“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”. T.S Eliot
Yesterday, my dear friend the Reverend Jim White and I returned to explore the Arkansas below Pueblo dam. How could we not? Jim had landed a 25 and a half inch rainbow just two weeks ago.
For me, there is something about this fishery that is a throw back in time. It reminds me of a time decades ago of fishing for large trout that were not yet ultra selective and over fished. It brings me back to a time when fished hooked went wild and ballistic. It brings me back to a time when fish caught were not all scarred up and with broken off flies in their jaws. And even the somewhat urban setting reminds me of fishing my roots back in New Jersey.
So, Jim and I explored its waters down below Pueblo Boulevard. Since neither of us had fished this section of river we never knew what was just around the bend and what possible large forms lay in the riffles, runs and pools. Even this exploring was reminiscent of a much earlier time in both our lives of exploring our first waters as kids. And somehow this unknowing made our exploration all the more exciting and also innocent and that innocence also brought us back in time.
Did we arrive where we started in some way? And did we know the place as for the first time? We caught numerous rainbows and some that were 18-20 inches on RS2’s, Pig-sticker worms and size 18 bead head pheasant tails.
Did I see a 20 inch rainbow as I once did 30 years ago when I caught my first “trophy trout”.? Not quite, but perhaps, somewhat. I have not ceased from exploration. I am still exploring trying to get back to that place and to know it as for the first time.
And my faith? Can I return to an earlier child like place? Yes, I think so; Perhaps. Yes, I would like to know once again what it is to believe in a loving God as for the first time.
I shall not cease from such exploration.
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