Green Awareness Hits Home

Well, it is funny but cynical old me seems to be on a bit of a “green awareness” binge.

I visited one of my favourite urban fishing spots two nights ago. This was my “go to” place for Trophy Trout during the heat of summer; a spring fed little pool on the edge of a big lake. The Speckled Trout would stack up there to get relief from the oxygen starved, warm water of the lake. They were there all through the dog days of summer.



The small, spring-cooled brook seeped through the boulder-strewn bottom and the fish would lay in the shaded protection between the rocks. The tops of the rocks were inches below the surface but the actual bottom was any where from two feet to four feet below that. A well-placed fly would raise those big Trout from their shelter in the crevasses and make for an amazingly exciting and challenging dry fly fishing experience.

Since my last trip there, a big construction project has been active across the highway and up the hill from the secret spot. It may be a coincidence but all the gaps and channels between the boulders are now filled, a couple of feet deep, with fine sediment. There is no place for the fish to lie. I did catch a few tiny eight inch'ers on the outer edge of what used to be the pool but the Trophy Trout are gone. I hope that it is just that they dispersed throughout the lake, but who knows?

Smallmouth Bass are as plentiful as ever so there is no obvious sign of the tragedy that has occurred. I will never know if the construction project was the cause. It is too late now anyway. Something precious has already been lost.