Peter’s Secret Spot彼得阿伯的秘密釣場

嚴格說起來，在柏茲曼(Bozeman)一連三天的釣況都不算理想，加上天氣越來越冷，所以提前結束了凱莫隆橋(Cameron Bridge)的釣遊，改到大黃石釣具店(Great Yellow Stone Fly Fishing Shop)採購，順便打聽有無較好的釣場。一進入大黃石釣具店，店內的人對我們這批黃面孔多少有些訝異，且多半以為是日本人，於是自我介紹後便向他們請教。其中一位名叫彼得(Peter)的阿伯特別熱心，原來他是退休人士，在此享受退而不休的打工生活，他建議到嘉樂丁河下游的曼哈坦，因為那裡有他的秘密釣點。
Frankly to say, the results of fishing were not good in the past three day in Bozeman. In the other hand, the weather became colder and colder, so we finished the fishing in Cameron Bridge in advance then drove to Great Yellow Stone Fly Fishing Shop to buy some goods and also asked some information. Once we entered Great Yellow Stone
Fly Fishing Shop, people in the shop were surprised by us, and most of them though we were Japanese. After introducing ourselves, one man who named as Peter treated us much enthusiastic. He was a retired man and enjoyed the carefree living. He suggested us to fish in Manhattan, downstream of Gallatin R., there was his personal secret fishing spot.
隔日，因距離較遠，於是提前出發前往曼哈坦(Manhattan)。這是個頗迷你的小鎮。駛出小鎮後，接著看見一望無際的牧場，清晨的光線照在大地，乳牛低頭吃著草，遠方還未散去的霧氣，晨曦中的寧靜鄉間真是美的說不出話！在如此氣氛中，循著告示牌下溪，並依彼得阿伯的指示往上游走去。據他的說法，循溪走30分鐘，便能看到一段大白壁(Great White Wall)，而從白壁開始就是他的秘窟。由於這裡更原始，所以一路上有許多鹿的蹄印、排遺、河狸的水壩，甚至還看見三頭正在尋找食物的白尾鹿，那種與野生動物的面對面接觸，令人驚喜！
Next day, we got up early and drove to Manhattan. Manhattan is tiny. When we penetrated through the town, all we saw was the no boundary ranch. Clear sunshine brightened the ground, cows lowed their head and chewed the grass. Fog in the distant place did not clear out yet. What a beautiful scenery it was. We followed the introduction of sign to move toward to river, then forward to upstream direction just as Peter said. According to his saying, we went forward to upstream for an half hour then could see the Great White Wall, and that was his secret spot. Because the place was original, so we could see a lot of footprints and waste left by deer, and dam made by beaver. And we even saw three white tail deer were feeding. It was a surprise to met wildlife face to face.
30分鐘後，「果然沒錯，就是這兒！」威廉確定地說，而我們當然是趕緊進入作戰位置，結果不到二分鐘，吐司就釣上一條大魚。有了前幾天的經驗，這次當然是小心翼翼地對應，但纏鬥幾分鐘後，露頭的竟是尾43公分的大白魚。接著，我的浮標也頓了一下，一揚竿便發現游動的力量不小，但又不像是白魚那種向上溯的感覺，於是冷靜取代了興奮，逐步將魚往岸邊淺灘帶，並設法制服牠。由於水流不若嘉樂丁河急，所以沒花太多時間便把這條38公分的棕鱒擺平，也為此次來美國留下一項新紀錄。有了這樣振奮人心的成果，威廉也不示弱，拉上幾尾虹鱒，只可惜體型小了些，但這樣的狀況值得我們繼續向前進，於是決定快速上溯，再逐步往回釣。

After 30 minutes walking, we finally saw the destination. “Here it is”, William said affirmatively. We all got into position quickly. It was less than two minutes, Hank caught a big trout. With the previous experience, Hank fought the fish carefully. After several minutes of fighting, the result came up with a big white fish. My floatant had a small stop, I made a strike then felt the strong against power from the other side. It did not swim to the upstream just as white fish would dose.
The excitement soon was replaced with clam, I led the fish to shallow riverside and tried to defeated it. Because the flow was not as fast as Gallatin R., so it did not cost too much time to land this 15 inches brown trout up. This was my personal new record in America. With such cheerful result, William also landed several rainbow trout up, but they were small. The result encouraged us to keep moving to upstream.

接下來的釣點，雖然一看就知道底下有大物，但真是讓人頭皮發麻，因為河狸的關係，使得潭區有不少倒木，而這就是要面對的標點。如此環境讓我們快速折損毛鉤，然而正所謂「不入虎穴，焉得虎子」，在這樣的釣場裡吐司還是釣上一尾40公分的棕鱒，並且與另一尾38公分的棕鱒纏鬥時，足足追著牠跑了100多公尺，越過兩個瀨區。
The following spots we faced, were definitely good spots. But the wood piles in the pool which made by beaver became the big problem for us. However, just as the saying nothing ventured, nothing gained, even the spot caused us loose several flies quickly, Hank still caught a16 inches and 15 inches brown trout as the sweet return. Particularly, Hank had ran more than 100yds and crossed two riffle when he fought with a 15 inches brown trout.

下午的釣遊過程中，天空不時飄下陣雨，且每當開始飄雨，水面就出現鱒魚上浮的漣漪，但當地鱒魚對乾毛鉤的挑剔，卻讓人頻頻受挫，而雨一停上浮的動作就結束，這算是大自然中物種互動的趣味。隨著時間越來越接近傍晚，風寒效應越來越明顯，於是三人決定提前往回走，但就在此時竟然迷路了！
During the fishing in the afternoon, it rained occasionally. Interestingly, when it started to rain, trout rose, once it stopped raining, so did trout. But the trout were selective to dry fly, what was frustration to us. When the time closed to evening, it started to get colder. We decided to return in advance, but in the meanwhile, we found ourselves were lost.

由小徑切入主流時，我還特別以一根枯樹幹做記號，但回程時卻因為不熟悉環境而走入舊河道，這下可慘了！因為美國的私人地可不能任意闖入，於是只好沿著圍籬亂繞，而即便遇到獵人，他們的描述也不算清楚，就這樣「晃」了一個多小時，最後只得跨過私人地，才尋得停車的產業道路，也成為這次釣遊的驚險經驗。
While we cut to main stream from the trail, I had picked up a wood as the mark. But we were lost in the return. What a big problem it was, because a man can not enter private land without permit in America. We walked around by fence, and even we met the hunters, we still could not get clear information from their description. We wasted an hour more, and finally we were forced to cross private land to access the trail where we parked our car. It was the adventurous experience during the fishing trip.