North Country Angling: Sage advice through the years

Back when the fishing in remote ponds first made their siren call, my college roommate and I would take the K-5 Blazer into the Great North Woods. There was one bog where we would always catch brook trout, and the largest fish were in the 8-inch range. We loved being in the wilderness and catching plenty of fish. Big fish were not on the radar screen. We mostly fished dry flies and squealed whenever there was a splashy take.

On one of the trips into the bog, there was a sage old angler coming off the bog. In the bottom of his canoe there lay two 14-inch brook trout. The biggest fish we had ever seen from the bog. The old-timer saw the expression on our faces and proceeded to show us the fly he used, a small yellow calf tail streamer.