October. The time is here to sneak in one last trip before the closing of the Wisconsin trout season next Tuesday. Frigid temps in the 20s called for extra layering, fingerless gloves, a neck gaiter, the whole shabang usually reserved for the early season. Just as the season started on my favorite of streams in central Wisconsin, I couldn’t think of a better place to end it.
A rendezvous point and time was set for Dean and I to meet at our favorite bakery in town for a danish and some coffee. I’ve known the owner for a few years now and it’s a tradition to always talk trout with him before hitting the stream.
I set out for my favorite meadow stretch and Dean took a different access point upstream. The frigid temps complicated the three knots required for a hopper dropper rig, but I was able to finish rigging up with an intermission break for some hot air from the car.
Approaching the stream, I stopped to check out an eating sized brown trout lying frosted over on the ground. The lifeless eyes and racks of teeth were polarizing. A memento mori. It immediately brought to mind the idea from the following passage found in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations:
What dies does not pass out of the universe. If it remains here and is changed, then here too it is resolved into the everlasting constituents which are elements of the universe and of you yourself. These too change, and make no complaint of it. –Meditations 8: 18
Just as leaves on a tree fall to decompose and nourish new life, so will this trout. Its elements will change form, but never die. A simple reminder of the interconnectedness of all things. Without fall, there can be no spring. Without a season closer, there can be no opener.
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