Trout fishermen are blessed people. There are millions of miles of waterways all over this world, many of them teeming with rainbows, browns, brookies, or any of their variations. I’ve had the benefits of growing up in Pennsylvania and fishing its waters, then moving to Wyoming and Colorado to see what the West has to offer.

Boy, does the West have a lot to offer.

It seems like every valley has water holding trout, the same with the mountain lakes and ponds.

There’s a lot of dead water back East. Some of that is due to old mining and oil operations and some just don’t have the correct water ecology and ecosystem set up to support trout. I’m sure it’s the same way out here to some extent.

When one wants to compare Eastern and Western waters, what needs to be looked at? The first thing that CAN’T be used in the discussion is the size of the fish. Yes, there are some Eastern tailwaters and spring creeks that have 20-inch trout, but I can count on one hand the number of trout over 17 inches I’ve caught before moving out West.

In last week’s column, I ran off a list of some of my home waters. Let’s do a little bit of evaluation and comparison to what is in the Rocky Mountain West.

Little Sandy Creek is a gem of a stream outside of Polk, Pa. Just a mile from our log cabin is a stretch of catch-and-release, fly fishing-only water. Closer to where it dumps into Big Sandy, more browns are found and upstream a few miles the brookies hold in the much smaller water.

I’d equate Little Sandy to Rifle Creek.

A nice, little stream with lots of nice bends and holes. Lots of riffles to keep the water oxygenated, and lots of overhead tree cover from hawks and the like. The trout are eager to bite as long as you make a well-presented cast. It doesn’t matter if you have a fly that perfectly matches what is currently hatching or a big ole Stimulator. Put it in front of them and they’ll nail it.

I don’t think many people fish either of those creeks. I have yet to see anyone on Rifle Creek, and there are always more raccoon tracks than bootprints back in PA. For my fishing pleasure, that’s just fine with me. I want to compete with the trout, not other fishermen.

When it’s time to compete with those wielding fly rods, the Fryingpan is the place to be. Last weekend, there wasn’t a single pull-off that didn’t have a vehicle in it. At every bend, you could look down to the water and see fly vests all over the place.

Back home, there aren’t many trout waters, that I fish at least, that get so much pressure.

Steelhead up on Lake Erie is a different matter - that is where the gauntlet is. It is 10 times worse than out here. There is no such thing as personal space when it comes to one small hole with 20 steelhead in it. Fishermen will be waiting on the bank, just sitting there, waiting for someone to leave so they, too, can stand shoulder to shoulder.

I will never complain about catching seven inchers out of Rifle Creek, just as I won’t complain about those fish on any of my home waters. But, with all this excellent water out here, and the fact that there are 20-inch browns and cutthroats behind every other boulder, it is hard to not give the upper hand to Western waters.

Contact Baron Zahuranec at 384-9173 or by E-mail at bzahuranec@citizentelegram.com.