I once wrote a fish tale about peoples perceptions of fly fishermen and how some think that we are elitists. My experience yesterday just proves how wrong they are. I was fly fishing for brook trout in a very small stream close to my Dad’s house, and catching quite a few, when a white SUV pulled up and a guy rolled down his window and looked at me skeptically and said,”This is the public fishing stream?” like I said it was a very small stream but it’s loaded with brookies, which I think are the most attractive looking of all the trout species. Anyways, he parked his truck and to my pleasant surprise he pulled out a fly rod and we started chit chatting. After a brief conversation he decided to try his luck upstream but was soon back because of how thick it was. I, in the mean time, had caught and released every brook trout in my part so I was ready to move on. When he came back I told him that I was heading to Adams to try for some browns. I asked him if he wanted to join me and he said sure but he only had about an hour and a half because he had a wedding to go to. On our way there we hit some streams that he knew of on some back roads but to no avail. He was getting short on time and desperately wanted to catch and release something. We got to my spot in Adams and to our great delight trout were rising everywhere and we could see them rolling in the current. I decided to tie on a dry fly while he nymphed along the bottom. It wasn’t long before we were both onto fish. I asked him if he wanted me to take his picture and email them to him and he was very enthusiastic. After releasing his fish he said that really made his day. We talked some more and bs each other about the Salmon river and fish that we have caught. Before long it was time for him to make tracks or he was going to be late. He thanked me and we exchanged info while I continued to fish. I ended up catching about twenty browns of various sizes but I was the most amazed at how two complete strangers who just happended to meet at a fishing hole spent most of the afternoon following each other around upstate NY in search of the ever elusive trout. Who says that we are a bunch of elitists? Not I.