Go Fish
When I was a child, my Uncle Phil would take my cousins and my siblings fishing in his home state of Arkansas. The man had the patience of a saint. He imparted to me a love of fishing that I still have today. There’s something meditative about fishing. It may be the only pastime where I’ll willingly check out of work and obligations to just…sit there and stare at a piece of plastic bobbing around, waiting to signal a bite. There’s also something addictive about fishing, a bit like playing a slot machine. “Just one more cast, maybe I’ll hook one this time.” Luckily, it’s a lot cheaper than Vegas.
We stocked the pond about three weeks ago. Over Spring Break, it was time to test the waters. How big were the fish? Were they hungry? Would they give a good fight? Or, had the resident osprey dined on fresh trout repeatedly, leaving us with nothing?
The answer arrived as quickly as the kids threw a line in the water. Within ten minutes, the first trout had been caught. It was a solid 2 pounds, impressively beautiful and large, and immediately it was decided that dinner had been procured. Over the next hour, two more fish had met their match at the literal end of the line - we had to cut the kids off for the day to keep the population stable for others. That night, our plan for burgers was thrown out the window and three hungry kids chowed down on their dinner with some serious pride.
The trout are still hungry several weeks later. You can see one jump every few minutes, especially in the evening when the bugs are hitting the water at sunset. They seem to be hungriest in the morning. This proved true again yesterday, when, after inviting neighbors to dinner, I realized I didn’t have enough food to serve. “I’m going to go catch us dinner,” I said to Lee, with a bit of a swagger that could have been completely unwarranted. Luckily, it wasn’t. Before my coffee got cold, I had two nice-sized trout in my bucket and a few hours later, I’d cleaned them and made a pretty awesome meal.
Mt. Lassen Trout are found at some of the best restaurants in California. The same fish you’ll catch at the ranch are served up at fine dining establishments up and down the coast. The trout are about 3 years old in our pond, and they’re humanely farmed in the clean waters from melting snow off of Mt. Lassen.
Learn more about the fish you’ll catch at the ranch here!
