September has a touch of the year’s death in it – one notices that a little more sadly and fearfully as one grows older. Even five years ago I welcomed September, hoped for early frosts, accepted gladly its promise of the strong demands of winter days. The softness of summer was over and done with; ahead, I felt, was a time for doing. Now I shrink a little from the implication of the first cool nights…

September is as good a fishing month as one could hope for, and if the fall frosts come early they can do no more than clear away the heavy heat of summer and color the leaves of maple and willow and poplar to make the river banks more beautiful…  A September evening with a cool dusk descending can be a busy time on one of the mountain streams where the sedges hatch thickly, and an exciting time too because the big trout will be stirring from the deep pools… -Roderick Haig-Brown, A River Never Sleeps

I’ve been procrastinating over this post, hesitant to face the feelings evoked with the writing.  I’ve also known what passage I would pull from Haig-Brown’s book for September since I first started with the monthly posts from A River Never Sleeps.  I think the September chapter hits me so hard because in my mid-40′s,  I’m entering the fall season of my own life.  Yes, there is a touch of my death in it, the aches and odd pains, more frequent visits to the doctor and the sight of my mother well into her winter.  But as H-B notes, there is much beauty in September as life’s summer work comes to fruition: children growing rapidly in their own spring season preparing for adulthood, life’s decisions to be reflected upon, experiences and accomplishments to be savored.

And the fishing…  September is my favorite month for small stream dry fly fishing.  I’ve had to set aside my pursuit of steelhead (mostly) because September is the one month of the year when trout fishing conditions are just about perfect in Western Washington.  Days are still long and generally clear.  The temperatures are comfortable and the fish are feeding heavily preparing for the the long winter.  Careful presentations to good lies with a caddis-imitating pattern will usually bring a rise, occasionally from a bigger trout than expected.  Regardless of size, they are all beautiful…

I’ve been fishing a lot this month, mostly small streams with a few days out with the two hander.  A favorite routine is to swing flies for steelhead with a spey rod at dawn then after lunch make my way far upriver to the small tributaries to fish for trout in mountain pools with a 3wt.

Last week I was surprised by a pair of spawning salmon very far up a small stream above many steep sections of rapids.  There was a chill in the air and the leaves were turning but where there was a touch of death, in those two fish and the spawning gravel there was also the promise of spring, of life renewed.