Makes you Wonder

Makes you Wonder…

If you have your eyes open on the steam, every so often you see something that reminds one of the wonders of nature, and how those things are probably meant to be beyond man’s understanding.

One such thing happened to me yesterday late afternoon Saturday, October 29, the 2nd last day of catch and keep season.

The park was pretty crowded, no doubt with fishermen wanting to fill their freezers for the coming winter. ( It’s not for me, but to each his own, I guess. )

I was fishing by the boulder at Montauk, experimenting with new flies and different techniques, picking up the occasional small fish, but not enough to feel the confidence that, “ This is it !”. That stretch down 100 yards, got plenty of fishing pressure throughout the weekend and certainly the few hours I was there.

One by one, the people melted away around 3:30 until I had the whole stretch to myself. As I was making my way downstream, I noticed on the left side by the second gravel bar, a cleaned off area that had been somewhat dug out in less than a foot of fast moving water. There were no fish in the area, so I sloughed off the minor oddity.

After about a half hour of unsuccessfully fishing soft hackle by the leaning sycamore on the right side, I decided to call it a day once it started misting.

As I was ambling back up stream, I looked over at the odd spot I’d seen before. To my amazement, fluttering nervously around that obvious “redd” was a huge female rainbow.  She was at least 24” long and had a bright florescent red stripe along her side. She had a wound on her back as if she’d been pecked by a blue heron recently.

Swarming near the redd were a dozen 10-12 inch trout. It would have been nice to think they were there waiting to fertilize her eggs. But more likely they were there to gobble them up as soon as she released them. No larger prospective males were to be seen.

Since the fish was extremely skittish, plus it’s considered unsportsmanlike to fish to a trout on a redd, I simply watched the ballet.

I say it was a thing of wonder for several reasons. First, that trout had been hatchery raised and had found a way to survive and grow under constant fishing pressure, as well as attacks by predators.

Secondly, it had reverted back to its instinctual, wild nature and somehow knew under adverse conditions, what it was supposed to do: reproduce. Sure, it had hormones nudging along its behavior, yet the fish wasn’t taught to act that way.

It’s beyond me how this happens.

Lastly, this is the 3rd year in a row, I’ve spotted a large trout on a redd in that vicinity. (Scott, I’m sure you remember it too).

Now I don’t have evidence to prove it, but I’m pretty certain it has been the same trout each time, getting bigger every year.

If that beautiful female can make it through the last day of catch and keep season, it has a good chance (but no guarantee) to make it until next March.

To be honest, I’m kinda rooting for that big girl to make it !

– DanStag  Nov 30, 2022