Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/641958
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 3 3 folly, the stream is home to beautiful trout—some wild, some stockers that have migrated from elsewhere in the system. I'd been introduced to the particular hidden stretch of water along Benmont by a couple of colleagues, who referred to the spot as "The S***hole." But soon after they moved on—one left the state, while the other became obsessed with warmwater fly fishing. For several years thereafter, this was my personal trout stream, which I fished several times a week, never encountering another angler. A dirty stretch of an unloved, unsung urban river was a fine place to escape reality. By Philip Monahan When I had an office there a decade ago, I often relieved stress and cleared my head by stepping out on the fire escape and listening to the babbling Walloomsac River, which runs parallel to Benmont, hidden by buildings and trees, and mostly forgotten by the people who live and work nearby. It's a pretty little freestone stream that has suffered the same kinds of neglect as the area through which it flows, so it's common to find an old car battery or lawn furniture half-buried in the gravel riverbed. But despite this evidence of man's