It was warm and sunny -- one of those January afternoons when the thermometer climbs into the 60s and you forget that it's still the middle of winter. The river was deserted. The only other fisherman was a cocky little blue-and-white bird whose clattering cry let me know that I was trespassing. But the belted kingfisher and I weren't rivals -- he was happy with the occasional minnow; I was after something a little larger. The rushing water surged and pushed against my waist so that it took some effort to shove myself forward. It had been a while since I'd been in trout water and, as I slowly made my way upstream, the river gravel felt good under my wading boots. My target was a gentle eddy off to the side of the main current, perhaps 30 feet in front of me. It would be an easy cast with a dry fly except for one thing. I'd either have to make a roll cast or move a few feet to my right. From where I stood, a back cast was almost impossible because behind me were the protruding bare limbs of the huge bald cypress.

Cypress limbs! What? You don't find bald cypress trees on trout streams! Not in Colorado. Or New Mexico. Or Montana. You find cypress all over the South. You certainly find cypress in our part of Texas. But you don't find trout in Lone Star State -- do you?

Well -- the answer's "yes." It's a a qualified "yes" to be sure, but it's still in the affirmative. Freshwater trout require cold water, something which Texas lacks. So it's true we don't have any native freshwater trout in the state. But right now -- in the middle of winter -- many of our waters have chilled down enough to support trout, and they'll remain cold enough until late spring. The Parks and Wildlife Dept. takes advantage of this seasonal condition to stock table-size rainbow trout -- mostly in easily-accessed waters around the state.

As I write this, the department has not announced when and where stockings will be in 2004, but for current information you can check their ...

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