Home to Me

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Perry Palin
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Posts: 408
Joined: 12/07/12 13:34

Home to Me

#1

Post by Perry Palin »

Three streams pulled their water from the plateau above the lake. They wandered first through bogs and beaver meadows, and then quickened through hardwoods and alders in narrow riffles and runs. The brook trout in the easternmost stream were blue with faint vermiculations and small spots and red or pink bellies. I watched small fish move over stones to catch the drifting insects. The middle stream was the longest. It had the only spring pond on the plateau. The pond was deep and ringed with muskeg. The trout were bright and firm and strong in the cold water of the spring pond, and darker in the stained water downstream. The western stream was the smallest, flowing slowly through the swamp where my dad cut cedar fence posts and rails in the winter. The water was the color of a blond beer. The brook trout there were dark and heavy, and they were the biggest fish of the three streams, sometimes of a size to call out comment in the city newspaper. After several miles the three streams joined to make a fishing river. On summer nights I slept on hillsides in the shelter of black spruce and balsams. The wooded plateau was the home to ruffed grouse and ravens and owls, moose and bears, and when I was young, it was home to me.

I left home to make a living and I fished brown trout streams and wind scuffed lakes. Over fifty years later, when I need a retreat, it’s enough to close my eyes and live again for a few minutes on the plateau above the lake.

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thegubster
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Joined: 08/29/05 18:00
Location: Minnesota!

Re: Home to Me

#2

Post by thegubster »

Perry,

I'll repeat a few words that I've read on fly-fishing forums before and that have a significant meaning..."I think you've "found it"!...

Nice post man!

Hope your Thanksgiving was all it could be with your family. Mine was!

Jeremy.

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Peales
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Joined: 06/11/07 18:00
Location: Minnesota

Re: Home to Me

#3

Post by Peales »

Nice words Perry. Has Minnesota always been your home?

Arubey
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Joined: 06/01/17 15:07
Location: Corrales NM
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Re: Home to Me

#4

Post by Arubey »

I really enjoyed that. Thank you, Perry!
A. Rubey Rod Co.
rubeyrods.com

Perry Palin
Master Guide
Posts: 408
Joined: 12/07/12 13:34

Re: Home to Me

#5

Post by Perry Palin »

Thank you, gentlemen, for your kind words.

Jeremy, Thanksgiving here was good but with only one of the kids present, another with his fiancee's family, and the third living in Texas.

Peales, I grew up outside of Two Harbors, moved to the TC area for a job in 1972, and now live (a long story) with my wife on a hobby farm in NW Wisconsin, where the streams, such as they are, are unlike Driftless or North Shore streams. I go back to the Shore once or twice each summer for the brook trout.

Funny how we remember being chased by nesting ravens or meeting a moose in the woods, and forget to mention the mosquitoes, deer flies, and ticks.

billems
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Re: Home to Me

#6

Post by billems »

Very nice description. The prose is coming along, nicely. Keep going.

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Holland
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Joined: 05/06/01 19:00
Location: Ouachitas & Ozarks

Re: Home to Me

#7

Post by Holland »

Thanks Perry, that was a pleasant break in my day...

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Flykuni3
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Joined: 12/21/11 14:11
Location: California

Re: Home to Me

#8

Post by Flykuni3 »

Very nice, soothing.

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RWHoffhines
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Joined: 02/11/10 19:00

Re: Home to Me

#9

Post by RWHoffhines »

You've been reading my dream!

headwaters
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Location: Northern Virginia

Re: Home to Me

#10

Post by headwaters »

Oh to recall the streams of our youth. Very nice!

Oxbow
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Re: Home to Me

#11

Post by Oxbow »

Thanks. That was very enjoyable to read this Saturday morning.

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thegubster
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Joined: 08/29/05 18:00
Location: Minnesota!

Re: Home to Me

#12

Post by thegubster »

Oxbow wrote:Thanks. That was very enjoyable to read this Saturday morning.

It's Friday!

You must be retired too. I find any number of times that I stop for a sec. to try to recall what day it is and use my Wednesday/garbage pickup as a reliable ref.!!

Retiree life can be like that and...it's wonderful! :lol

Jeremy......10 yrs. in now!!

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