From the files of Donald R. Kirk:
Part 3. Catching a Trout
In my previous blog I discuss Mayflies and decide to use one of my artificial flies to catch an East Creek trout. Shielded by grass I sit in the shade of an aspen tree a few feet back from the creek. Slowly I lower the imitation fly out over the water with my long pole. While I can’t see the fly, I can tell when it has reached the creek’s surface by the downstream slant of the line. Dozens of mayflies now flutter over the water. More splashes are heard. Suddenly, a solid strike on my line and I lift a nice 12–inch trout out of the water, over the grass, and land it flopping right beside me. This is a first! Never before have I caught a fish when I’m this far back from the water where I can’t see most of the creek. I whack the fish on its head with pliers and lay it on the bed of grass in my wicker creel. Hurriedly I clean the fly, whip the rod back and forth through the air a few times to dry the fly, and then lower it again out of sight on the stream’s surface. Nothing happens. I let it drift, still out of sight, downstream 10 or 15 feet when, whammo! a solid strike, and I lift another beautiful trout out of the water and over the grass.
Time passes as I remain in the shade of the aspen. How much better can fishing get than this? Once again I let the fly drift out of sight downstream. Again a strike, heavy enough that it tells me this is a bigger fish. Big enough, in fact, that it gets hung up in the grass only inches from the water. I scrabble on hands and knees through the grass and grab the 15–inch trout. A very nice fish. Three fish are enough for today, and I’m getting very damp from mucking around in all this grass. I head for my pickup to drive back to camp.
Find out how to cook trout on p. 39 of The Road to Beaver Park, Painting, Perception, and Pilgrimage (Resource Pub. 2016).