Jump, Darn Fish, Jump!

The trout are running! (That's odd 'cause they have no feet..) For years, NorthernMommy has been wanting to see the fish jumping up the rapids on their way to get their spawn on. She dragged Northern(not Daddy then) up to watch them five years ago, but the fish weren't running that day. This year, things worked out for Mommy: the weather was warm and sunny, Toddler was quickly recovering from sickness, and Papa Frank got a call from a nice lady in Orleans telling him that the fish were running.

There's a nice section of river that channels the trout up a fairly narrow chute and into a small pool, where the fish can rest for a second or two before the final leap up a waterfall into the calm section of the river in which they spawn (or as they used to say on MTV Cribs, "This is where the magic happens"...)

Most of the crowd was watching the rapids 'chute' in an attempt to spot a jumping fish, but NorthernDaddy looked upstream and noticed the pool - and the only two narrow areas for a fish to jump to continue the upstream journey. Not twenty seconds after arriving at the pool, Daddy saw a really big rainbow trout (almost 24") launch upstream. Cool! Hey Toddler, get up here!

There weren't too many fish heading upstream today - about one every five minutes. (Think about that for a second: try staring at the same section of water for five minutes waiting for a fish jump that is over in a flash. If you look away at any second, you could miss the jump. Now, think about getting a four-year-old to do that!) The leap is remarkably fast - maybe one second from launch to upper level (or a crashing miss - about half the fish missed on the first jump) - so getting a picture seemed impossible. But, with a combination of patience, a fast shutter speed, lightning-quick 37-year-old reflexes, and a whole lot of dumb luck, NorthernDaddy caught a fish on film.

Above is the original photo - Mr. Leaping Rainbow is approximately eighteen inches long.

Below, the same picture is cropped to enlarge the detail (NorthernDaddy is sure that the fish smiled for the photo - do you see it?)