It is what it is.

A-hhhh. What a relaxing weekend up in Northern Michigan!

I am constantly amazed at the country up there. Each and every trip up there are new sights seen, new trout waters to fish discovered and new things learned.

The fishing was great! We didn't catch alot of fish though. The statement that the fishing was great seems awfully contradictory don't it? But it's not. There are many things that entail fishing.

So, I'm walking along the bank of a secluded Michigan stream on Friday night. There are Brown Drakes coming off the water and there are trout feeding on them. It is dusk, getting dark. I'm slowly, carefully making my way up stream through the tall grass, sweeping cedars and pines that are the vigilant sentry's of the stream. I am captivated by the stream and the "working" trout. I have a specific target ("working" trout) I'm trying to get to ... moving slowly, carefully, quietly.

I go to take my next step, taking my eyes of the stream for just a moment to check my footing and I almost, very nearly, stepped on this:

Now, This is fishing! I did not catch many trout that night. I caught one real nice, fat, 10 inch brown but seeing that fawn, at most 3 days old, is the most prevalent memory I have of the evening!

I didn't catch many fish at all the entire weekend. But the experience of seeing wild brook trout in a recovering ecosystem generated an equal excitement as did hearing the pileated woodpecker and the "Whoooooooo" of the owl.

Sitting by the campfire with my brother, enjoying a fine cigar with a glass of world class bourbon, viewing the expanse of the heavens, philosophizing about God, Man, nature and grasping that with even all the knowledge we have here on earth, about earth, the universe, the science and the physics of it all, we really, in the grand scheme of things, don't know much at all. We claim we do. But were just full of ourselves, oblivious of our own ignorance.

Nope, I didn't catch many trout at all. 3 total. But that's fishing. That's the way it's supposed to be. Catching Trout? Man! That just a bonus!