Tuscarora

Yesterday I drove up switchbacks
through the Tuscarora Mountains
       - these that create a a few fertile valleys in central Pennsylvania-
to a small stream with native brook trout and wild brown trout.

Most people wouldn't consider driving
this far just to fish a small stream.
Destinations are different
for those of us who like to spend
their days in large swaths of public forests
on water with wild trout
​and no people. 

It was still cold in the morning,
April has been a long March,
and a black woolly bugger jigged 
through the deep pools
worked until noon. 

The sun stretched itself out over the valley
by early afternoon.
Bugs - caddis, midges, a few black stoneflies - 
little puffs of bug smoke 
in the warm spots. 

There was a pool that, 
with every cast of my caddis,
a trout would strike it. 
This, that little ten foot pool 
and those hungry fish, 
is always worth the drive. 

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