Nightcrawler
IT’S AUTUMN ON Southern Idaho’s Silver Creek, and a meteor just broke through the atmosphere, sending a blurry streak of light across the water. Christian Reid and myself are standing knee-deep in darkness, headlamps off, the current silently peeling around our waders. It is half past midnight on a delightfully cool, late September night.
Christian’s iPhone speaker pulses Mob Beat from the chest pocket of his waders. The darkness absorbs the sound. “When I was young, I was the kid who loved being out after dark,” Christian says. “Even if I was alone. When no one else is around, the darkness can just fuck with you. But you also have a chance at catching a fish that nobody’s ever seen.”
Silver Creek is known for producing brown trout in excess of thirty inches. But browns that big are special. You won’t see them out sipping afternoon midges. Generally speaking, the bigger a brown trout gets, the more likely it is to feed at night. Huge browns are nocturnal, predatory carnivores that eat mice, other trout, small birds, even bats that clumsily land on the water. These are
