Nothing Freezes a River

 

I had to buy an item at Home Depot, so I threw waders and other gear in the trunk, hoping on a short stint on the way home, but first, I would have a look at the river in town. As you can see, there's a lot of ice on the North Branch, even up in the back of the photo where water moves faster. 

I said as much when I posted the same photo on Facebook, but I added that by what I see, there's no river trout fishing available. Within minutes, Ethan Proffitt commented, "There always is," which felt true to me, like a reminder when closure tried to seal off all the edges in my mind. 

I don't really know. I've seen some really serious ice on the rivers. Today? I wasn't going to bother trying to find any trout where not iced over, but I am 64-years-old and I'm not fishing the Dunnfield Creek--"river" enough--in February where I caught a wild brown from an icy edge when I was Ethan's age. 

I fished Lockatong Creek at 14 degrees in February, too, and though we got skunked that day, we got bait into depths despite a lot of ice.

Besides, I've never heard of anyone doing it, but it's possible to fish through the ice of a river, when it does get seriously thick. It's possible to actually catch trout that way. "There always is."

I'm glad I heard it from someone else. After all, "An Angler Always Finds a Way," means "There always is," and in the more general sense, it means there's nothing that can stop us from making it through whatever resists life from going on.

Nice try for me today. Even nicer a reminder that nothing freezes a river, so you can always give the trout a reasonable effort if you work at it.

Smallmouth on the Jig