Morning Light

At this season it is more subdued, fighting through cloud cover to greet the day. It is neither orange nor golden, but some stirred mix of those hues, starkly contrasted by the snow.

Summer, and I am wading with all of the stealth I can muster as morning light spreads from the crests of the surrounding mountains. The surface of the river here is a great mirror. If I do not keep my concentration upon my goal, I will be swept away by the stillness and the beauty.

I carry a lithe cane rod at my side, and it is hoped to be my foil against the strength and wildness of the trout which slowly cruise this pool at daybreak.

At a whim of remembrance long before daylight, I had tied a handful of these bright olive duns, envisioning their gray CDC wings alive on these very currents. I can see the cruisers begin their dance, one here, one there, and the excitement urges me to move faster, but I know that would be my undoing. My knees quiver as I forcibly slow my pace.

At last, I find a swirl just forty feet away, pull line from the reel and wait. The fish wander aimlessly it seems, and the cast must come at the gentle sipping rise obscured by those swirls. There can be only one cast per rise, and it must fall within seconds of the swirl.

Another swirl and my line is in the air, the smooth arch of the bamboo taking the fly to a spot just upstream with hope in my pounding heart that he has not turned…

He rockets away as I raise the rod, and it is all I can do to guide the loose line toward the stripper until the music of the reel breaks the quiet spell of dawn!

I am thrice blessed this morning, for patience and stealth have guided me. I have controlled the urge to send that fateful second cast when the first has not been taken. So simple a reaction has ended the game before!

In my eyes this morning light reflects upon the surface of that still pool, and I feel the goosebumps rising on my skin, the warm caress of the mountain air amid the chill of the rising mist. Alas, the reflecting light dances on the snow this morning and summer lies far away…