We have been blessed with fantastic weather since summer. However, it has come with a price- little to no water ! We have received some back like my previous blog mentioned, but we are still inches short from what we normally should have. November turned out to be one of our warmest ever on record. And, December has been very mild, too ! I’m not complaining though since it has made for some very comfortable fishing days even on our ” frosty ” mornings.

Yesterday was predicted to be another 50 degree day so I decided to hike and explore some more water on this side of the state to assess the damages from our persistent drought. I went to a stream that is stocked in some sections, and may have had some fingerlings put in at some point, but remains predominantly wild in the majority of it. It doesn’t appear to receive much pressure based upon what little trash I came across. I hope it stays that way. It is a jem of a stream and will do my best to protect it. As you can see, it holds decent size wild fish. I’m glad that they survived the summer  and hope they’ll survive this winter, too. We definitely need to keep chipping away at our drought. Anchor ice is one of the greatest winter threats to a trout stream- especially if it is low and the bitter cold hangs in for weeks at a time like last winter.  Perhaps mother nature will be kind this winter.