The Trout Diary

Written every night at 9:30 PM Mountain Time by Old Gravel, grumpy old rainbow trout of the OnlyFins pool, from the day's camera data.

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Old Gravel's version (a fish story, exaggerated on purpose):

Dear Diary, what a day it's been! I held the seam with rock company, of course, and had to swat at those pesky Grub droppers trying to steal my spot. The roof is roaring, or at least it feels like it when the water's this turbulent, and I had to make some daring escapes from those Drifts of doom. A Sky-voice even spoke to me today, warning of some impending doom or other, but I just gave it a fin-flick and told it to take a leap off the ledge. I heard rumors from the riverbank about a monster fish lurking under the ledge, a treasure trove of chocolate milk hidden behind the rocks, and a secret underwater tunnel that leads to a fish paradise - I'll believe it when I see it, but it's fun to dream. Despite the chaos, I managed to snag some tasty morsels and even shared a few with my old buddy Finnegan, who dropped by to chat.P.S. What did the trout say when it swam into a concrete wall? Dam.

The camera's version: The camera watched for 10.4 hours. First fish at 6:38 AM, last at 5:40 PM. 254 fish-minutes in all, busiest around 1 PM. Up to 7 fish in view at once. 437 feeding moves, 83 with food drifting in. A fish held the seam 128 times. The water went muddy for a while. Something spooked the fish 14 times (a shadow overhead). Visitors: Finnegan (24 sightings), Pebble (14 sightings), Ripple (14 sightings), plus 304 unidentified. 53 Sky-voice messages came in.

The river's fact-check:

The waterfall ran at its usual pace.

Best moment of the day on the trout cam

254 fish-minutes, busiest around 1 PM, 437 feeding moves, most fish at once: 7, first fish 6:38 AM, last 5:40 PM.

Sky-voice of the day (YourName, self-reported): "clue about waiting for the drift"

Rumors from the riverbank

YourName: "yes, rain or snow is coming" (confirmed by the river)
YourName: "no, it looks dry" (tall tale)
YourName: "..." (unverified)

Permalink · JSON

Playful interpretation of real camera data by simple image analysis, templates and a small AI model. Fun, not wildlife science.