A Striking Sight on a Thin Blue Line

People who fish 100 days or more a year tend to get to see things that other people never will. Today I got to see one of those things, and it completely overshadowed everything else that occurred
during my outing so I'm going to start with it rather than starting from the beginning.

I had worked my way up to a natural waterfall that is very much a fish migration barrier, I have never caught brook trout above it. That isn't to say there are none, I just haven't caught or seen them. Bellow the little waterfall, however, I have caught lots of brookies and a few quite large ones. I fished the plunge pool for a little wile without a take when something shot into the air and caught my attention. I couldn't believe it, a little five inch brook trout had just attempted to clear the waterfall. Though it was not successful, the distance it attained was fairly startling. I decided to just sit and watch to see if it would happen again. Over the next three hours I watched a bunch of wild brook trout flinging themselves at the waterfall in an unsuccessful attempt to reach the waters above to colonize them. I stayed three hours because I wanted to get some good photos of them, and I did not leave unsatisfied.

I had fairly slow fishing, and this fish clearly migrating upriver kind of clarified why. They weren't in the mood to eat, they were on the move. Spawning time is coming and the increase in the flow from yesterday's rain told them it was time to go. The extremely dark stain to the water undoubtedly hurt my odds as well. I did catch trout and char, just not that many and not the big colored up males I was looking for.