Rivers

TROUT

Hangs, a fat gun-barrel,
deep under arched bridges
or slips like butter down
the throat of the river.
From the depths smooth-skinned as plums
his muzzle gets bull's eye;
picks off grass-seed and moths
that vanish, torpedoed.
Where water unravels
over gravel-beds he
is fired from the shallows
white belly reporting
flat; darts like a tracer-
bullet back between stones
and is never burnt out.
A volley of cold blood
ramrodding the current.
by Seamus Heaney

About a year ago, I got to writing down all of the rivers I had tried fly fishing on...between 1996 and 2009. Here is what I came up with.

Colorado
 
Frying Pan
Roaring Fork
Colorado
Crystal
La Poudre
Little Charleston
Elk
Boulder Creek
Blue
South Platte

Montana

Yellowstone
Firehole
Madison
Gibbon
Stillwater
Beaverhead
Bighorn
Soda Butte

Minnesota

Whitewater
Browns Creek
Root
Mill Stream
St. Croix
Mississippi
Valley Creek
Split rock
Beaver
Gooseberry
Cannon
Temperance
Baptism
Hay Creek

Michigan

Two Hearted
Fox
Pere Marquette
Little Mannistee

Wisconsin

Spring Valley
Namekagon
Rush
Kinnickinnic
Willow
Apple
Clam
Sand Creek
Cave Creek
Lost Creek
Bois Brule
Trimbelle

Bead Head Pheasant Tail Nymph, size 18.
Sulphur compara-duns, size 16.
Parachute Adams, size 18.
Light Cahill, size 20.
Partridge and Green, size 14 and up.

Stoneflies, caddisflies and mayflies. I get a little nostalgic when it's cold and there is no snow on the ground, which inevitably leads me to a fishing story.