Back in time

[clyde holmes]

Your not alone JC. Many times when I take a break from fishing, I sit there and let my mind wander too what must have been. Im sure there are others who feel the same

[Fly Goddess]

Your not alone JC. Many times when I take a break from fishing, I sit there and let my mind wander too what must have been. Im sure there are others who feel the same

I do this also, but sometimes I get scared it won't come back

[littlebrook]

I suspect that most of us do the same thing, wonder what it was like, or even REMEMBER what it was like many years ago.

There's a small stream not too far from where I live in northern Michigan that 40 years ago was a brook trout nursery. It was also an over-wintering home for brookies. I remember catching brook trout of relatively gargantuan dimensions (over 20"!) but those days are gone. (Yes, even then I was returning them to the 'crick'.) Lumbering has continued to put sand in the stream, beavers have impounded much of it, it's far too warm to support much more than chubs and suckers.
But that's only one stream. There are still others where the little brookies thrive. Haven't 'danced" with any big ones in quite some time though.
I guess the idea is to enjoy now what we have now and do what we can to preserve or improve it.

Bill

Bill

[J Castwell]

For sure Bill. You have some wild country there, fight to hang on to it. Too much of it is being eaten away each day.

[darrell]

As much time as I spend in the outdoors, I still find myself with those same thoughts. I've been in similar places - and it's quite easy to project Voyageurs, trappers, explorers, natives crossing the area. Someone trying their hand at fishing a productive hole for the first time ever .... But too often I find more and more 'humans were here' signs imprinted / scarred into the area. Most of these places are sitting there, waiting for someone to scr*w it up for a parking lot or resort in the hills.

However, there do remain places within reach that are basically untouched by development. Wild & reproducing (not native) brookies and rainbows inhabit freestone streams, taking readily to a dry, nymph, or wet - just so they can eat. For large and native (yes, native) brookies, we need to go to the Hudson's Bay drain system - God's River, Seal River, et. al. Yes - Manitoba does have prime brook trout fisheries (native and wild). I'll enjoy them for now - even take someone along if they show up on the doorstep.

It's a give and take - give and promote the natural wealth we have - and take the steps we can to protect and preserve it.

To quote Red Green ..... we're in this together ...

[Pemi-Man]

Being 27, and living in eastern MA makes it hard to imagine what the area was like "way back then". I try to spend as much time as I can fishing in the backcountry of NH in the national forests where 99.9% of people are too lazy to walk farther than they can see in order to fish. I fish the freestone rivers and streams where the brookies are wild, all-be-it smaller and I have miles worth of river to myself. There are no sounds from passing cars, no houses, no dams and not really any people. The rivers are very different...no mud, no gravel, a few sweepers on occassion, but mostly stone. I'm happy there fishing all day for my small brookies even if I only get a few, I enjoy it more than catching the larger bow's and browns in western MA.

I'm happy that there are still places like this.
I wish all the rivers and streams were like that...

-Pemi