September 4, 2005

It is the holiday weekend, so we plan to lay low. The weather isn’t so nice either. Yesterday was cloudy and cool. Today is rainy.

We took a nice hike yesterday afternoon. We followed the Campbell Creek Greenbelt downstream further than we have been before. The creek was clear and low, but we saw very few fish. We walked all the way past Minnesota before deciding to turn around.

We ran into a fisherman who was carrying the smallest ugliest silver salmon I had ever seen. We caught up to him and talked to him for awhile. He agreed that he wasn’t telling anyone about Campbell Creek. He took a different trail back to the neighborhood, but as we crossed through the condo complex behind us, we noticed that he was arriving at his condo which was right about directly behind ours. I’ll have to watch for him out there in the creek.

We went out to Siam Cuisine for dinner last night. We both had spicy curry dishes and it was good. We came to the conclusion that even though we really enjoy Thai and even Chinese food, that we just didn’t crave it the way we do Mexican. We probably have Thai food every other year or so and that seems fine.

After dinner, I went down to the creek to fish. I was surprised to find about a dozen fish sitting in a pool that I rarely see fish in. I threw at them, but there were no takers. I moved down to the next pool which is one of the most popular fishing holes and the fish looked like a cloud in the water. There had to be a hundred of them lined up in there. I threw around them and couldn’t entice a strike. Every bend in the creek had fish hanging in the deeper water. They were all pretty much just hanging there and wanted nothing to do with my lure. I began to think there was something wrong with the new lure I had put on just before coming down to the creek.

I kept working my way downstream and eventually I arrived at one of my favorite pools where I have landed a few fish. Another cloud of fish filled the water. As I neared the pool, one jumped clean out of the water. I worked my way across the stream and into position. On my third cast, I saw one following. I kept reeling slowly and then my lure vanished from view. I set the hook. It was a big fish, but very dark in color. It didn’t seem too energetic so I quickly had it under control. I struggled with the rod in one hand and the net in the other, but after a couple of tries, I netted the fish. It had a really hooked jaw and very dark coloring. Kris and I had discussed keeping one to see if there was a big difference in taste between the bright ones and the old ones, but I decided this wasn’t the fish to experiment with. I took a quick picture of his hideousness and released him back to the herd.

Of course there were no more takers from that pool. The smaller pools further downstream held fish, but they were all just hanging there, too. It was getting dark so I decided to quit. It does look like it should be good for trout fishing here in the next month as the spawning gets the trout feeding on eggs and then later on the dead fish. Maybe I can find some nice trout for the freezer yet this year.