Ever since we got up here to Dunsmuir, my 3.5 year old daughter has been asking to go feed the fish at the hatchery. So… we did that today. Lots of bows, a few browns and concrete pens with twenty-five cent fists of pellets.
This is where truck trout come from.
After we ran though our change, we went to check out the spillway at Siskiyou Reservoir, where the Upper Sacramento officially begins. It is spilling over the top of the dam at Box Canyon and it is pretty clear where the high water is coming from.
This is where the high water comes from
As we left the dam I asked my dad if he knew of any bluegill ponds. He said sure, we just passed one. We turned around to check it out. I love getting my little girl on some bluegill and thought it would be a good way to spend some of the morning.
Pretty as a little pond can get.
I had my 4 wt. in the car so went to break it out… turns out it wasn’t my 4 wt., but my 10 foot 9 weight. Well… you fish with the rod you have, I suppose, so I put a 5 wt. line on it and made do. It worked just fine.
Simply, this is awesome.
We were surprised when the first fish to come in wasn’t a bluegill or little bass, but a rainbow trout. That fish threw the hook before my daughter could get to it, but the next few fish she got to hold the rod and bring it in the last 4 feet. She loved looking at them in the net, touching them in the water. She had a great time, which was the point.
Her first brown.
At some point in the future, maybe 20 years from now, when someone asks her, “How long have you been fishing?” it is my hope that she’ll simply say “I don’t know… I’ve just always done it.”
Sometimes, being a parent is pretty wonderful.
