I'm awake...

Yeah, I know.  It's been a while.  Now, I don't feel the need to apologize, but let's just say I feel the need to explain myself.  

See,  winter is my favorite time of year - but daylight and ice make time-that-could-be-spent-fishing hard to come by, and I'd rather be on the water than behind a computer screen.  So after my hiatus, I'm back on Dudewater, and hoping that my excusable absence won't be quite so long this next time.

Maybe what prompted me to come back was the seventy degree day I spent on the water last Sunday.  Or maybe it was the stonefly hatch on this particular trout stream that all but necessitated a buff over my face to keep  'em out of my mouth.  Or maybe it was the sound of birds on the creek whose songs I haven't heard since the fall.  Even though on some days it doesn't feel like it - it's already the middle of March, and spring is almost here.

As much as I love standing alongside a waist-deep, wintergreen steelhead run in a snow squall, I'm about ready to bring on the bugs, the boat, salty air and big 'poons.  March to me means Hendrickson's - and trout eating them.  Rapids or ocean waves slapping up against the side of a boat.  Silver fish pouring into our rivers.  Warmer, longer days.  Green showing up again on the river bank and in the trees.  Trout season.

I can't wait.