Monthly Archives: July 2010

Bassclave 2010

Another Bassclave 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.

20-minute fishing trip

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…

10 minute fishing trip…

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!

Valet boat launching/truck parking

At Emerald Isle NC for the holiday weekend. Beautiful weather; don’t know when I’ve been to the beach for the Fourth of July and not needed 7×24 AC. For the second night in a row, we have the house open. But that’s not the purpose of this posting. We took the boat a couple miles down the island to launch at Island Harbor Marina for the first time since I bought a season ramp pass, and boy what a difference a year makes. It’s under new ownership, this year, and long term plans call for the ramp to disappear, probably by fall 2011 the way the schedule is going, and they will have a dry stack as well as slips. However, for this year, the ramp is still there, and you get valet launching of your boat and parking of of your truck. We got our parking number, pulled in, climbed in the boat on the trailer while the staff backed us into the water. I backed the boat off the trailer into the water, and away we went while they parked. Upon return, I pulled up and the dock, gave the staff representative my parking claim check, and the trailer appeared. I drove the boat onto the trailer, they hooked it up, and pulled out of the water. The only thing I had to do was to put on the tie-down straps. That is so cool 😉

GoToMeeting on the iPad

I had the occasion to participate in a GoToMeeting session today. Pretty normal stuff, except that I did it from my iPad using the GoToMeeting app. I was very pleased with the crisp updates of the slide deck and the rock solid audio, even as I walked around the yard, iPad in hand.

I’ve also used the Citrix XenApp receiver to test, but only with the Citrix backend infrastructure. However, it works nicely. These are two good apps. Looking forward to a chance to use the receiver with a pilot Citrix deployment UNCG is putting in this summer.

A break from the heat!

What a hot June it’s been here in central NC. Most days over 90F, and one officially 101F at the RDU airport. That makes the break so nice. Low 80’s, low humidity, blue sky…after a meeting this afternoon, I left one campus building and just sat on a wall outside, pulled out the iPad and scored some campus wifi for email. Much better than my office!

Tonight, we’re sitting on the patio enjoying a wonderful evening. Even have a small fire burning in the fire pit, and a nice Cotes du Rhone red! Tonight’s lows should be in the upper 50’s. Doesn’t get much better here in the summer.

The weekend weather is supposed to be equally spectacular. We’re heading to the beach for the long weekend.

Cheers, y’all!