like April, warm sunshine a cloudless sky, and not a breeze. I had hoped to visit this stream which runs through "brook trout forest" earlier in the new year but weather conditions did not warrant the long trip. This is a stream I know well from my many trips here over many years. It is a stunning piece of real estate with all of the peace and solitude a small stream angler could ask for.

Please come along with me.

The Honda parked in the soft shoulder of the road. As the tires sank into the mud not a worry crossed my mind for this was the start of a day I had waited for for almost a year. Worry was to come at the end of the day as I walked back. I had taken a rod that I have not fished in years a Cabela's TQR 5' 2wt graphite.

The little forest stream. It doesn't look like a winter setting.

This section of stream has alway's been a favorite of mine. Spring is a good time to fish this section for the reason the briars are in check. Come May you can forget it. In the photo you can see a fallen tree in the stream. Just a short way up from it on the right you can see a tree. That tree has a platform that I stand on that enables me to fish the run. I have used that tree platform for a lot of years.

This wild jewel was lurking in the broken water just downstream from my platform.

There are several of these seeps that flow into the stream. I enjoy walking up them to see whats in them. Along this one I saw nothing in the stream but I flushed two woodcock. They must have been shocked when March came around.

The sun shinning down on the amber waters. Any angler who see a spot like this knows there has to be a trout there. Several drifts of the fly and....

....another healthy wild brook trout was at hand.

Another trout hot spot. Several hookups but nothing to hand.

Now this section looks like tidewater in a coastal stream, maybe it is? I walked along the bank and saw several fish scatter. I was willing to accept the fact I was not going to be able to fish this section. Vibrations and shadows were killing me. So I cast the fly out and just let the current take the fly as far as it would. It drifted and it was eaten.

Another wild one. So my day was nearing an end. I moved to higher ground which made the walk back much easier.

Remember the platform, here it is. The roots still hold the bank and still hold the angler who loves this place, this stream and all who dwell in "brook trout forest".