Enders State Forest

Little Hiawatha cover – one of the See, Hear, Read books that children of the 60’s grew up with.

August 7, 1992 Higley Brook
Enders State Forest, Granby, CT
Lowish water. Large pool under waterfall produced one strike on a streamer. No risers. Hiawatha Pool at end of run had one riser. I crept up on hands and knees but still spooked him with a small white cahill.

I had named this Hiawatha pool because it reminded me of the Disney image from the Song of Little Hiawatha, the animated movie. The long pool created a reflection of the trees above and truly deserved a verse of poetry in its own right.

Fishing is often times about imagery. We go fishing with the purpose of catching fish, but sometimest we are casting ourselves in a wilderness play and the set design is crafted by the almighty, the Bureau of Land Management, the Army Corps Of Engineers, or some other quasi-governmental agency tasked with rearranging the aquatic scenery. There are many places where I know I can catch fish, but there is something about the setting that does not sit well with my predetermined vision of the fishing scene.

Man-made lakes are often times carved out of canyons with little thought as to the aesthetics of the landscape. Much like a strip-mine adds to the scenery of the Appalachians, the man-made lake adds to the scenery of the western landscape, although when you add water it improves the scenery ten fold. It is hard to improve upon the scenery of a free-flowing river. Even in cases where it passes through scrub-land or eroded banks, it has a sense of motion and life that cannot be equaled by a body of still water.

The Hiawatha pool at Higley Brook is one of those places that would be hard to improve upon. Free flowing water over large boulders, short drops with large downed trees that frame the scenery and arching trees that provide a cathedral effect over the stream which renders it near to perfection.

In the movie Dumb and Dumber there is a scene where Jim Carrey is huddled in the corner of a stall in a restroom at a diner and a large scary man named “Seabass” is getting ready to do unspeakable acts to him. As he sucks his thumb and curls into the fetal position he says “find a happy place, find a happy place.” A bit of new age mumbo jumbo that was probably a catch phrase created by some California psychologist – but it reminds me of that need we all have to take a mental snapshot of that place that seems idyllic and frozen in time.

So if you can’t physically pick up and go to your “happy place” sometimes the mental snapshot will have to do. I like to alternate my “happy places” -- you don’t want to burn them out, you may need them down the road on a particularly trying day. Those mental images are better than the clearest snapshot.