Water is life. A river is water. Therefore...

I think I've read Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It at least a couple of times and watched the movie once or twice. An all-time favorite quotation of mine comes from the novel:

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”

a famous trout stream near "The Cities"

Photo by J. Harrington

For most of my adult life, I too have been haunted by waters. In my case it was first the Atlantic Ocean and several of the rivers that feed into it. Since moving to Minnesota, I've been drawn more to the  area's rivers than its lakes. Superior is the exception because it is an inland sea lacking only a salt tang in the air. My copy of Maclean's book is coming off of the library shelf and put in the stack for reading next Winter, when trout, fly-fishing, and much of the open water of our rivers are but temporally distant fantasies. To accompany  the novel, I'll look at the wonderful photography recently published in the Star Tribune under the title of Maclean's novel and eponymous movie. You can see it yourself if you follow this link: A river runs through it. For my taste, it's one of the better things the Strib has published.

fingerling trout in a "Trout in the Classroom" aquarium

Photo by J. Harrington

Having fished an ocean and several of the West's more famous trout streams, I admit a bias against narrow, brush-tunneled, creeks that serve as home to many of the Midwest's native and naturalized trout. In the Driftless Area of Southwestern Wisconsin and Southeast Minnesota, lots of the rivers and streams also are subject to devastating flash floods. It's nice to see some pictures of them when they're on their best behavior and to be reminded that I haven't fished any of the trout waters near The Cities since they've been improved and restored although I need to get back in shape before I try fishing stretches as adventurous as the one John Lenczewski is wading. These days it's rare that anything in a newspaper helps improve my Summer, but this time the Star Tribune landed a record.

The Trout

Amy Lowell - 1874-1925

          Naughty little speckled trout,
          Can't I coax you to come out?
          Is it such great fun to play
          In the water every day?

          Do you pull the Naiads' hair
          Hiding in the lilies there?
          Do you hunt for fishes' eggs,
          Or watch tadpoles grow their legs?

          Do the little trouts have school
          In some deep sun-glinted pool,
          And in recess play at tag
          Round that bed of purple flag?

          I have tried so hard to catch you,
          Hours and hours I've sat to watch you;
          But you never will come out,
          Naughty little speckled trout!

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