Trout Lake Report: Bookends

I try to avoid it, but sometimes I have to bookend my fishing time between scheduled responsibilities. Such was the case on Tuesday. I had something I had to do in the morning, and something I had to do in the evening. That left the afternoon for fishing.

And what a gorgeous afternoon it was, one of the last of the mild days of October. It didn't even matter that the wind was kicking up its heels. The sun shone warm through the cool air of Fall, and the world was basking in it.

I fished on top again, stripping and towing big flies through the bounding main. I got some bumps on a big Muddler, and then caught a handful of little fish on the Carpet Caddis. I don't mind that. These are next year's good fish, and the following year's big fish--and they already act like big fish when they're hooked, even if they don't have the weight yet to back it up.

That said, I'm still looking for a memorable Fall fish. Something along the lines of that 22 inch Brown last October. So I continue to prospect up along weed beds, and in the pockets of open water between the weed beds and the shoreline. The last few trips I haven't moved a thing.

Tuesday, along a new stretch of shoreline, with a big Stimulator on the line, that tactic paid off.  I didn't catch a monster, but I hooked into two very nice fish, a Brown and a Rainbow.

Like two bookends.

Now, I caught little fish before those two, and I caught little fish after those two. So they didn't really bookend my catching--at least chronologically. But if you fish, I think you can understand how sometimes chronology has nothing to do with how you rank or arrange your catches in your mind. It's not the passage of time that matters, but what passes between your experience and your emotions, between you and the fish during those moments your worlds are connected.

So. Bookends. Beautiful bookends.

The Rainbow was the best fish of the two, fat and heavy. If there's one, there are others. And if there's one this big, there are others bigger.

I didn't mind at all when it was time to pack up and pick up my responsibilities again. I had enjoyed a wonderful afternoon. Not for the last time...

Yet....