Caught Another Rainbow Trout: First Day of the Year Fishing and First Fish

Thought intense sunlight wouldn't mean a hit, but caught a 17-inch rainbow. Round Valley seemed a sort of basin of things rolling over the land and into the depths today, as if everything tends to find water and get swallowed. Lakes, reservoirs, bays, and oceans are sort of like stomachs as water generates all the life on the planet, with a lot of help from the sun. But dried grasses and browned branches and underbrush nearly match the iron-influenced gravel along the reservoir's edge and made the place feel like a desert with big water in the middle of it.

I sat up the hill in the car for half an hour reading before I went down to check my rod. The trout had almost spooled the reel, bail left open. It just took the marshmallow and mealworm and headed on out into very deep water, taking the bait for at least a hundred yards or more.

Round Valley Reservoir Personality Variations

Now it feels and looks like winter. But the arctic air mass will fade away by the weekend. I guess it's possible a couple of inches of ice will lure a few ice anglers out by then, certainly not here on Round Valley Reservoir. Don't even try elsewhere, I suppose, unless you're one of the experienced willing to crawl, spreading out their weight.

Round Valley's a different place every time I visit, or the same place but the personality has so many variations that each of 365 days is a new facet, ongoing, so that December 31st of any given year is unlike any December 31st past or to come. But what lacks is development. It's just shape shifting, not goal-directed actualization as is possible to a human being. Nevertheless, I could almost play Annie Dillard in the way she experienced Tinker Creek and get into all sorts of subtleties. I pass on the invitation because I'd rather walk on the gravel, breathe the air, put out a line, take some photographs, and read my book for the bulk of the time or write in a notebook on other ideas. But the wonder of the place certainly lights up my brain.

Caught a rainbow over 15 inches today.