I drove along the South Fork of the Snake this past weekend on my way to do a quick repair to my daughter’s truck over in Grand Teton National Park, and the river is cruising. In fact, every creek and stream we drove over was bursting with full-on spring runoff.

A weekend of cold rain really got the snowmelt moving, and, while everything is green and glorious, the moving water in my stretch of the Rockies will make fishing a bit more challenging for at least a few more weeks.

When I saw the cart and sign pictured above in our local library, I was shocked. After inspecting the titles resting thereon, I had to be picked up off the floor. Here were books by Lyons and Traver, Brooks and Bergman, LaFontaine and Schwiebert. For anglers of a certain age, those are names that resonate. They mean something. Their books mean something. To see these volumes selling for a buck a piece was unthinkable. Yet there it was: Trout, Ernest Schwiebert's magnum opus, ready for the taking at a mere $1.00.