July 26, 2010 by Joel.

Another Bassclave (will add more pictures as I get them from others) has come and gone. This is the third year we’ve gathered at the Greenbrier River Campground, and the 14th Bassclave overall. Great fellowship, great fishing, and a generally great time. My fishing partner Sam was able to come with me this time. It’s been several years since he was at a Bassclave, and it was good to spend time with Sam. I don’t get to see him as much as I did when we both worked at UNC-CH. Sam and I drove up on Thursday the 22nd, arriving about 11:15PM. Set up camp quickly so that we could get a few hours of sleep before we hit the river. Floated from the Campground down to Stuart’s Hotdog stand on Friday, taking the boats out about 3PM. Fishing was very good for small bass (up to about 12″), but no big ones. It was so hot we took out at Stuart’s rather than floating all the way down to Alderson, but we decided to cook dinner and go back out on the river as the sun sank, hoping for better topwater action. Did the same stretch downstream, but got out at “Drew’s Rock” about 8:30PM and boy, was it a chore getting up to the road. It was Drew’s idea to climb out there…he said, “oh, it’s just a one-man job to take the boat up” - right… and ‘nuf said! Fishing was decent, but I didn’t get as many as the first run through.

Saturday, we decided to run from the mouth of Second Creek to the campground. It’s quite nice to end the float at the campground rather than dealing with a shuttle. Very civilized. Last year, we had Virgil drive us over, but this year John said he’d drive the folks over that wanted to go on that float, so, he drove me, Sam, Drew, Mike, Jeff, Chad, Jason (& Riser) over. We did leave Drew’s car as we had too many folks for one vehicle, but he had WV tags, so we thought his car would be safe ;- ) . We sorta knew the way, but I used my iPad and the Topo Maps application to make sure we got all the funky turns on the the little mountain roads. Less than 5 miles as the crow flies, but a 30 minute drive. It was so cool with the GPS showing exactly where we were on the topo sheet. The fishing was the same as Saturday; lots of bass, a zillion red-eyes, but I didn’t get any big ones. Lost the best one I hooked, about a 14″ fish, right in the same spot where Jason landed a 14″ fish. Maybe that fish didn’t get enough the first time! I caught most of mine on Crayfish flies and brown buggers; Sam caught most of his on the same. We talked on the way home, and figured as the other guys were mostly in front using poppers, that by the time we came along, they fish that wanted poppers had been tagged, and we were catching them subsurface. Hey, no problem.

Sunday, we packed up and drove over to the special regs trout water on Second Creek. Fun, but frustrating. Lots of trout, actively feeding, but in about 3 hours, the best Sam or I could manage was a couple of strikes. It was nice, though, to cast with the 3 and 4 weight rods with small flies rather than the 7 weight rods and heavy flies we’d been using for bass.

Drove home into the heat wave, arriving about 5PM…

What a great trip. Already looking forward to next year.

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July 18, 2010 by Joel.

Aha, I say…just nice puffy cumulus clouds as we returned from Jan’s family reunion. I think I’ll go visit the Morgan Creek sunfish again, and stay a bit longer. Biked the 3/4 mile to the creek, and walked down to the best pool on this stretch of the creek. Rigged up, same as yesterday, with a Syl’s Nymph on the end of my 00-wt flyrod. Though sweat was rolling down and ’skeeters humming, the water felt cool on my sandaled feed. Eased up to the pool, keeping my feet on the gravel bar, and cast. Quickly caught a tiny sunny, but even a small fish bends this rod. Caught a slightly bigger one and eased up a bit further. A couple of small bass were cruising!

Uh oh…what’s that? Thunder? Clouds moving this way? Better head to the house before the storm. I’ll be back, though, to visit the sunfish and bass in Morgan Creek…

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July 17, 2010 by Joel.

It’s been a lazy Saturday here, 3 lattes after a late start, followed by a trip to Walmart and Harris Teeter. We missed the severe thunderstorms that went by 10 miles north, and by 2PM I’d decided to take my 00-wt flyrod and go visit the sunfish in Morgan Creek. Checked the weather radar, and figured I had about an hour. Hopped on Jeff’s bike (my bike and Jan’s are at the beach) and rode to the creek. Rigged up, and tied on a Syl’s nymph, my favorite wet fly for panfish. Caught a nice little green sunfish on the first cast…followed by a rumble of thunder. Caught two tiny sunnies in the same pool, and then heard the rain coming through the woods. Guess my radar-reading skills are suspect! I might have tried to wait it out, but I could tell the rain was going to stick around. Hiked upstream in pouring rain to the bike, and enjoyed a wet 5 minute ride home. It reminded me, though, of how much I enjoy this small stream and little sunfish A good day!

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April 24, 2010 by Joel.

My friend Sam and I went to Weldon,NC on Friday 4/23. Back during January, I practiced defensive calendaring and blocked a couple of Fridays in April. Well, the Chancellor wanted a meeting for a search committee on which I’m participating on one of those days, and when your boss’ boss calls, you attend the meeting! That left me with only this past Friday 4/23 open. Probably should have booked a May Friday with this year’s cold weather, but c’est la vie…

We got to Weldon about 9:30, and the parking lot was about as full of boats as it could be…I pulled the boat off the trailer while Sam parked my truck. The extra (third) lane on the ramp helps a lot with traffic! We ran down the river to Big Rock, and set up the the drifting flotilla of bait fishermen. Talked to a couple of fly guys who’d picked up a couple of fish, but it was slow for them. Water temp was about 63.5F. Drifted for a couple of hours, and couldn’t buy a strike. We were marking fish about about 6′-8′ deep, per the fish finder, but no luck for us. We were watching the bait guys catching fish slowly but steadily. Picked up and ran down to the power lines, but didn’t change our luck. Decided that we wanted to anchor and eat lunch, so we ran back up the river and anchored in front of Troublefield Gut. Had lunch and watched the parade of boats drifting by. We caught a couple of fish, including a largemouth, a crappie and a couple of stripers. We decided to head to to Big Rock (bigger than last week, as the river was down to about 8,000 cfs), but talked to a couple of fly guys who’d found a seam and caught about 20 about 1/2 way up Little River. They suggested we try that, and did, but wasn’t working for us. However, Sam had the “catch of the day” when he foul-hooked a turtle in the foot!

We tried all sorts of colors of flies, but chartreuse/white worked “better” (that’s a relative term!) than others and tried both sinktip and full sink lines. It was one of those days when the fishing was better than the catching. Headed home about 4PM. Maybe my fish mojo will be on next time, but still a great day to be out.

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March 20, 2010 by Joel.

On March 19th, Sam and I made our annual pilgrimage to Weldon to hook up with some Hickory Shad. I’d like to do more than one trip, but I’m happy just to be able to go! We knew that it might be a bit early in the season, with the high water recently and cool temperatures. However, with a day scheduled off work, and the forecast for a beautiful day, we headed to the river. When we got there about 9:45AM, the river was running ~9000cfs, and very stained. We launched the boat and were quickly on the river. We ran downstream past the water treatment plant and were thinking about going to Troublefield Gut (~2.8 miles downstream on river left, per the NC Wildlife map), but a boat was already there. We ran downstream further, stopping and trying a few places. Not even a bump. River temperatire was 47F per my boat’s sensor. Went all the way down to Halifax (about 10 miles) to see if the water was any warmer or if any fish were there. Nada. Tried the long rods and spinners, no luck. Turned around, and went back upstream. About 12:45PM, we got back to Troublefield Gut and no one was there, so we anchored. I had a couple of bumps and soon caught a white perch. Then, Sam caught a small striper. We were both fishing full sink lines at the time, and were down on the bottom. We then started picking up shad. Not a banner day, but 15-20 fish between the two of us from 1PM to 3:30PM. We switched to sink tips from the full sink lines as the fishfinder seemed to indicate that there were fish 5-6 feet down. Seemed to work, as we both caught more on the sink tips. Interestingly, the water temp warmed to 50F by the time we left, and that might have helped.

As we left, we saw about a half dozen boats near the water treatment plant. Talked to one group, and they said that they’d caught some, but like us it was sporadic.

We caught all our fish on pink flies (though I’ll make ‘em a bit differently sometimes), and didn’t catch anything on the spinners until we changed to pink jigs. So, for us, pink was the color of choice.

Headed for the ramp about 3:45PM, and then back home…

Pictures here…

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January 12, 2010 by Joel.

OK, so it’s already January 12th…it’s still early in the new year! 2010 is off to a good start. We’ve got both kids back out of the house again, off at their respective schools, so peace and quiet reigns. I’ve been trying to keep on top of communications and planning for my new BSA role as District Chairman. I think that the key is to do what I need to do right when I think of it; if I let it sit, too much time will pass and I’ll also stand a better chance of dropping a ball. Electronic communication will be important, and I plan to try to use Skype for conference calls, and also leverage either the current Yahoo site or a Google group. We’ll also make use of collaborative editing with Google Docs. I’m gearing up to teach at UNC-CH again this semester in my role as an adjunct in SILS. Last semester was the first time in 10 years I’ve not taught a class, and I feel energized to do it; it’s been good to take the time off. I’m working on getting my vacation schedule set up and coordinated with my colleagues at UNCG. I want to be sure that I get some time for shad fishing in March, Bassclave in June or July, and beach time in August. Time flies, and the cold weather we’ve been having will be gone soon, and the fish will be biting. I do plan to try for some trout in early February. There’s a local pond/lake that gets a trout stocking during the winter. I’ll be giving that a try this year. What’s that whooshing sound? Time rushing by

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July 3, 2009 by Joel.

Another Bassclave has come and gone. What a great time! Left Chapel Hill at ~6:45PM on Thursday June 25. Arrived at the Greenbrier River Campground (on WV63, about half-way between Roncerverte and Alderson) about 11:15PM. Drew Nix was waiting up for me, but most of the encampment had turned in for the evening, as most folks had floated on Thursday…

Woke up early, and got my gear ready to go. A big group of us (7) decided to float from Second Creek to the campground, about 7 river miles. We got the campground staff to drive us to Second Creek (took about 30 minutes to wind around the mountains and get to the put-in). I put on a chartreuse popper and started working the banks. I started catching fish pretty quickly. It was a good day, catching at least 30 bass. They weren’t big, with the best one about 13″, but satisfying. Also caught probably twice that many red-eyes and a handful of bream. It was nice to finish at the campground, just pick up the boat and walk 50 yards to the camp! Enjoyed the company of my fellow fishers. I’d met most before, but had not met Jerry or Hector. Great to renew old friendships and make new ones.

On Saturday, we planned to float from the campground about 4 miles downstream. Dale and Henry drove their vehicles to the take out, with Hector bringing them back. We slipped into the water and enjoyed what’s probably the most scenic part of the river, with many nice rapids and great river views. I tried the poppers again, but they weren’t working for me (though Jim had a great day with poppers…go figure!). I switched to a crayfish and started catching fish regularly. Again landed about 30 bass and about that many red-eyes. More small fish, but several 11-12″ bass, especially toward the end of the float. Shuttled back to camp and we all fixed dinner for a pot-luck. Good stories around the “circle” as we enjoyed near-perfect weather.

Sunday, I went with Steve to fish for trout at Second Creek. There’s a C&R section just a few miles up from the Greenbrier. I fished about 2 hours before heading home. I had a good morning, landing a 15″ rainbow and two 12″ rainbows. Caught all on a soft hackle nymph. I’ll come back to Second Creek again! I’d forgotten how much fun a nice rainbow was on the 3wt.

All in all, a wonderful trip. Pictures are available here.

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May 19, 2009 by Joel.

One down, one to go

This past weekend was busy! Jeff’s birthday, Jason’s graduation from Virginia Tech, and the 28th anniversary for Jan and I. We took Friday off work, and headed to Blacksburg. We were glad we had a place to stay. It’s tough to get a hotel room in Blacksburg or anywhere within 50 miles for graduation weekend; reservations have to be made a year in advance. VT is a big university (4,000 undergrads, and about 1,000 grad students) and not a big town. With all the family who want to see, it’s a challenge to get a spot. We lucked out and through a tip from my friends on the flyfishing listserve, got on the waiting list and then got rooms at the Inn at Riverbend, a B&B about 20 miles west of town in Pearisburg, VA. What a nice place. It’s every bit as nice as it looks on their website. The innkeepers (Lynn & Linda, with help from the manager Eric) are very hospitable, the food was great, and the Inn dogs are friendly! I highly recommend it if you are looking for a place to stay in that area. Here’s a picture I took (with my blackberry, so sorry for the quality) from the deck on the first afternoon when we arrived.

First event was the Computer Science departmental graduation at 4PM on Friday, followed by the University ceremony in Lane Stadium at 7:30PM. Saturday morning was the College of Engineering graduation, where they read all 1,000 names while the graduates traipsed across the stage.

A few hours of relaxation on Saturday afternoon; I went to Little Stony in nearby Pembroke and harassed a few trout. A very nice dinner at The Bank Food and Drink in Pearisburg. Just beat the approaching cold front, and watched the rain sheet off the windows while we ate. Fortunately, it stopped before time to head back to the Inn. Jeff didn’t get much of a birthday party, but all got cards, etc. at dinner. Jan and I then enjoyed some Duval Leroy bubbly and the hot tub back at the room

Sunday was moveout…packed up his apartment, loaded the Uhaul and headed back to Chapel Hill. Whew! I sure could have used a weekend to rest up from the weekend. Jason’s off now in DC for an internship before starting grad school. We’ll all get back in the grind here at home…

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April 11, 2009 by Joel.

A long weekend means a bit of time for discretionary computer activities…this is a report from a trip I took to the Roanoke River on March 27th to fish for Hickory Shad…

In spite of the promise (guarantee!?) of rain and the high water levels, my fishing buddy Sam and I headed to Weldon, NC to try our luck, as I had this day off from work with no promise of another day anytime soon. We arrived in Weldon at 10AM, and launched the boat. So nice to start these 4-cycle engines, just turn the key, and it starts just like a car.

The big rapids right across from the ramp were completely washed out, with the flow ~15,000cfs. Headed downstream to see if we could find a spot. At high water like this, your best bet will be tight up next to the banks, or especially where one of the small creeks comes into the river, creating slack water. Spotted a number of boats at the water treatment plant downstream of the ramp. We grabbed a spot, but weren’t in a good position, and decided to head downstream a bit further…went a ways, not quite to Big Rock; didn’t see any place we liked but tried a couple. Tough even to anchor at this flow level. The river is about 20 feet deep bank to bank with the current really ripping through. Nothing doing with the fish, though the fish finder showed fish (if you believe those things ). We headed back upriver, and found that the folks who had been in the mouth of a little creek on the north side of the river had left. We anchored there and started catching fish. Not a huge number, but reasonably steady action. Sam and I each caught 15-20. Several were nice, heavy fish. The rain held off until about 2:30PM or so. We fished in the rain a while (gave the bilge pump a workout) and headed back to the ramp about 3:30PM to head back to Chapel Hill. A nice day!

Pictures here…

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December 25, 2008 by Joel.

Finished up the batch of #18 Abigail Adams I was working on and then tied a few #16 Olive Bodied Adams (OBA). I tied these with a a black tail, olive gray dubbing, and a parachute-style wing with a cree hackle. There is more variation in the OBA than the traditional “gray” adams. The OBA has a long history on the Flyfish Listserver, and this tie might stretch the boundaries, but I like it. I thought that this looked good and and I hope a fish will too! I noticed when I looked at the zoomed picture, though, that I didn’t trim around the eye

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