The fall is a time for reflection. The leaves of the oaks remind me of the golden color of a brown trout’s belly. Those of maple trees, a brook trout’s spawning colors while the darker browns and tans sprinkled across our property bring to mind bamboo rods, my connection with the rivers and streams where wild creatures live out their secret lives.

From March through April, I travel more than two hours to spend days casting my line upon well-known river winding through the Catskill Mountai...