Small Streams Forever!

It is mid-April as I write this, well ahead of this summer issue's appearance.

- Bob DeMott

It might be hard to believe, but a stream small enough to cross in one step played home to this hefty brown trout.

'Mute unity of water...' Tim Harrison, "The Theory and Practice of Rivers"

The landscape is starting to bloom in earnest. The air smells buoyant, more fragrant and hopeful. Ruffed grouse are drumming in the woods; woodcock, back from their southern wintering grounds, have been sky dancing in nearby fields to find mates; and the first strong hatches of caddis and quill Gordons — two early season insects that trout relish the way we love candy — are emerging on rivers. This resplendent Hallelujah activity, thankfully on cue every spring, opens a door, in my mind anyway, to a lifetime of angling memories and a reaffirmation of what is valuable. Sometimes the best part of fishing is counting blessings.

According to tradition, in the middle of the last century, April signaled the opening of trout season in the northeastern United States. Seasonal angling regulations are no longer so regimented now, but back in the day, the trout opener was as exciting as Christmas, a birthday or the last day of school in June. So exciting, in fact, that I could hardly sleep the night before an opener, up all hours checking tackle, tying flies, anticipating the arc of the glorious day to come. In The Seasonable Angler, my friend Nick Lyons got it right when he noted the “madness of Opening Day fever.”