Trout Lake Report: Brief Interlude

You need some time away, so you head for the lake a couple of hours before dark. The south end is deserted, so you pull in and launch.

You observe again what you have observed before, that what works on the north end doesn't always work here. A muddler, then a stimulator, fished along the shoreline move no fish. You try a series of dries on top, but the whole south end is very quiet.

The whole lake has been quiet recently. Maybe it's that the Dog Days are here now. Maybe it's that the lake has dropped several feet due to summer drawdowns. Maybe it's a combination of those things, and of the infinite number of variables whose complex interplay shapes this ecosystem.

You troll a woolly bugger through the dusk and one fish, out of all the fish there, sorts through all the variables and decides to take it. It will be the only fish of the evening, but all the more appreciated for that.

You tie on a dry, just in case. You drift quietly through the calm, sort through your own variables, and gradually restore perspective.

You have found everything you sought in this brief interlude in a busy week.