Journaling Nature with Gunnar

Site Journal Entry #3

After the rough midterm week that I went through, I decided to go out into nature and decompress. On Saturday I went to the Rocky Mountain National Park and just ventured around going on random hikes. I saw a lot of very friendly chipmunks who walked right up to me begging for my granola bar. I never gave him any though because I'm greedy and technically you shouldn't feed any of the wildlife. 

On my way back from the park, I stopped by Sportsman Warehouse to invest into some fishing gear so I could finally do what I said I was going to do in my first sight journal. I got some basic swimbaits, pliers, hooks/weights, tacklebox, and a cheap spinning rod for my spinning reel, and it costed me around 100 dollars by the end of it. Fishing is a very expensive hobby, but I needed to get my fish fix. Then on Sunday morning I got up bright and early to make my way over to Wash Park to start the fishing grind. My mode of transportation was the VEO bikes because I never used them before and I was very interested on how the whole system work. 

After getting to the park safe and sound I started my stroll around Smith Lake casting out a few times at any spot that looked fishy to me. While I was strolling, I ran across one of the guys who gave me tips last time I was there and started to talk to him to maybe get a few more tips. He was going for catfish this time instead of bass because his goal was to make a fish fry for him and his family. While I was talking to him, he hooked into this monster catfish that nearly took his rod into the lake. It was peeling line off of his reel, so he knew that he had to focus to get this thing in. After 10 minutes of reeling, I was there to help him net the monster and we parted ways right afterwards. 

I then moved my way to the dock because that was the honey hole last time I was there. Since its October and the weather is getting colder, I think the bass have been more finicky because I only got one bite the whole time, I was there with no takers. So, I kept strolling. 

I then moved over to the little cove next to the tennis courts because word on the street was that a lot of late season bass like to hang there. When I was walking over there, I saw at least 5 families taking professional photos while they immersed themselves into the fall weather. Shortly afterwards I started casting in the cove and I guess I'm not matching the hatch because multiple around me were catching bass and I barely got a bite which made me quite frustrated. So, I started to explore a little bit because I have never really been on that side of the park too much. 

I finished my stroll by chilling on a bench under a tree by the lake where I noticed a whole school of minnows chilling in the shade hiding. Hopefully next time I can match the hatch and actually catch some fish worth recording for my next site journal. I might go for catfish next time instead since I know that there is some monster one's swimming around in that big lake. Wish me luck!

This side of the park has been working on trying to restore its shoreline of the lake because according to the sign it benefits the aquatic life and the land life. The combination of a healthy lake and the plants around it help give all the animals nearby the right nutrients they need. The city started this project since 2011 and it's estimated to continue on for a couple of more years. Another thing that I found interesting was this tree to the left of this passage from its abnormally large leaves. The photograph doesn't give it any justice, but when you get close to it the leaves are bigger than my whole hand. I looked up the tree species in Wash Park and I'm pretty sure that this tree is called the sugar maple.