Let's not forget why we came

Today was the final warm up for trout season, which starts March 26. For those of you who don't own, or understand, how to use a calendar, that's next Saturday. I won't be out Saturday, but I'll be back at John's Creek on Sunday. Because Sundays are for fishing. And sometimes Saturday too. And whatever other days we can go.

I didn't catch any trout today. In fact, the only thing I caught were bream. One of them was big and feisty, though. Tell me those little fish can't put up a fight, and I'll tell you to go to hell. I saw some trout, but didn't have anything they wanted to eat today. I fished all through Rolater Park in Cave Spring, from the Cedartown Road Bridge, over to the Padlock Mountain Road bridge, and down behind the grocery store. A guy under the Padlock bridge caught a thirteen inch rainbow on powerbait. Maybe I need to stop being such a purist, and then I'd catch more trout.

Yesterday, I went to John's Creek and knocked some of those dams down. The one big one just upstream from the logging road crossing was already down, so I worked on the one in the curve where the creek is right next to the road. It's a monster. Well, it was a monster. I reckon it still is, but it's scattered about along fifty feet of stream bed. And there were trout feeding in the swimming hole while I was working. Hiking downstream from the stocking tube, I found another one and knocked some holes in it. About a quarter mile downstream from that one there is one more, but I was getting tired and hungry, so we'll save that one for the future.

Back to trout season, it starts Saturday, as I said, and they will be stocking thousands of hungry rainbows in creeks all over North Georgia. And we must catch and eat them. My fishing license expires tomorrow, so I'll be at Dick's Sporting Goods in Woodstock to renew it and also buy some polarized glasses and a leader straightener. I've amassed a good bit of fly fishing equipment in the past three months in preparation for our trip to the Conasauga River in April, which is just about a month away. I almost have everything I need, except a perculator, and more practice fly casting. I'll get some in the next few weeks.