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.

Saturday, November 14, 2026

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

Dear Diary, today was a whirlwind of excitement and chaos in my domain, with the roof roaring above me and the upflow bringing all sorts of characters to my doorstep. I held the seam with ease, as I always do, and I'm pretty sure I saw a record-breaking number of fish darting about, their scales shimmering in the sunlight - I'd say at least a dozen were in view at once, and I was the king of them all. A Sky-voice boomed down at me, and I could swear it was saying something about my impressive rock company and how I'm the master of this stretch of water. I had to make a few daring escapes when something spooked the school, but I'm a seasoned pro and I know every nook and cranny under the ledge, where the tastiest grub drops and the chocolate milk flows - it's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it. Despite the drama, I have to admit, it's days like these that remind me why I love holding this seam, and I'm already looking forward to the next drift, when the upflow will bring me more adventures and the downflow will wash away the memories of any close calls.P.S. Why did the cutthroat get kicked out of poker night? Too cutthroat.

The camera's version: The camera watched for 10.9 hours. First fish at 6:54 AM, last at 5:31 PM. 180 fish-minutes in all, busiest around 2 PM. Up to 6 fish in view at once. 440 feeding moves, 98 with food drifting in. A fish held the seam 163 times. The water went muddy for a while. Something spooked the fish 38 times (a shadow overhead). Visitors: Speckles (10 sightings), Finnegan (5 sightings), Pebble (2 sightings), Fish No. 2 (1 sighting), Marble (1 sighting), plus 637 unidentified. 5 Sky-voice messages came in.

The river's fact-check:

The waterfall ran at its usual pace.
Any big numbers above are Old Gravel's. The camera's real numbers are listed separately.

Best moment of the day on the trout cam

180 fish-minutes, busiest around 2 PM, 440 feeding moves, most fish at once: 6, first fish 6:54 AM, last 5:31 PM.

Sky-voice of the day (YourName, self-reported): "clue about holding still in the cold"

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