Category Archives: Flyfishing

At NCREN Community Day

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I’m at NCREN Community Day today. This annual event brings together the NCREN stakeholders and network users, which now includes the entire K20 community in North Carolina. It’s encouraging to see participation from the K12 community and the emphasis on bringing value to K12, leveraging the information resources of the traditional University community community to holistically improve education in the state.

One of the biggest values is the human networking, and the opportunity to talk with colleagues across the state. While we have a similar event for the University of NC system (UNC CAUSE), Community Day brings in representation from the K12, Community College and state government sectors. National research networks such as Internet2 are also represented. The opportunity to talk and synchronize with this extended community is a key to the importance of this event. Already I’ve had several productive conversations and have another scheduled for lunch.

Of course I did have a chance to also talk with my colleagues about boating and fishing 😉

Now, back to the meeting…

Sliding across the sea…

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This weekend was another of those perfect fall weekends on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, lows in the 40’s and highs about 70. I had a chance to get out of town with my friend and fishing buddy Sam. I picked Sam up about 9AM Saturday and we drove to Emerald Isle NC. Late start, as I’d been out of town at a conference, and got home just in time for neighborhood Halloween festivities ;-). Got to Emerald Isle about noon, and met my dad at the beach house. Threw some fishing gear in the boat and headed to the marina with Sam & my dad. We weren’t very optimistic about the fishing, as the tide was falling, but it was a nice day. Motored to the Bear Inlet channel and gave it a go. My dad managed one speckled trout, I had a pinfish, and Sam was skunked. “Should have been here in the morning,” was the word. However, we decided to take the boat up the back channel from the inlet to the ferry dock. An interesting trip…though the tide was dead low, still had 3 to 6 feet of water in many spots — one stretch only had a foot. Had to lift the motor up and pole across the shoal. Saw several spots that ought to hold speckled trout, though, and as an exploratory trip was quite successful. Headed back to the marina as it was getting late, and a dinner of steamed oysters.

Today (Sunday) dawned clear and absolutely calm, headed for a temperature of 71F, Indian Summer for sure. My dad decided to stay around the house, and Sam and I headed out after breakfast. Got on the water about 8:45AM and headed to a likely trout hole. Sam and I each quickly caught a trout (he on his flyrod, and me, heretically, on a spinning rig). Thought our luck might be changing, but not so…churned the water for a while with flyrods and spinners. None of the boats nearby was doing any better, so we headed over to Bear Island (Bouge Inlet end) and tried flyrods in the surf a while, but nothing doing. Water is still a bit warm for the specks to move out of the estuaries toward the ocean. Since we weren’t catching fish, and since it was such a calm day, we got in back in the boat and headed out the inlet into the ocean. Just low rolling swells, and absolutely beautiful — not a cloud in the sky (but no seabirds working schools of blues, either). Saw several pods of bottlenose dolphins, all told, must have been 100 of them, rhythmically working a school of fish…they were everywhere around the boat, some leaping out of the water, some slowly rolling, some slapping their tails as they dove into 30 feet of water. We tried casting and plugging, but no strikes. Oh well…

As Jimmy Buffet sang in Brahma Fear,

“Yes, I own a whaler boat

It slides across the sea

Some folks say I’m part of it

And I know it’s part of me”

Well, mine’s a Carolina Skiff, not a whaler, but this is what I was humming as we ran outside Bear Island toward Bear Inlet. Some other skiffs were working the shoal just west of Bear Inlet, but started moving away as we approach; missed that bite. Headed across the Bear Inlet bar on a couple of rollers and into the channel…banked around the shoals and found a hole to try a few more casts. A sea robin and lizard fish were it. Down the channel toward the ICW. Stopped in a bend right before the waterway. Saw a fellow catch a trout, and decided to make a few more casts. No hookups, but several short strikes, so fish were there. We didn’t catch any more, and decided to head on back so we could get back to central NC by supper. Sped down the waterway thru Swansboro and back to the marina.

What a day! Perfect fishing, and though the catching could have been better, still was one of the best days I’ve had on the water in a long while.

Bassclave 2008

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Spent the weekend of August 1-3 in the vicinity of Ronceverte, WV at the Greenbrier River Campground at Bassclave 2008. Actually arrived about 11:45PM on July 31, having left Chapel Hill after dinner that day. Funny thing with my GPS; I’d entered the Lat/Lon coordinates from the campground’s website, but either I “fatfingered” them, or there was some other error, as my GPS left me about 2 miles from the campground in the middle of nowhere. However, I found my way there, and Drew Nix, clave organizer extraordinary, was there waiting up for me.

Floated the river on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we did the Pence Springs to Talcott run, and on Saturday went from the campground downstream about 3.5 miles. The fishing was fun, but could have been a bit more productive. Caught some nice bass, but the fellowship is the best thing about the ‘clave. The pictures tell the story better than I can….

Short trout trip…

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As I mentioned yesterday, we took a short trip to Asheville, NC for my son to go to freshman orientation at UNC Asheville. This was his day, so as to not be “helicopter parents” Jan and I dropped him off at the University, checking to see that we truly weren’t needed until mid-afternoon, and then we drove a short ways south of Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a bit of hiking, reading (by Jan) and fishing (by me).

The morning was cool and pretty, and as we drove up the mountains toward Mt. Pisgah, the temperature dropped a bit more. We arrived a our destination, a large overgrown meadow with a stream running through it. At 5000 feet, it stayed in the 60’s, through our hike. Perfect shirtsleeve weather. Jan took this picture of me trying to coax trout from the clear, shallow water, using a rod Dave Lewis made for me from a Sage TXL 00 blank (great for this fishing!). The brook trout in this stream are small, but can be very pretty, as you’ll see in a bit. They weren’t feeding actively, so while I could see them and get some good drifts, it was more “fishing” than catching. Then, I connected with this nice fish.

Spent lots of time trying to avoid the vegetation around the stream. This is a fairly open section, but getting the fly under the brush on the left was tougher than it may look. I caught a handful and LDR’d a few others in a couple of hours.

Met up with Jan again when the stream headed up hill to the falls (and got too small to be fished), and we finished our hike. Walked about 4 miles on a nice day, caught some fish, and made it back to Asheville in time for some registration paperwork.

Long drive home, but fun!

Visit to Asheville

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A quick visit to Asheville NC. Youngest son, Jeff, will be starting UNC Asheville in the fall, and he has freshman orientation tomorrow. Jan and will not be helicopter parents, as this is #2 son going to college, and we’re now “old hands.” We’ll drop him off, and after a few minutes, head up to hike and catch a trout in the Shining Rock Wilderness.

Downtown Asheville is a great place. Fine pizza, al fresco, at the Mellow Mushroom, along with a few pints of microbrews. Afterwards, sat in rocking chairs on the porch of the Thomas Wolfe house and enjoyed the breeze (and called my dad for Father’s Day).

Hope to have some pictures to post tomorrow of hiking and fishing…

Vacation day…I could get used to this stuff…

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Somehow, I managed to pick the nicest day of this week for a day off, even though I’d locked this in about 6 weeks ago. 80F, blue skies, light wind…classic April in the South.

Started the day with cappuccino from the new FrancisFrancis machine (took the “coffee club” deal from Illy) — the old faithful Gaggia Synchrony Compact was not so faithful any more. The FrancisFrancis is a simple machine, but it makes great coffee. Actually takes about the same amount of time as the Gaggia, even though that does the grind/tamp automatically. Then, I headed to get some more coffee ;-), meeting my long-time friend and fishing buddy Sam for coffee near his office. Then, over to Foster’s Lake and Pond to buy some hybrid sunfish (Green sunfish/Bluegill) to restock Morgan Creek where it backs to my neighborhood. Morgan Creek dried up in the drought in fall 2007. I had to restock in 2002 after the last drought. I like to flyfish for the little sunnies there, so if I didn’t want for nature to take its course, I needed to help out. Bought 150 @ $.65 ea. for the 2-4″ fish. They’ll be catchable by late summer. $100 well spent!

I’d been thinking about maybe going to fish the Haw River for the White Bass run (it’s about 20 miles from the house) but decided to stay closer to home, to go take some trash to the dump and then try the sunfish in New Hope Creek. Water temp was 61F, which is a bit cool for aggressive feeding, esp. top water, but I enticed 4 or 5 nice Green sunfish up with a small black bugger on my 00-weight rod. Put a nice bend in it.

Home at 3:30PM, sitting on the patio enjoying a cold one. Yep, I like this vacation stuff…

Flyfishing for Hickory Shad…

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I don’t get out to fish as much as I’d like, but I did get a chance to wet a line today (even if I did spend an hour on a conference call while driving home). In March, Hickory Shad (an anadromous fish that comes up the rivers to spawn) fill many rivers in eastern North Carolina. The Roanoke River has a large run, and the fish move upstream until blocked by the dam at Roanoke Rapids Lake. They are great fun to catch, concentrating in large numbers and providing acrobatic fights on light tackle.

I drove from Chapel Hill to Weldon, about 110 miles. I got to the Weldon ramp about 10:30AM. The wind was really howling, since a cold front came through during the night. The temperature was in the 50’s and the sun was bright, and the water level was perfect. Without the wind, conditions would have been ideal. As it was, casting was quite a challenge, as was staying anchored in my one-man pontoon boat, as the wind was swirling me around my anchor, making it difficult to cast in a consistent direction. However, the fish were there! I caught a few, then it slowed down. I realized that I was not getting my fly deep enough, even with nickel eyes and a sink tip line. I finally got the boat stabilized, and started catching them again. Caught about 25 or so, and about 2:30PM decided that casting a heavy fly into the wind was a lot of work. Rowed across the river to the ramp, loaded up, and headed for home.

A great day! Stopped by the wine store on the way home to pick up an Aussie mixed case; will open one up shortly!

Facebook groups…

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So, I finally created my first facebook group…”flyfish@”, for my virtual flyfishing buddies on the Flyfish listserver. I’ve got 21 folks signed up in just a couple of days, and a bunch of pictures loaded, and some new facebook friends. My good friend Dave Lewis was not a facebook user, and he’s now using facebook, and seems to be getting into the spirit of things.

Even though it’s focused on the listserv community, it’s an open group.

I may create a facebook group for my neighborhood…I know at least one other person here in the neighborhood who’s on facebook.

Cool 😉