Western Massachusetts has many beautiful trout streams and rivers. Today I met up with Pete, my long time friend and fly fishing buddy. Pete pulled up to the river with his canoe and his fly rod. We did the quick handshake and before long I was staring through the crystal clear water looking for Rainbow and Brown Trout. We came over a deep pool and I could see several Trout. Some were feeding and some were holding. After a long winter it felt good to be trout fishing again and even better to find some trout in early March. So we beached the canoe and positioned ourselves where we needed to be. I was fishing a small Zebra midge and I thought I was gonna light them up, but the trout were just not cooperating. Pete and I both saw a bunch of midges come off the water and then we saw a trout pick one off the surface. Pete tied on a small dry fly, but nothing transpired. So, I unzipped my secret pocket in my fly fishing jacket. Pete asked, “Whatta ya going with?” I replied, “Pete, I’m getting down and dirty.” I switched out my floating line spool with another spool wound with 125 grain sink tip. I strung it up, tied on a short fluorocarbon leader and a conehead wooly bugger. I cast the fly across the pool and let everything sink. I began to strip back the wooly bugger very slowly. Fish on. A small Brown Trout came to hand and Pete and I were both kinda surprised that it actually worked. Not a big trout by any means but any trout is a good trout for March fly fishing. It just felt great to spend an unseasonably warm day on an absolutely beautiful crystal clear river with some trout and an old friend. I always look forward to my Western Massachusetts trout fishing excursions. Thanks for a great day Pete. I enjoyed being able to see the river from the canoe. I got to see all kinds of structure and holding spots that will be revisited this spring during the Hendrickson hatch.