A Natural Ritual

 Every spring, during late April early May, we have tried to witness the annual migration of the Steel Head Trout up the Willoughby River in Orleans. Brownington where we live, is next to Orleans and the Willoughby comes barreling through Brownington before it hits this gorge on its way north to Lake Memphremagog. After the water goes under the bridge, it opens up and generally there will be dozens of fisherman there, hoping to snag one of the big beauties. The steel head is really a rainbow trout and in some of the pictures you get a faint rosy glow on the side. Click on the link to see a slideshow of the run. We have dreamed of getting these pictures for almost ten years. Thanks to a tip-off from a neighbor yesterday, we saw this wonderful ritual passage where the river runs north.



Steel Head Run up the Willoughby River, Orleans, VT May 2,2010