Litton's Fishing Lines: 2023-11-12

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Persistence Pays Off with a Trout

I began fishing at Three Bridges, where I wondered if I'd have time to try Stanton. I fished a black maribou jig and didn't get a hit. Packing my trunk, I realized I had to make a decision. It was 2:15. Round Valley Recreation Area through the main gate would close at 4:00. Either I would drive straight there for a little over an hour of photography, or I could fish Stanton. I decided on Stanton. I had enjoyed myself trying to catch some of the fall stockers, and the last photography session at Round Valley hadn't been very productive...I knew it was a foregone conclusion it wouldn't be today, either.

That's when I realized I could go to the main launch area and do photography there after 4:00. I hadn't done that in a long while.

So on to Stanton. When I got down by the water, I realized I had conflated Stanton with the deep water at Higginsville. Here at Stanton the water was very shallow under the bridge, upstream a hundred yards, and downstream of it. So after doing the casting to figure all that out, I got on the trail and headed downstream a couple hundred yards or more.

I realized in the middle of things how fortunate I am to make successful efforts. On the way here, I had passed a gas station advertising $3.09/gallon. The next business down was a station offering $3.19/gallon, which I refused to do. This was Highway 31 in Flemington where traffic was heavy making it impossible to make a U'ey. So I took a right turn off the highway just past the second gas station, winging it, wondering where the road led. I was able to turn right, behind that second station, and emerge back at 31, where I just turned left despite yellow marks in the middle...quickly replaced by left-turn arrows. I made a left into the gas station where I wanted to go.

Figure it out as you go. Don't tell yourself you won't. Don't find a convenient way out.

I was already feeling the day well done before I hooked the trout. The water there was no more than waist deep. Maybe thigh deep. I netted the fish, photographed it, turned my attention to more. After two or three casts, I hooked up, the trout coming off as it surfaced. A solid hit on the next cast prompted more, and though nothing else happened besides my spotting a trout headed past me at a high rate of speed, I felt fired up and willing to fish hard.

It's a matter of acquiring the stuff of the earth. By exercising the trout quest. Experience processes being, and done well, benevolence enters the world where it was lacking before you released it.

An amazing thing: I got to the Round Valley ramp area when light was on the point I had in mind. On that point just so. Just enough to cover it like the area of a RAW image in Lightroom masked perfectly from the edges and illumined. Minutes later, after I got a photo with light on that point, it was shadowing over.