An Affair with Mother Nature

The following six pieces are just but a few of the events that have been witnessed while on the river fishing. The “Netting of a Trout” was an experience my cousin Ed and I enjoyed together in our early attempts at trout fishing. It is a short piece that connects to trout behavior.  “Ausable River Monster” is a piece that has not been forgotten.  The trout behavior in this was surprising and lasted only seconds. And left the writer stunned that he was able to witness the event - plus, having a fellow fly fisher actually catch the monster a few days later. The “Exceptional Take” is about adequate food, a feeding trout, cautious casting and line handling, precise fly presentation, the trout’s take of the fly, setting the hook and playing the trout. “Rain Drop Rises” is about mistaking a rise of a trout to a mayfly for drops of water making a watery disturbance on the river surface. It is a lesion on observation, studding the water, recognizing the hatching of mayflies and the patient waiting to be sure of the feeding trout’s location and placement of the correct fly pattern to the trout’s feeding lane. The piece “Break-Off, ------ the Final Jump” is another piece about trout’s behavior. While many fishermen may have encountered the same experience, not all of the have connected to the reason why the final jump happened. The “Pacific Salmon Altercation” is about piece experienced on the Salmon River that was totally unbelievable to the writer when it occurred. While the event has been told to many friends, it is not sure how many really believed that it happened.