Stream Runs Through It

My favorite spot at Peapack Brook was inaccessible. The road leads directly to a park. Blocked. No Parking signs. So I drove a little further to take another road in. No parking allowed on it. And signs indicated parking in the lot nearby was only for that particular business. I could not figure out why access to the park and brook there is denied. No construction underway. Nothing to indicate any reason for dismissal. 

I drove to a spot upstream, catching view of a Fish & Wildlife Trout Stocked Water sign. That's where I got the photo, but the water had no depth and time was limited to go searching. Another spot upstream seemed to allow parking along the road, but to have parked there would have been very awkward with the car halfway on the road across from a residence. Another lot had signs prohibiting parking.

I drove on to find a wide parking space near a municipal park. I had fished the hole under a bridge for wild trout in December once. Boot marks in the sand let me know it had been hit recently. It's been a full month since stocking, so I knew it was possible nothing was going to happen at all. 

I saw a rise at the back of the pool, got my egg back there and got hit. Missed it. I missed a couple more hits, and finished my mediation underneath the bridge by watching four or five rainbow trout in the clear depths, frantic fish that seemed harried by a little too much attention on them.