Thanksgiving at H()LLOW LAKE
The lake is having seconds
Salmon are running up the River Mouth from a lake that has no sea. Marge is selling pumpkin spice chum and will not take questions. And down in the deep, the oldest fish in the lake ate too much and fell asleep. Through the day after Thanksgiving.
Starts Nov 12. Runs until Nov 27.
The strange ones
Spiced (pumpkin spice, all the way through) can come up on any fish while it lasts, and far more often with pumpkin spice chum in the water. Tryptophanic is another matter: only the oldest fish, and only if you wake them. They come up far bigger than the species is supposed to get.
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Spiced
The water smells like a candle shop. Your line is the color of a latte.
“It is orange. It smells of cinnamon. It is, against all reason, warm.”
Pays 3× a plain one
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Tryptophanic
Something enormous yawns down there. It took your bait like it was doing you a favor.
“It is enormous and it is asleep. It fell asleep in the net. During the fight, honestly.”
Pays 6× a plain one
New this season
Only while it lasts. When it is over they go back to wherever they came from.
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Chinook Salmon
The River Mouth, any spot, dawn to dusk. Best in the riffles and the run.
Salmon eggs (Marge, 5 for 12c, while it lasts) or a spoon.
Something else, further down
There is a second one this season, somewhere most anglers have not been yet. You will know it when you see it. It will make sure of that.
Pumpkin spice chum
Marge has it, 3 for 40c, and sends Wes a sack too. It cannot be crafted. Cast, then text CHUM PUMPKIN with your line out: it hurries a bite, every kind of mutation comes up more, and a Spiced fish (pumpkin spice, all the way through) comes up a lot more. BUY PUMPKIN at the shop.
How to wake a tryptophanic fish
You need all three at once: an Ancient fish (bowfin, gar, alligator gar, lake sturgeon; and if you have been further than most, its old cousins down there too), a rare bait it takes (a Golden Worm, a Silver Shiner, a Blue Crayfish, a Giant Nightcrawler and the like), and pumpkin spice chum in the water. Plain bait will not do. No chum, no wake. Even with everything right, hardly any bite, and the ones that do fight like they ate the whole table. They are very rare and very hard to land. Bring your best rig, and a net.
The rare baits, for a price
Usually they only turn up in a box of bait or a lucky dig. Until the day after Thanksgiving, Marge keeps them behind the counter, one at a time, at 400c each, and a box of bait turns one up a little more often than usual. She knows exactly what she is doing.
Their own leaderboard
A tryptophanic fish never counts on the regular records or the champions’. They have their own board: the Tryptophanic tab on the leaderboard, or text LEADERBOARD TRYPTOPHANIC.
The shops dressed for fall
Marge is in a pilgrim hat and will deny it. There are gourds on the counter. On the Minnow you can see all of it.