Bear Paw Meanderings

When I write about my childhood on Clear Creek sometimes I make it sound like we spent lots of time there in the winter. We did not. There were no four wheel drives then and in our family the first day on Clear Creek was often the first day of stream fishing which was around the third weekend of May.

That was a big doings no matter what old fishing shack we were at. We were fishermen, after all, even if some of us did not fly fish but just dipped a worm engorged hook in the water and tried to bring forth a big brookie or rainbow to have for breakfast.

Stream fishing usually opened on a Saturda...