Trout Season Opening Day 2050

It is a sad new world this morning as I wait patiently to see if my number has been drawn for the California One Day Trout Season License Drawing (CODTSLD ) held in the state capital Sacramento. Because of an exploding population and many years of extreme drought conditions water has all but disappeared from lakes and rivers, virtually no known streams or creeks still exist. Those few wealthy fly fishers who can afford the twenty thousand dollars needed if your number is chosen wait dreaming about the good old days when streams, lakes, rivers could be fished for free and fishing licenses were peanuts to buy...

This morning I got lucky and was chosen as one of the two thousand who will be allowed under strict supervision to throw flies on state operated waters where one is allowed to spend only two hours in the morning and two hours before sundown. All action is filmed by state Water Marshals who used to be called game wardens! I can hear my answering machine buzzing with heart broken messsages from fly fisher friends who have been trying for ten years to grab a lucky lottery tickit and failed. California now has armed patrols, Water Marshals patrolling and shooting on sight anyone caught trying to fill bottles with the new shimmering gold, water.

Nostalgia Fly Fishing Gatherings

Now in 2050 it is common and rather disturbing to attend social affairs where beer and scotch swilling old men show their slides from the grand free days when outdoors men could travel at will and fly fish where they pleased. Last big nostalgia fly show here in San Francisco was at the historic Cow Palace where rodeos ruled for generations. Hundreds of old men crying and looking for group counseling because expensive fly fishing gear sits in closets getting dusty. Private boats have been confiscated and private land owners are also visited by Water Marshals. The federal and state water management board is now occupied by wealthy connected who lord over the little water left. Streams and rivers are no longer stocked with trout, salmon. Long ago hatcheries were closed in favor of highly controlled catch & release of what few trout, salmon still exist.

The state Water Marshal’s ( All three of them ! ) showed up at my house promptly at 4am as arranged. They checked and revarified my winning lottery ticket and then spent twenty minutes rifling through my expensive fly gear. When asked what they were looking for,” Mostly hidden digital camera’s and that kind of thing, illicit fly gear like flies that have not been approved by official’s as constructed from only state approved and harvested feathers”. I was taken to the airport and flown to a mountain lake called New Malones Dam. It used to be many square miles of prime bass and trout fly fishing opportunities. It is now nothing but a handful of large pools which will evaporate in another few years and this once grand vast blue water home to endless birds and countless fish will no longer exist like almost all of California’s once great water wealth. My first two hours of filmed and closely observed fly fishing was a bust, no hits never saw anything resembling a fish. Later that evening I did see a trout jump off in the distance, had I had a camera like the sweet old days it would have been a mediocre shot at best. During the flight back to San Francisco the Water Marshal’s were kind enough to show me several photos of lottery winners who had caught and released trout. Maybe next year.




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“ ADVENTURES OF FLETCHER QUILL “