Sometimes It All Comes Together

We all know that March progresses forward in fits and starts. We might enjoy a day or two of nice weather that is followed by several with nasty rain or snow and howling winds. This makes it tough to experience consistency in the outdoors.

My favorite activities in March are listening for gobblers at daybreak and later fishing one of the specially regulated trout streams that are open to fishing prior to the opening day of the regular season. Some mornings I might hear excited gobbling from the big turkeys; other mornings, nothing. The same is true of fishing: Some days I pick up only a few fish in a couple of hours, but on occasion, it seems that almost every trout in the stream is biting. Rarely do I run into great gobbling and fine fishing on the same March day. Last spring, however, March 22 was such a day.

Although it was only 24 degrees at dawn, I was parked along a back road where I could hear for quite a distance along a local ridge. After the initial singing of a cardinal or two, the gobblers began to holler. Several vocal toms were spread out along the side of the ridge. They were really "spitting it out." Since I knew it was a gobbling morning, I drove my old Ranger to several other spots before the sun brightened things. At each stop I heard at least one or two gobblers. This turned out to be the best gobbling I heard all spring.

After heading in for a nap and then a mid-morning breakfast, I decided to drive to a fine stream that is open to fishing prior to regular trout season. This stretch of specially regulated water is not very long but has two sections to fish. Generally it is fished heavily, but on this late-morning/early-afternoon adventure it was not being mobbed. I rigged up with a pair of small nymphs and fished my way up the first section and picked up trout regularly. After a short water break, I fished the other stretch. I was hoping to find blue-winged olives hatching, but there were none. I hoped they hadn't been killed off as they have been on a couple of my favorite streams. My nymphs continued to attract trout, and I ended up with more trout – including several dandies – than you might believe an old guy could land in a couple of hours.

Things do not often all come together like this on a March day.