Exploring the small streams that hold wild trout is an obvious passion of mine. In spite of advancement in technology, I still enjoy the game of pouring over topo maps to find the blue lines that indicate running water, and studying the brown lines to learn the contours of the land. A GPS or GIS maps are cool developments, but many of the places I seek offer no internet signal, and an old fashioned USGS quadrangle map is my favorite mode of finding these headwater gems and planning my hikes into them. Two Class A Wild designated streams within the same drainage were on last weekends radar. The map clearly showed where the blue lines met to become one, and the brown lines that ran parallel to them indicated steep mountainsides along their courses. There was no road or trail identified on the map, so I plotted my approach and committed the day to hike and explore them. A backpack with a camera and remote, a tripod, a 357 and my favorite cane rod took a trek that turned into a 4.2 mile roundtrip hike to find those beautiful natives in a very remote part of the state. I found cold water where it felt like I was the first person to ever fish it, and wild brookies that probably never saw a fly before. Finding fontinalis can be like that. Till next week …. www.ramsayflies.com #ItsAboutTheFish #PAWild
