My Thinking Spot – Manchester Trout Hatchery

Today is Monday so I’m posting is going to be on the light side. Pooh Bear was one of my favorite characters to read about to my sons when they were very little. Pooh Bear had a “thinking spot”. My thinking spot was the trout stream at the Manchester hatchery. You can cross over the stream under suspension bridge, climbed the turnstile provided for going over a fence and then go down stream. When I was a young man that Iowa DNR had added bank hides all up and down that section of the springfed Creek. This stream was called Spring Branch. It became my thinking spot.

Fishing was always secondary at this spot. During the day it was almost impossible to catch the fish with the flies. There were a few spots we could finish the riffles and be successful even during daylight. Some of these bank hides how the huge fish. I would often stop there on my way home from a long day of trout fishing. It was close enough that I could drive up after work and fish a couple hours and still make it home at a decent time.

I have to admit it became my favorite trout watching spot as well as my thinking spot. With forward sunglasses you could see quite well through the surface of the water. Since the trout were very difficult to catch in the pools I would just sit and watch them. Some would motor out into the moving water and grab something so small it was invisible. This is how they fed. It was very frustrating to try to match the “hatch”. Sometimes I got lucky but most the time I just watched the fish.

One thing I noticed was they always faced upstream into the moving water. This required energy on their part. Under the bank hides the water moves slowly but still it moved. The trout always faced upstream. Occasionally after they grabbed an insect they would twirl downstream and then back into the hide. That was pretty much it for anything other than fazing upstream. Occasionally you could see if fish basic downstream caught in some vegetation. These fish were always dead. I read somewhere that trout need the water going over there gills from front to back. If they faced downstream too long they would suffocate. I’m not sure if that is true but I tend to think it is.

The lesson I learned from these trout is to always keep facing forward. Some people say it is “never give up”. This is the lesson from the trout. When a trout would get sick it would lose its strength and no longer be able to face upstream. I’m afraid sometimes when people lose their strength to keep going forward they spin into depression. This is always a dangerous condition just as the sick trout can no longer face upstream. Sometimes we need others to hold us up. To the Lord in prayer or possibly physical help. That is the lesson I have taken away from trout watching and going to my thinking spot. there are many places in the Bible where are we are urged to press on in the Christian life. Sometimes that is all we can do is face  into our problem is and hang on to the Lord.