The tell-tale bootprint in the mud. You’re not the only one with the inclination to fish this stream today.
Imagine yourself on a great backcountry trout stream. Conditions are ripe. Fish are active. Bugs are everywhere. These are the glorious days of summer when some lonesome fishing is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Then, as you walk the bank, you notice a familiar track in the wet sand. No, not a moose or a bear, or even the sharp prints of a heron. It’s a bootprint, about a size 12. And it’s fresh. Turns out, you’re not the first angler here.
Here in the West, on remote mountain streams, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect some solitude while fishing, but in other, more populous parts of the country, it’s pretty normal to see other anglers, even on small, unassuming waters that may not have found their way into the local guidebooks.
The video above offers some really good advice to “salvage” your fishing day, and make sure you, and the angler ahead of you, can both enjoy a good experience casting to small-stream trout.
— Chris Hunt