High water, cold weather, attending conservation meetings and myriad chores around the cabin have severely curtailed my recent fishing time. Barb and I finally did make use of our Pennsylvania licenses during a trip to the Lackawanna River below Carbondale. The river temperature was 55 degrees and the flow was ideal. Unfortunately, there were very few insects hatching. Because of the lack of insect activity, I elected to fish a nymph. After two hours of careful fishing, I was still looking for my first hit. Now Barbara Ann would rather eat grits with red eye gravy than fish a nymph. She would fish a dry fly in a snowstorm. Her preference for the dry fly paid off this day. When 1 caught up with her, she was playing a small Brown trout and cheerily informed me that she had caught two others. One of those had been nearly a foot long. She graciously suggested that I fish at the head of the pool where she had been successful: If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. I switched from a nymph to a dry fly. Despite this, I might as well have been casting my fly up on the old railroad bed that parallels the river in this area. No trout rose to take my fly. 'Twas another day of fruitless casting for the Tangler, while the little lady basked in glory. Some days life is not fair.

A week later, we rode over the hill and fished the Willowemoc in the afternoon. The stream had a nice flow of water, but again little or no insect activity. We both struck out. I did see Barb raise a fish to a size 14n White Wulff. The fish either rejected the fly at the last moment or simply missed it. It seemed to me that was an odd fly to show the fish, then again, none of my choices had drawn even a look from a trout. We were fishing the area of the Hazel sub station pool and the braided area below the pool. Very nice looking water but no one would come out to play.

Today, two old fishing friends, Jim and Ed Graham, will arrive and we will make one last foray in search of our Moby Dick. The great white trout of the Delaware. Perhaps fortune will smile on us and we will run into a hatch of Blue Winged Olives and the trout will be rising. If not, we will at least have the delight of sharing a river with old friends. I have come to realize that this is a greater pleasure than even that of hooking a large trout.

At this time of year many mature Browns have ascended into the tributaries of the Main Stem. There they are spawning in order to produce the 18 to 20-inch fish of 2004. Come spring, the little fry will emerge from the egg. Of all the thousands of fertilized eggs deposited in the gravel of the Main Stem tributaries, less than one percent will reach the size of 18 inches. Predators, pollution, floods and fishermen will winnow away their numbers until only a very few trout of remarkable size will remain. We fishers are very efficient predators. If we are to have the chance to catch large trout, we must return smaller fish to the water. One has to be aware that a small trout stuffed into a creel is one less that might attain a length of 18 inches or more. Try to remember that the next time you might be about to kill a small fish. We all have it within our power to improve our trout fishing. The most obvious and direct way is to limit our kill. There are also more subtle ways. One of which of is the revegatating of bare stream banks, thus reducing erosion and flooding. The Upper Delaware Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been planting 2,000 willows each year along the banks of Hankins Creek and the North Branch of Callicoon Creek. That sounds like a lot until you see how quickly an eroded, bare bank eats up 2,000 willows. Never the less, is it not better to light one candle than to simply curse the darkness? If you do not wish to physically join us in planting willows, a small contribution to the Upper Delaware Chapter would allow us to plant even more of them come next spring. Ah yes, the address is PO Box 100, Long Eddy, New York, 12760. At the very least, if you are a fisher, join one of the organizations that are working to improve our fishing such as Trout Unlimited or the Federation of Fly Fishers.

Aha! The Graham brothers have arrived. I will cease preaching and go a fishing.