Christmas Trout

Christmas Rainbow Trout

Christmas Eve was spent on the river catching up on some much needed trout fishing. I had actually planned to fish Christmas morning because none of the kids were coming home this Christmas and since they are all out West I could easily fish Christmas morning and be home in time to connect with them Christmas afternoon. I was sure to have the river to myself. Every time I checked the forecast it was worse than the last. I decided freezing temps with wind gust up to thirty miles per hour was too much for an old fisherman regardless of how bad I wanted to be on the water to shed some pent up stress baggage.

As Texas would have it, however, when I checked the weather for Christmas Eve, conditions were forecast to be perfect. A Christmas Eve trip began to take form. I might not have the river to myself, especially since the weather was going to be so much nicer than Christmas Day, but if I fished in the evening instead of the morning that might improve my odds for uncrowded waters.

I stopped in Mineral Wells for lunch then drove on to the river arriving about two. There were a few vehicles parked at the bridge but when I got down to the river I saw only a couple of fisherman downstream and a father and young son across the river fishing the pool just below the bridge. I made a few cast there but decided to leave that pool to them and move above the bridge where I thought I had seen a few rises. The flow in the river was good which was a Christmas blessing because it had been a trickle at 20 cfs for the past week. It's difficult to do a dead drift presentation if you can't get anything to drift.

Sure enough there were a few fish rising about fifty yards upstream of the bridge. I caught three or four of the ten inch hatchery trout drifting an emerger pattern beneath a dry fly. As usual once I declared to myself that I had the trick for trout that day they quit taking my offering and I had to search my medicine bag for new magic. I think the fish gods do that to punish you for patting yourself on the back. Anyway I decided a Griffith's Gnat might be in order and they loved it.

I have heard some of the elitist fly fisherman talk down to fly fisherman that fish for the hatchery trout here in Texas and I agree it's not as good as it gets but how many of us can afford to fly off to where the fish are wild and... are wild fish in these remote places that maybe have not ever seen an artificial fly really that much harder to catch than a trout raised in a hatchery...maybe, maybe not. The hatchery trout serve to keep my skills honed and keep me in tune with the equations that equal fish in the hand and they get me outdoors where my soul can breathe again.

This trip had the added bonus of giving a couple of youngsters their first lesson in fly fishing. They left with a limit of trout and a father thankful enough for the assistance that he asked for my name twice and offered me a beer and a cigarette. I declined but thanked him for both and wished him a Merry Christmas as I waded back across the river under my red and green Christmas hat.