Debra LaValley's Blog

“StirPine”

In April, when trout season opened, my dad would take me fishing at “StirPine.” It wasn’t until I was much older, that I noticed that the real name of the road is Stirrup Iron road.

Today, I decided to drive to “StirPine” to take a photo of the sign and check out the brook, for old time’s sake. There are a few houses that were not there when I used to fish the brook with my dad (probably 30 plus years ago).

I used to love to go fishing – but was never a huge fan of brook fishing – mostly because of the bugs (black flies and mosquitoes) and I would often get my hook stuck. I did love fishing with my dad, though. I remember he would tell me to put some ferns in the creel and if I didn’t have my creel with me – to use a small twig to “string” the fish. I remember he would also tell me and any of my siblings who may be with us – to be quiet along the edge of the brook. He would say if the fish saw us they would hide and not bite. I remember he also said if we saw the trout – the trout saw us. I used to like to put my line in the foaming still area. Today, I saw a foaming area and sure enough there was a fish lurking near the foamy area. It was facing upstream and appeared to have speckles so it could have been a trout.

Do you see the fish?

I gave up fishing about 30 years ago, when I became a vegetarian; however, I used to love fishing. It was more about being outside and enjoying the sound of the water. I preferred fishing Hot Hole Pond with my dad because we fly fished from a canoe and the bugs were not so bad, and I rarely got my line caught on anything.

I was glad that I stopped by “StirPine” today. It brought back some great memories of my dad and the many times that we spent fishing this brook.