My youngest dog, Lessa, now has her own page on the “Dogs of FF@” compilation…
We’ve updated Anakin’s page as well…
Update on the “Dogs of FF@” page…
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Category Archives: Flyfishing
September is almost gone…
…and I’ve only been fishing once (see earlier blog entries). Rats. Also, with the current drought here in central NC, all our local streams are drying up, totally. Will take a while for the fish to come back. Right now, only the herons & ‘coons are happy. This happened in 2002, with the streams drying up; I restocked part of Morgan Creek with about 100 bluegill/green sunfish hybrids. Will need to do something like that again. Looking forward to some real fall weather, and hopefully some rain as we get into the fall.
So, what to do? Sit on the porch and have a glass of Shiraz. Just finished a bottle of the Mollydooker “The Boxer” 2006. Not as good as their 2005 Boxer, but tasty. Mollydooker makes some nice wines. I have some of their “Two Left Feet” 2006 cuvee as well, and also a couple of bottles of reserve stuff (Enchanted Path, 2006, and Carnival of Love, 2006). Both are highly rated, esp. Carnival of Love, which is a Wine Spectator 95 point bottle. Saving that one for an auspicious occasion.
Trout on Little Stony Creek…
So, per yesterday’s post, I made a day trip to Blacksburg today. Left the house at about 6:45AM, after being fortified with a couple of grande lattes, and drove the 200 miles to the land of the Hokies. Stopped in Radford for just a minute to pick up my cheap old folding chair from Rob Tucker’s house (thanks, Rob!) which had been left behind at Bassclave ’07, and got to Jason’s apartment around 10AM. Unloaded, and he showed me the new TV that he and his two roommates had bought. Seems that they found someone in Roanoke (via Craiglist) who had a 2002 vintage rear projection 56″ TV, who was replacing it with an LCD or plasma. The guys paid $200 for the privilege of hauling away this 300 pound beast! Well, it will be great for sports in a guy’s apartment. Left Jason’s place around 10:30.
Arrived at Little Stony Creek around 11AM, and quickly hiked up to the first footbridge. Lots of folks around, as this was a holiday weekend. This was my first trip to Little Stony, and Rob said I might see 100-200 hikers. Well, that was on the low side! However, I only saw one other fisherman, and he was hiking in while I was headed out in the afternoon. Folks were constantly going up and down the trails on either side of the creek, but that didn’t bother me! I was fishing my Winston 8′ 3wt. I hadn’t fished this rod in a while; I should fish it more often. What a fantastic rod. Tied on a Tweeter Caddis, and hit the water. LDR’d one, and missed a couple. Saw several trout come up and inspect the fly and refuse it, so I decided that the 5x tippet was too big in the gin-clear water. Rummaged in my bag and pulled out some 7x, and that did the trick. Caught a number of trout like this one, in all the places where a trout should be. Mostly rainbows, some a bit bigger than this one, some smaller. A couple of brookies. I ended up using a Mr. Rapidan most of the time, size 16 (parachute tie). Worked well. The tippet seemed to be more important than the fly (as long as the fly was a 16 or 18). I did see some *big* stonefly nymphs (probably a size 6 or 8 ) and if I’d been spending more time, I would have plumbed the depths of some of the big pools with a imitation. This is a very pretty place, a typical Jefferson Forest freestone.
Normally, I’m somewhat circumspect about mentioning stream names, but this is a well-known place, and it is covered by special regulations. You can bet I’ll be back here. I fished until about 3:30PM, and then headed back to Blacksburg to grab a shower at Jason’s place and take him out to supper. Poor guy had been working all day on an assignment for a Numerical Methods class. I know that one sure challenged me when I did my CS degree. Took Jason out for supper at Outback, and then hit the road for home. A busy day, but a heckuva a lot of fun.
Trout tomorrow?
I’m headed to Blacksburg, VA tomorrow to carry a load to my son (a junior at VT). Taking all the stuff that didn’t make it in the last two trips ;-). Looking forward to going, though I *would* like to sleep late tomorrow. After I drop the load off at Jason’s appartment, I’ll head over to Little Stony Creek west of Blacksburg, and see if I can catch a few trout. I expect a number of hikers on the trail to the Cascades, but that’s OK…it’s a holiday weekend…
Great short vacation
Jan and I got away for a short vacation last week. We spent three nights in a B&B in Washington, Virginia, right next to the Shenandoah National Park. We stayed at the Heritage House B&B, a great place. Had dinner at the Inn at Little Washington, which was quite an experience. We hiked Old Rag, hiked White Oak Canyon, and watched the deer in the fields behind the B&B, visited wineries. Took my flyrod and fished a bit in White Oak Canyon. Saw some beautiful brookies, but wow, they were spooky. Didn’t hook one.
Bassclave 2007
Back from Bassclave 2007. Great job by Drew Nix (with help from the Flying ‘Clave Monkey) in organizing this, the 11th Annual Bassclave. What a good time! Spent two days doing float trips on the upper James River. A beautiful place! Did two floats…Friday from Iron Gate to the Gala gas works (11 miles), and Saturday from Saltpeter Cave to Narrow Passage (~6 miles). I floated both days with Henry “Give me the Clave Monkey” Bowser, Rob “Look at my Paddle” Tucker, and Drew. Caught plenty of bass, sunnies, redeyes, and fallfish; probably about 20 bass each day for me (and about 20 other fish each day), and similar numbers for my compadres (except Henry and the magic crayfish pattern). My best fish was probably 14″; with several 11-12″ fish along with many “standard” 8-10″ bass.
I had forgotten how vigorously the fallfish fight. They hit a popper with authority, and a big one of 14″ or so can really make you think you have a nice bass.
There were a total of 9 folks at the ‘Clave, small by past standards, but a most pleasant gathering. Mark Wendt caught “Moby Bass”, a 15-16″ inch fish. Much good scotch, quite a few beers, and cigars for some (but not for me — that’s a vice I don’t have). Here’s a shot of me (holding the ‘Clave Monkey) and Drew enjoying camp camaradie.
This was the first time I’d used my pontoon (an ODC816) in fast water. Much fun! Check out this shot of me going through the “squeeze” on the Iron Gate to Gala run.
Can’t wait until next year when the clave moves to West Virginia on the Greenbrier. See you there!
It will be a small bassclave, but that’s OK…
…more fish for me! Reports are there of 75 bass days floating the James. Hope that holds. Planning to head up Thursday night, and float Friday & Saturday. Woohoo!
Less than two weeks until Bassclave…
…the clave dates are July 12th-15th, 2007 at the Campground at Natural Bridge, Natural Bridge, VA. This gathering has been taking place since 1997 and is predominantly a gathering of the denizens of the Flyfish Listserve. I’ve been to several of these, and am really looking forward to this!
A bit of trout fishing…
I was supposed to be taking my dad to the mountains this weekend for a father’s day outing to catch some trout. Unfortunately, his back was still acting up (he’s 75 now, and hurt his back while trying to move a bushhog that was stuck), and he didn’t feel that he could spend a couple of days stepping over wet, slippery boulders. Probably a good decision, but I was disappointed.
Fortunately my wife, Jan, stepped up and said that the kids could fend for themselves for the day Saturday (more on this in a bit) and she’d ride with me and take the dog and do some hiking while I fished. A offer I couldn’t refuse! We drove to Virginia to fish in the Jefferson National Forest, about 3 hours from Chapel Hill. We didn’t rush getting there, and reached the trailhead about 11:15AM. She and Lessa (the 2-year old lab) headed out. I rigged up my 00-weight Sage TXL (built by Dave Lewis) and tied on an American Express (parachute style), size 16. Soon started catching lots of bright, spunky Virginia brookies. They aren’t big, but this is probably my favorite type of trout fishing. They are wary in this small stream, especially the bigger ones. Most of the ones I caught were about this size, but a few were bigger. Also caught a number of really fiesty rainbows as I went higher up the stream. Had lunch here, a couple of peanut butter & strawberry jelly sandwiches. Caught a trout in that pool, right after I finished my sandwich ;-). Probably brought 20 trout to hand and LDR’d or missed hooking that many more, but I wasn’t really counting. Saw one deer grazing through the woods, totally unaware of me, due to the noise of the water rushing over the rocks and falling into the plunge pools. In addition to the American Express, I also used an olive-bodied adams, with a hi-vis parachute post and a tail of dubbing, rather than hair or feathers. Worked well. A great day!
Walked back to the truck and met my wife about 3PM. We played with the dog a bit, and then started to meander toward home. As we were driving, my cell phone rang. It was our oldest son, Jason, asking where the garlic peeler was…hmmm, we thought…we gave them money to go out to eat. However, they decided to cook. Jason fixed steak & grilled onions, he fixed fajitas for Jeff. We were most impressed! They do like garlic, though. They used 3 bulbs (bulbs, not cloves!) and the whole house smelled of garlic when we got home. No vampires in our house!
There be shad!
I took the day off from work on Friday, 3/30, and drove from Chapel Hill to Weldon, NC, to fish for Hickory Shad on the Roanoke River. It’s about a 2 hour drive; left home at 8AM and pulled into the parking lot just before 10AM. Rigged up, carried the pontoon boat to the river, and headed out to a spot right at the “big rapid” where the shad bunch up before they continue upstream. The morning was crisp; there was frost in my neighborhood as I left, but it was about 50F when I reached Weldon. I rowed across the river and anchored in the eddy. I first tried a yellow/orange fly, as my nearest neighbor was catching fish on a gold spoon on his spinning outfit. However, I didn’t get a hookup, so I changed to the hot pink fly that’s served me well at Weldon in the past (pink ice chenile body, pink bucktail wing, and pink kyrstal flash on a size 6 or 8 hook, with bead chain eyes). I was soon catching fish! The fish varied in size today, from about 14″ to 18+”. The larger fish were very thick and strong, and jumped and dove when hooked. I managed about 20 fish in 3 hours. The bite tapered off after 1PM, so I rowed back across the river and headed home. A beautiful, bluebird day…light wind, clear skies, spring greens in the trees, fish, and a cold beer at the end of the day. Damn, I need to do this more often 😉
