These are the known facts. The stream holds trout and fishermen sometimes fish for them and sometimes they bite.

Trout do things here

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is much conjecture about every other circumstance.

The trout have not been here since the beginning of time; the stream wasn’t even here until the Wisconsin Glacial Episode. In the next epoch the rocks and till will  be worn into fine powder or trapped and redistributed in retreat.

The path to the edge of the bank was muddy from the recent rain and when I stepped onto the rocks in the stream bed mud swirled around my boots. There are other things I could have been doing but freedom of choice extends only so far into the continuum–80 years with luck and genetic fortitude.

I chose a wooly bugger. I liked the way the rod felt as the line loaded on the back cast, and I liked the way the line came tight in my hand.