Sometimes, when flyfishing, we tend to think of the perfect casts, hooking a beautiful brown while enjoying the sound of the water flowing past us. Most anglers will admit that hooking and landing a fish makes a fishing trip great, but it is not necessary to enjoying your time on the water.
For me, some of my favorite moments have been while out flyfishing, but had nothing to do with catching fish at all. Several years ago, I was exploring a small stream west of Orangeville, Ontario, with my good friend Dave Moore. Dave and I had spent a couple of hours together and were quite surprised at the success we were having hooking and landing beautiful brook trout. For those that are not familiar with this species, brookies, or speckled trout as they are sometimes called, can grow to 7 or 8 pounds in lakes where there is not a great deal of fishing pressure, but in small southern Ontario streams, a 14" fish is quite a prize.
Dave and I had been following the stream and had caught several trout in the 12 to 14 inch range. Strangely enough, it seemed as if the stream had not suffered much fishing pressure as there were no trails along side it, nor were there any piles of junk, so often prevalent along many of the streams in our part of Ontario. It was a pleasant surprise!
After a couple of hours of fishing, we had waded quite far up into a forested area of the stream, content to spend the rest of the day exploring the holes and eddies and discovering just how prolific this stream was.
We came to a tight bend in the creek, and as soon as we went around it, Dave and I came face to face with a beautiful huge buck! We both stood there, awestruck and somewhat shocked as the deer stood there, maybe 7 yards away from us. I think the buck was just as shocked as we were as he stood there, still as a rock, looking back at us. I could literally see the muscles in the buck's legs twitching. Neither Dave or I moved for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only seconds before the animal gracefully bounded off into the bush.
For me, it was an awesome experience to come that close to such a beautiful creature. It would have not mattered if we had caught nothing that day - it would still have been a day that would have lasted in my memory for a very long time.
Next week, I will tell you about an interesting experience watching some men net swans!
Last Week:
The Muncher is a favorite of Ian James for carp, smallies, more. 
Thoughts of a Chicken Rancher. Doc tells it like it is.