Thursday, June 9, 2011

ohhhhh that smell....

It's the height of a busy guide season & spare time is at a premium right now.  Not much time to update this blog, let alone being able to spend time with family & friends.  I guess that's the price of running your own business & being on the water when the Trout want you to be.  It is truly a wonderful time of the year to be a fishing guide, the forest is alive and the rivers are teeming with life.  Being able to share this bounty with others is very fullfilling, so much nowadays that i'd rather have a new angler catch a great Trout than myself to have the opportunity.  The joy that fills one new to the sport when the hook into a quality trout is unexplainable.

Lately the conifers here have been pollinating or whatever it's called. I'm guessing as my truck has been covered with a yellowy looking powder every morning.  The other night on the river my clients & I had to hide off in the woods as a heavy storm rolled through that dumped biblical amounts of rain as well as heavy thunder & lighting.  After the storm several nice trout were brought to hand & we had a journey out in the dark form the river after fishing.  I couldn't help but notice an overpowering wonderful smell of pine.  It was like nothing I had ever smelled in my life before, so aromatic & just downright pleasing.  I'm guessing it was form the pines being damp & this pollen being present.  I have never smelled this before & it was quite the treat leaving the forest with this in the air.  The essence of the woods during trout season.......

2 comments:

  1. Brad- you captured that so well. I've been there, though when I smelled it I was in my yard. Still, trout streams do have their own odor, and each year it awakens memories long buried, and stirs new hope. You live and work in a fantastic place, and I hope that you, like me, pinch yourself each day to see if it's real.

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  2. For years, I've smelled a really wonderful smell in certain places in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ontario. It's an earthy sweet smell that is often subtle. A friend thinks it is from the buds of the balm of gilead (aka balsam popple.) I've noticed the smell right in the city of Iron River, which has a lot of popple on the outskirts.

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