Rock Creek Trout

I am wary of Winter's gray song.  I don't like to stay inside.  I pull on layers and position the gear in the bed of the truck.  Drive to Rock Creek and suit up: neoprene waders, fleece toboggan, nail-knot multi-tool, fly rod, 2 flies, creel.  In that order.  Stalk the creek through the riparian thicket. Crouch and observe the activity; tie two on about a foot apart with the brown sow bug trailing the bead-headed, gray sow bug.  Call it the best of both worlds.  Roll cast; dead drift; swing; repeat.  The air must be slush.  It should be snowing, rather the flakes are suspended, invisible.  Have to adjust for that, a little more oomph.  Water congeals on the line as I strip it; freezes and clogs the guides.  One more cast before I must retreat to the covert and break the ice.  Roll cast; mend; dead drift; swing; repeat.  Her silver belly rolls out of the water, lets slip her girth as she takes the gray one, flexes the tip, and snap.  She bites it off cleanly and leaps away through the slush.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Trout Stocking--Family and Community Fishing Program is a valuable allocation of our public funds.  They stock municipal waters with thousands of farm-raised trout throughout the winter months to stir an outdoor lover's coals during the gelid hours.  Take advantage of it sometime.  

--MJF