Close up camp. Back to school. Don’t wear white. Labor Day does not sound like a whole lot of fun.

But summer is only a short nine months away. And fall is pretty spectacular. Plus there is the fact that you can’t alter the rotation of the earth and the resultant seasons so there is no point in fretting about the inevitable anyway, of course. Such is the transitory nature of life.

One such transition is a “last day of the season” of sorts. Depending on where you live, there are opening days and closing days for certain fisheries. Trout, in particular, are governed with such rules. To protect spawning populations, fish and games says that you don’t gotta go home but you can’t fish here.

Or, you could have some self-imposed opening and closing days. Your own stewardship of a creek means that you’re making some personal decisions about when to fish and when not to fish.

For me, Labor Day marks one such closing day for one particular trout stream. It teems with little brookies. It is off the radar. It is my plan for this afternoon. It is a good transition into fall.

Happy Labor Day from Casting Across.