What Was I Doing One Year Ago?

With my local lake shut down from the last Saturday of October to the last Saturday of April, I was making a two hour drive south to fish Rocky Ford Creek, a spring creek open year round. I would make a couple of trips a month from November to March. It was a sure cure for the winter blues and cabin fever.

The day represented by these photos was a very good day, but I seldom went fishless. I would wend my way through the cattails to my favorite spot on the bank (no wading allowed) and spend hours casting a variety of flies to rising, waking trout. Some of those trout are of the husky variety, and I know my heart is relatively healthy because I survived slamming takes and heartbreaking losses of a few of those salmonid slabs.

On this trip I caught fish on nymphs--scuds were particularly effective, and that big red midge would give me more than one good day--but I also hooked some nice fish on a little mayfly dry. These fish were looking for something to bite down on, and muddlers and stimulators fished dry were also go to flies. There's nothing like big trout on a dry in the dead of winter.

Much could be said about those trips to Rocky Ford, and I may succumb to more reminiscing in the future. I miss them, particularly because I don't have a similar outlet here yet. But a whole season of exploring local waters is just ahead, and I will be looking for places that might fish well in January when the temp rises to 64 like it did today.

So I have to wonder. What will I be doing one year from now?