....is the Upper Little Truckee between 89 and Webber Lake, but I am not sure why.

I have never had "great" days there, with a lot of fish or "big ones".
Never caught a hatch going off.
Never found some "secret" hole loaded with hungry fish.

But I love it.

Maybe it is the combination of meandering along a clean little creek that is not very far from the road and doing it, for the most part, alone. Because of the distance I do not get over there much but the four or five times I have fished that area I believe I have counted two other folks fishing! There were probably a few others but it is a long enough stretch of water that dozens of people could fish it and have plenty of space.

I imagine right now (May 12) the road is still covered in snow and the fish are probably pretty lethargic. But this will pass and I will try my best to get there one more time to walk and cast and walk and sit and eat a small lunch, maybe drink a small beer and wonder why that little creek calls to me.

I guess it is not really much of a mystery as I caught my first wild trout in a tiny creek behind my house in West Marin (Yes, it was a trout and not a baby steelhead...in that creek) and have always felt at home beside tumbling waters, surrounded by brush and trees. Creeks I can step across in some spots. Creeks that hold so much life, not just the fish but the animals that know the banks and trails....fox, bear, deer, badger, cats and birds.

The funny part to me is that when I start to think of fishing again in the Spring my first thoughts move to those bigger waters I also love...Hat, Fall, Pitt, NF Yuba, Feather...those places I have caught bigger fish and a lot more of them than the Little Truckee. But slowly my head turns a little inside out and I start to think of "where" I want to fish and not "what" I want to catch.

Maybe I will make it to the ULT this year. Maybe just one more time, so I can ponder and catch a brookie or two.

We will see.