Have been down with the flu for the past week. I had to drive over a small put-n-take crick yesterday, and it looked clear from the road, so I stopped. Sleet was blowing sideways and I was starting to wonder just how desperate I was... but I bundled up anyway, grabbed a tenkara rod so I wouldn't have to pick ice out of the guides, and splashed in.
yeah, yeah, I know, stupid hatchery trout... but after the first dozen drifts and dozen trout released, I was starting to grin. I was working on #13 when this big brown blur shot across the pool -- took my brain a second to process what it was -- OTTER! Popped up right in front of me, close enough I could almost smell its fishy breath, looked right at me for a second trying to figure out what I was, cocking its head this way and that, then took off downstream. Completely awesome, and one of a very few times I wish I would have been running a go pro or something...