Brookies and Busted Shins

My intentions today had been to work on the fire pit, and the beginning of the day began that way, but due to situations beyond my control, it was not to be. Having been itchin to go fishin, I saw it as an excuse to get out of the house for a bit. Little did I know that karma would repay me for fishin when I should've been workin around the yard. I got my things together, I loaded up the dog and headed out for a fringe stream in the Park.

I must interupt, right now it's been raining for over an hour. Started off real hard, but as now turned into a nice drizzle that shouldn't just run off. Wow, now if we could only get 3-4 more of these over the next 2 weeks. Anyway, Adicus and I got to the trail head and headed off until we hit water, and then started into the back country. Now I'll say that I've bushwhacked through some rough country before, but this was insane! Laurel hells (aptly named) thick as I have ever seen, steep hillsides (sometimes more cliff than anything), take a minute vines, loose rock, you name it, it was there. The only casualty was my zinger that holds my nippers, Damn!

After battling our way through some crazy terrain, we finally made it to the water. Unfortunately, the insane landscape did not end there. This was a very steep creek, even for me. And I love steep creeks. Adicus had a frustrating day, and frankly, so did I. The fishing was pretty good. Any decent sized hole held multiple specks, but getting from hole to hole could be quite the challenge. The stream bed was made up of a smoothed granite and quartz that my cleats couldn't bite into, this resulted in a lot of slipping and sliding. My shins are busted all to hell and I lost a ton of flies to the rhodo and laurel gods.

We got to see a waterfall that a lot of people probably never see, but then we had to climb through a laurel hell to get around it and that ended at a cliff. Yeah. After picking our way down, we finally got back to fishin. After retying my rig from loosing it in a tree, I was moving around a deep pool that I had just caught a nice brookie in, my feet lost traction and down I went. I mean like tit deep. The pool was v shaped and I kept grabbing at weeds to pull myself out, but they kept breaking off and sending me in deeper. Finally, I swam to the back of the pool, yes swam, and pulled myself out. Good thing my waders have like a million holes in them, they allowed all 50 gallons of water that had accumulated in them to drain. Alright!

Needless to say, by this point, I was ready to see the foot log that was my outpoint, but that was still a ways off. We continued to fish and continued to catch mountain gems, nothing big, but every hole was loaded with fish. After about another 20 minutes we finally reached the footbridge and began to make our way out. It was a long 3-4 hours of fishin. Frankly, it wasn't worth the amount of effort that went into getting there. I hate to say it, but it's true. It's not often that a stream eats me up, but this one did. I'm sure at some point I'll come back to it, I'm sure there are some big specks in there, but it will be a while before I venture back there.

Fire Pit or Pit of Hell? Part 1

It's Friday, and Cat and I are both off for the next three days. We had originally intended to go camping, but a usual, priorities change. Instead, I'm working on moving the fire pit because it was in the way up by the garden. Like most things I do, moving the fire pit is not as simple as "moving a fire pit".

Today, I shoveled and leveled a path next to the house, I then put a 4" layer of mulch on top of that. Amazing how something that took me 4-5 hours to do can be summed up in a sentence! I moved about 6-7 wheel barrow loads of dirt and then graded it so it wouldn't push water against the house. After all that, I laid a layer of newspapers over the ground to act as a weed barrier before putting the mulch down. I got the mulch off the side of the road where everyone dumps their chipped yard debris. Total cost so far.... Nada! Except my aching bones from swinging a mattock all day. As someone who had to use a pick axe most of his life to dig holes, I want to sing praises for the tool know as a mattock. It's a beast, a real soil wrecker. Eight inches of curved steel 3 inches wide with a slight arc. Think: hoe on steroids.

I had planned on fishin this afternoon, but alas, it's finally raining!!!!!! A pretty decent one at that. I do hope it keeps up for awhile. Tomorrow I plan on getting into leveling the back yard and removing the turf. The yard is already pretty level, but it needs some slight dirt movement and the grass has gotta go. It's a large space we're mulching, so it will probably be a long day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to at least start digging the hole for the fire pit by Sunday. Will I get that far? Who knows. It's supposed to rain on and off all weekend, so I'll be dodging rain to get it done.

Oh yeah, one my ask why I just built a path beside the house when I'm supposed to be rebuilding a fire pit. I need easier access on that side of the house, unfortunately, a slope in the yard comes almost all the way to the house, so..... walkway to fire pit. The pit itself is kinda hard to describe, so I'll just have to take pics when I get started on it. Until then, I think I smell a rainy day nap brewing......

Solitude on Andrews Bald

I took the opportunity to hike to Andrews Bald after work yesterday, despite the fact it was going to be around 7 before I could get to the trail head. After getting off at 6 I started up to Clingmans Dome and made it to the parking lot by 6:45. I strapped on my daypack and started towards the trail head, which is located between the water fountain and Observation Tower trail. The trail dropped off to the left, descending over loose rock and some excellent trail building using telephone poles. Alot of work went into that, kudos to the trail crews. The trail itself starts off with lots of loose rock and huge stone slabs to the left. After a tenth of a mile, the trail makes a sharp left and drops into a spruce and fir forest, although many of the firs have died due to the balsam woolly adelgid. The trail continued to descend through more loose rock and gnarled roots and then levels out on ridge that is loaded with juvenile spruce and fir trees. As I'm hiking, I'm surrounded by the trilled call of the Veery, a visitor from the Northern tier of the country, singing its song like a flute.

Nothing in particular was blooming along the trail except for the occasional bluet, but the earthy smell of the forest was more than enough to keep me enthralled. The sun was setting, so I was moving along fairly quickly, hoping not to get caught in the dark on the return trip. While scooting around a turn, I could hear a group of people coming towards me, wondering out loud if there were any other idiots out here this late. Perfect timing, huh? I'm your idiot.... After chatting for awhile, I got back to movin along. In about a mile, the Forney Creek trail drops off to the right, while our trail continues on straight. Continuing along a level section, the trail abruptly starts an eroded rocky climb. It climbs through the quite forest only to descend towards Andrews Bald.

This area is named for Andres Thompson who herded cattle on the bald in the 1840's. During this time, Forney Ridge was called Rip Shin Ridge, a testament to it's rocky slopes I'm sure. Andres moved his family to the bald around 1850, where he continued to live after returning home from the Civil War. The origins of the Southern Appalachian balds is still a mystery to scientist today. Some think they were created by fires, and others thinks it's from Eastern Bison grazing here and then maintained and expanded by the Cherokee and later on by the settlers of the region. Although we may never know, they are beautiful spots, that are unique and becoming rarer in Southern Appalachia.

Andrews Bald unfolded slowly, hiding it's magnificence behind scattered stands of young firs., with the occasional Rhododendron or Flame Azalea peeking out. I came around a large stand of firs to be stopped by gassy field with azaleas and rhodo acting as a foreground to a view of the Unicoi, Snowbird, and Balsam mountain ranges. Such a magnificent view that spread out in front of me. Flame Azaleas (rhododendron calendulaceum) in their fiery oranges acting out in against the green backdrop punctuated the occasional Catawba Rhododendron (rhododendron catawhiense) that was sill blooming in a soft purple hue. This is why I live here. This exact moment, this view, this unbelievable beauty. The only sound I can here is the buzzing of bees and the slight rustle of of the trees in a soft breeze. The moment is intruded upon by a plane flying high above me to somewhere, with people who might never get the chance to achieve complete peace in a place such as this.

Sitting on a rock, I can see Lake Fontana in the distance shining like a jewel on a green carpet. Two forest fires are burning some ways off. Looks like ones around Chillowee and the other somewhere around the Balsams. Light clouds are blowing across the horizon as the sky darkens to deeper blues while the sun falls slowly to the horizon. Suddenly, I snap out of my trance and remember I need to get back before it gets too dark. I really don't want to walk up that loose rock in darkness. Moving along the trail, I am accompanied to the trail head by the continual singing of more Veerys, such a pretty song. I'm jolted back to reality as I can hear loud voices and laughter above me at the Clingmans Dome parking lot. As I get to the top, I run onto one of the L.E. guys I know that is responding to someone having tried to breakin to the Friends of the Smokies donation box. Sad. I don't know how they're going to get into it, the locks were destroyed.

After chatting for a bit, I jumped into the truck for the ride home in the deepening twilight. I was lucky enough to catch the last bit of a beautiful sunset from the Bunches Bald Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After soaking in the last few rays of light, it was time to get home before Cat started wondering where I was. It was a wonderful evening to do this hike, the blooms had peaked, but even without them, this is still a rewarding hike. It was made all that more special by being the only one there to enjoy it. I surprised myself by making this hike in a little over an hour for both legs, but not including time spent at the bald, which was definitely not long enough. I would rate this as somewhere between easy to moderate. There were no brutal climbs, but the amount of rock moved it into the moderate area. Total lentgh was about 3.6 miles and it is definitely worth it!

Sunset Smallies

I decided to hit my local smallmouth river after I got off work this afternoon. I only had a few hours to wet a line before it got dark, so I hit one of my usual beats close to the house that tends to yield numbers over size. Today was no different, caught lots of 7"-9" smallies hangin out in deep runs and shallow riffles. They were also regularly station at the exits of runs, pretty much everywhere there was enough water for them to hold in. The fishin was fast and furious, sometimes hooking up on 4-5 consecutive casts, almost all were small fish, but still a blast on an utlra-light all the same.

Adicus was even able to get into the action some. We have a game that I'll toss small fish into shallow runs and he'll try to grab them out of the water. More often than not, he'll come up empty handed or mouthed if you will. Today he actually got ahold of three of them. He says that's some mighty good eatin! Might be why he watches me so closely when I hook a fish. I can just say the word fishin and he starts whinning and getting excited. Lately, when I start getting my things together, he'll go and sit next to the truck so I don't forget him. Man, that dog loves to go fishin!!! Maybe as much as I do!

The two of us continued to move upriver as the sunlight faded to into a dusky twilight. We proceeded to catch more smallies along with the occasional redeye and assorted panfish. Nothing very big was caught, but serinity from a days work and life's problems was found. The water is getting lower, so some of my favorite runs are only 4"-6" deep, usually they are 2' deep. Sad, we need rain or I ain't gonna be fishin streams much longer. The fire threat is increasing, along with the heat. Thankfully, none of this is on my mind as we do our thing in the water. Foremost in my mind is that I can smell a polecat somewhere upriver of me. I'm lookin for it because the last thing I want is for Adicus to get juiced from one of those!

I'm starting to get closer to a run that is my best chance for a decent sized bass and the sun is behind the trees, so it's starting to get a little dark. I cast next to a large rock that swept my jig into a deep run, and set the hook on a solid 13" smallie. Not huge, but a titan compared to the dinks I had been catching earlier. After releasing the smallie, I heard a splash behind me, I turned around to see an otter rooting around in a pool to my left. Every few minutes, he would stick his head out of the water to see what I was doing. I've seen otters out here before, but never in this particular section. The sun was setting behind me and I took a moment to .... well ....... enjoy the moment. One of the reasons I love to fish is that it gets me out and about at different times of the day, and I get to see the most incredible things. Wildflowers, critters, sunrises, sunsets, and just plain beautiful spots too hard to describe. Maybe it's my own form of self-medication or my personal psychiatrist, I dunno. But I'm able to keep functioning on daily basis with heavy doses of fishing. You can ask my wife about what I'm like by time spring rolls around, I can't imagine living somewhere where I really couldn't go out for most of the winter. Growing up in Georgia, my idea of winter is a little different than most of the country's. I'm just now starting to get used to how cold it gets here sometimes, I find it hard to get motivated on a day that the high is 35 degrees.

All in all, it was a very pleasant evening on the river. Plenty of fish were caught, some were even eaten. The sunset was nice, as was the walk back to the house. I love summer twilight.

Around the Garden

Things have been going pretty good lately in the garden, despite the lack of rain. Luckily, we have been getting some at the house, but regionally, we goin dry down here. I'm surrounded by high elevations near the state line, so we tend to get rain when no one else does, but not as much as we should be! The last of the first succession of broccoli has been harvested, along with the spinach that didn't bolt in the heat wave we had earlier this month. The onions are getting nice and thick bottoms and the carrots are growing well too.
The marigolds we planted around the garden are starting to bloom, unfortunately, the nostriums that we planted haven't started to bloom yet.

The cucumbers are blooming like mad and we have the first fruit starting to set, the second planting of lettuce is coming along nicely and we've been harvesting baby lettuce for the past two weeks. I gotta say, Cat and I have been eatin salads like there is no tomorrow. We're both lookin forward to being able add some other things to the plate soon. Should have gotten cucumbers and tomatoes started a little earlier!

The peppers are coming along nicely, lots of blooms and even a few are setting fruit. We planted two or three varieties, so far only the green have set, but the purple and yellow peppers are blooming nicely with the warmer evening temps. We have a LOT of squash and zucchini starting to ripen. I had my first fresh fried zucchini the other night. It was delicious! It's a good thing I really like squash and such because Cat and I planted way too much of it. Something like 11 crooknecks and 4 zucchini's germinated along with some assorted acorn and butternut squash. Lots of squash. Might only need a few of those next year. Although, that zucchini the other night got me to thinking about catchin some catfish or crappie sometime soon. Fry em both up in some cornmeal with a fresh salad. Mmmmmm....tasty!!!!


The tomatoes on the other hand are struggling right now. We've already lost one of the heirlooms, and some of the cherries are looking sad. They seem to be so particular about watering needs, disease transmission, and a whole list of other issues; Cat and I are planning to move them out of the garden and into containers somewhere else. That way we can give them a little more sun each day and keep better eye on their moisture levels. It's also the only way I can figure out not to water them overhead when that's how the rest of the garden is getting water until I can afford to put in a drip irrigation system. Oh how I want to have a tomato!!!


The corn is coming along nicely I would like to say. It's not ready for photos yet, but it should be soon. It's growing good enough that I'm expecting the bugs to descend on it soon. That or some wierd bacterial disease that will require me to dig up the whole bed and sterilize the dirt or something absurd like that. A lot of time has been spent weeding, which I don't really mind doing for some reason. I'm able to get in to a Zen like mind set when I'm goin at it. After weeding, all of it goes into the compost bin to be recycled into the garden to some point. The compost bin has been pissing me off lately. For some reason, I'm having a hard time keeping the temperature up on it, I think I'm going to try throwing some more leaves in it this week. Been putting a lot of green stuff and kitchen waste in it lately. The balance may have gotten out of whack on it.

Rainy Day Browns

Cat and I got up early this morning and hit some of the Parkway before the tourons got out of the pancake houses. We had wanted to get up early enough to catch the sunrise, but alas, it was not to be. Didn't get up early enough to catch that. We had a pleasant morning together. I must say, the laurel and Catawba Rhododendron was insane, you definitely have to see it to believe it. We arrived back at the house around 10:30 and I had the rest of the day to fish!

After checking on a few things around the house, I got my gear together, rebuilt a couple of leaders, got the dog, and jumped into the truck. I had been waffling on where to go for the past day or so, I only get so much fishing gas these days, so I didn't Nat to waste it. At the last moment, the pull of big brownies and unexplored water got the best of me, so we headed back to the stream that was feature in Bustin Brownies. There was alot of water I didn't fish last time I was out there, so it needed to be looked at. Headin down the Interstate, it began to rain as I got closer to stream, but broke a few miles before I got there and held off for awhile while I was fishing. After parking, Adicus and I headed back down the road before getting on the water. On the way, we came across a pleasant patch of wild raspberries blooming.

You ever have one of those days where everything you do seems to become problematic. Today started off that way. I figure the first 15 fish I came into contact with popped off in the first few seconds, usually after popping off, my rig would fly into a tree or same laurel. When I finally did land a fish, if he took the dry, my dropper ended up tangled and knotted with the dry. It was a very frustrating day, I just wasn't on my game! The good news was that I had ample opportunities to actually catch some fish. As we continued up the stream, things began getting tighter, but I continued to catch fat little brownies in some surprisingly thin water. Most were taking a red and yellow stimulator, with a pheasant tail caddis emerger as the dropper. We got got in a decent thunderstorm that blew through before we got back to the truck, so we continued to fish through an intermittent light drizzle.

The stream continued to slip between the moss covered boulders and under low hanging trees. Decent pools were a little spread out, but any that were deep enough held trout, sometimes 2 or 3. I had one gill hooked fish, so needless to say, Adicus was thrilled to get a tasty brown! Many holes that looked nice were unfishable because of numerous blowdowns that crisscrossed the stream in many places, making wading difficult. Roll casts and bow and arrow casts were the rule today, although there were a decent number places to actually make a cast. Despite all this, quite a few nice brownies were brought to hand over about 5 hours and two or three rainstorms. The average fish was about 7", although there were a couple of nice fish caught.

I am starting to move this stream up in the rankings as possibly my best wild brown trout stream. Even fishing an length of about 2 miles, I continued to catch 7"-8" browns out of most holes that had some depth to them. Like last time, I made contact with a large brownie in the 14" range that took the dry and then proceeded to break off a my rig on a 5X leader. That was one mean fish, ans he was pissed when he realized he was hooked. Damn! Another big fish missed this year, how long is this going to continue? My largest fish was a little over ten inches and he was purty!

Adicus and I had a great day today. The sun broke out the last couple of hours we were there, but didn't make a difference in quantity or quality. While walking out along a very rutted and rocky 4WD trail, sunlight was pouring through the canopy in shafts illuminating the steam rising from the resent rains. Loved fishin in the rain and seeing it fall, although stream levels didn't really go up. I had intended to go smallie fishin today, but the giver was blown out today from the rains last night. Water levels didn't really go up, but the river turned muddy enough to plow. Plus, I'm wantin to get as much trout fishing in before water levels get too low and things start to get hot around here. Fishin for trout has been good to me this year, good enough that I've only gone after lm bass 3 or 4 times this year, plus Adicus is not a fan of the Gheenoe.Go Fish!!!

Blueline Slam!

Headed out to another blueline today with Adicus, I've been eyeing this stream on the map for a while. I hadn't really planned on fishing this stream today, but I just happened to be in the area to do something else, and hey, what the hell! Drove down a bumpy dirt road for awhile before making to where it crosses this particular piece of water. Ran into a guy that was mnt biking in the area doing overnight trips. Cool! Talked with him for a bit and then got on to more important things. Armed with the trusty 2wt., Adicus and I plunged into the woods. Luckily, we came across a seldom used horse trail that made the goin easier. After three water crossings, I felt I had gone far enough. I sat down on a long to begin tying up, and immediately brushed my arm over some stinging nettle. Ouch! Become familiar with this plant if your not already, it's not your friend! I was able to find some jewel weed to rub on it to take the burn out. Jewel weed is your friend!

After that little drama, I started to fish. I was using one of my usual combos, a yellow caddis and a harey moose, both 16's. The fishing started out a little on the slow side, but began to pick up as the day wore on, and the elevation of the stream increased, causing more deep plunge pools. Small 5"-7" bows were the rule of the day. I missed alot of fish, either short strikes, or just plain misses on my part. A bit frustrating! One trout actually came up and nibbled on one of the elk hair pieces before deciding something was up. Adicus and I continued up the stream, looking and hoping for something bigger than 7".

This stream was absolutely beautiful. Not as clear as streams in the Park, but covered in emerald green moss and shaded by large hemlocks and rhododendron, so it had that feel. The lower end was shallower and did not have as many deep holes as the upper area did. The quality if fish increased markedly as we traveled upstream. The best fish that I brought to hand was before I got back to the truck, a super chunky rainbow. I mean this fish was fat! I don't know what he had been eating, but whatever it was, he was eating plenty of it. Continued to get into good fish around the 8" range. All of a sudden, I started catching browns. They weren't big, mostly 7"-8", but what a nice surprise. I had caught only bows for the past 2-3 hours, so I was shocked to say the least.

We continued past the truck, Adicus scared the crap out of the the guy we met earlier who was wandering down the road not paying attention. I guess it got his attention when Adicus put wet nose against his thigh! Looked like it did, seeing as he jumped about 3 feet!

We continued to follow a road that eventually turned into a rough trail. Before coming to the trail, we came across an old dam that had a large pool at its base. I climbed down a near vertical face and made a cast. Almost as soon as the flies hit the water, a 12"+ rainbow smashed the caddis. It was on, unfortunately not for long, as this jumping beast quickly threw the hook. Damn! That seems to be happening alot this year. We walked up the trail a bit and started fishing again. Low and behold, I started to catch specks. I wasn't all that surprised, it looked like brookie water. But it was nice all the some. Two slams in as many days, one in the park and one on a blueline. This is another nice stream that I look forward to fishing again in the future. I love going to places that don't get very much pressure, the fishing is usually pretty good, and the unmarred scenery is perfection.

On a side note, I hit another stream I fish occasionally that gets stocked, but has a good population of wild fish. Hooked some nice wild and stocked browns and a monster 17" stocked bow on the nymph. I must say, that bow didn't even come close to the fight on the 12" wild fish I fought for mere seconds. The stocked couldn't even engage the drag, compared to last weeks sweet brownie that ran out line. Further reason why I find myself less and less interested in stocked fish!

Luftee after work

I had some time to kill after closing last night, so I figured it was as good as any time as any to wet a line. I was able to get on the water at about 7 and fished until about 9. I had a mixed bag bows and browns, with two brookies to boot! A slam, after work, on the water for two hours. SWEET! None of the fish were particularly big, but they were plentiful. I reckon I caught maybe 2 dozen fish, give or take a few. Finally left the water when it was getting too dark to see my caddis. Only one fish was photo worthy, excuse the quality, it was getting pretty dark!
After changing out of the waders, I decided to head down to the Smokemont campground to see if the synchronous fireflies are any good there. I pulled into the day use area a little bit after the sun set and jumped onto the trail. The sun had set, but it was still fairly easy to see the trail in the dusky light. The white blooms of the wild hydrangea had a luminescent quality about them. I continued to move down the trail in silence, only hearing the crashing stream, and the woods coming alive in the night. Gravel crunching under my feet, the night began to draw in and I began to start seeing the first fireflies.

I hiked for about a mile, maybe 35 minutes before I felt it was dark enough for the show to have begun. I turned around and began to make my way back, moving more slowly, guided only by the light of the full moon. Moonlight was spilling through the trees, creating bright openings that made the darker areas all the darker. Here and there, I began seeing clusters of fireflies and they were getting denser where the moon was blotted out by the ridgeline to the SouthEast. I moved slowly, taking in the lightshow, and enjoying the serenity of being on a trail a night with out a light, and no one around me. I was alone, and the fireflies were putting on their show for me. As I continued, I came upon a seep that was glowing from all the females lying on the rocks. There must have been over a hundred of them in a five square foot area. I had to turn my red light on to make sure I wasn't having some kind of flashback, sure enough, they were all fireflies, glowing continually. Trippy!

I strolled back to the parkinglot, passing through a few low areas that were full of the fireflies. It never ceases to amaze me how they look like some kind of living christmas tree lights. It would be pitch black for 15 seconds and then all the males in flight would begin flashing at the same time. Something like a couple of thousand of them within the area I could see, say, 100 foot diameter. I wish there was some way I could put words to what seeing these are like when there is a high density of them. I would be bold enough to say it's one of the most impressive sights in nature I have ever seen. Obviously, photos of this could not be taken, and frankly, they couldn't begin to give an impression of how unbelievable they are. Like I said, I have difficulty coming up with adequate words to leave the image in your head. Just do yourselves a favor and come see the fireflies in the Park. They usually peak around mid June and are in other areas than Elkmont. Although Elkmont is still the best place to see them in the park. Average attendance each night was between 1200-1700 people while the trolleys were running. Expect company!

Adventures in Gardening.....

It has finally cooled down here! I don't mean to complain because I know it's hotter in other places, but man, we are not supposed to be in the mid 90's this time of the year. Thankfully, we're back into the upper 70's- lower 80's for highs. Accuweather is showing it continuing to mild for the rest of the month. Now if we could only get some rain! I did get about an inch over the past week, but it doesn't even put a dent into the 7+ inch deficit we're under. Because of the little heat wave some of the broccoli started to bolt, so we had to cut em before we wanted to. Spinach bolted also, maybe half of it. Other than that, things are jammin right along. Not all the broccoli was lost, so some of it shoud be ready some time in the next week. Lettuce and the cabbage are still doin their thing. Some of the cabbage is starting to head, the rest should begin soon. The black seeded simpson lettuce that we sowed a couple of weeks ago is growing rapidly, enough that we are starting to harvest baby leaves to thin it for now. I noticed today that our cucumbers are starting to bloom along with some of the squash and zucchini.

The heat did benefit the tomatoes and they are blooming profusely, with some fruit starting to form. My dream of BTL's sure to come true soon. Unfortunately, the heirlooms we bought aren't doing so well. The peppers liked the warm nights also and are blooming and starting to set peppers. Yum!! I am proud to say that I have about 70 corn plants coming up very nicely! So, hopefully sometime in August, Cat and I will be eating some super sweet fresh corn!

I continue to battle weeds that really liked the nitrogen boost I gave the plants last week. Dandelions and grass continue to pop up every where except where plants are big enough to shade them out. Another one of the reasons why I want to go to a square foot garden system. As said before, I'm composting like a mad man in hopes of adding 192 cubic feet of compost to the garden before winter.That's a helluva lota grass and leaves. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to plant a winter cover crop to break the soil up some and add nitrogen. Or try to double dig the beds while I incorporate the compost in. Seems like alot of work, but I seem to enjoy the labor part of it for some reason.

The thought of adding chickens to our variety of critters has been talked about recently. Beyond the fact that I can get quite haul of eggs, their poop is supposed to be a super fertilizer when composted. So, if anyone has some useful info on keeping hens, it would be great to hear it. Like most of this, I can only read about it, and that is a poor substitute for experience. I figure like most things, I'll be drawing up plans for a coop and start browsing Amazon for books on raising hens, and making it a bit more complicated than it has to be.

Pisgah Ledge Browns

Jumped in the truck with Adicus and headed for a stream I like to fish at least once a year. I don't really know why I only fish it once a year, but.... Headed out early in hopes of getting on the water before it started to get warm. I decided to wear waders seeing as how I was going be walking through some pretty dense stuff to get to the water. Learned my lesson a couple of years ago when I stumbled into a patch of stinging nettle while wet wading. Yikes! I hiked for about half an hour before I dropped off the road and into the undergrowth. As I descended, I could hear the water thundering as it tumble and fell over rock shelves and ledges. When I got to the water, I put together the 2wt and tied on my favorite combo, a 16 elk hair caddis (natural) with a Hairey Moose (16) as a dropper. Now, I never really catch many fish when I fish this stream, but I always catch some that have some size to them. Today was no different.

My first cast into a large pool, I get bit on the nymph by a decent fish, but he pops of almost immediately. I move up towards the tongue of the pool and cast into the the current. As soon as the dry hits the water an 8" brown hammers the caddis and I have my first fish of the day. I move up some more, spooking more fish than anything. I came up on another large pool, only to spook a couple of fish at its tail. Again, I move up to the front of the pool to highstick my combo through a seam. As it's swirling in an eddy, the dry suddenly submerges. I set the hook and all hell brakes loose! A 12" brown has swallowed the nymph and now is trying to do everything he can to break me off. Drag singin, brow sweatin, am I gonna be able to land this guy? After a frantic battle, I brought this beautiful specimen to hand.

I continued along fishing large pools and runs in hopes of catching another large brown. I started to pick up nice 9"-10" browns from random pools, none under 8". While moving along, I spooked a couple of nice fish that were holding in very shallow feeding lanes. As the day wore on, the fishing seemed to get more consistant. I continued for most the afternoon to catch quite a few 9" and plus browns. I don't think fly patterns would have mattered much, all the trout I caught hit the dry or nymph with gusto. It was probably an even spilt between the preference of the fly, I think it was more a matter of which one they saw fist. I did have a few nice fish turn off the dry at the last second, which I always find frustrating.

The steams gradient began to increase, as did the number of deep plunge pools rising through the gorge like a torturous set of stairs. I continued to pluck feisty browns out of random pools, and to my surprise, a few specks decided to come play. I've caught specks on this stream before, but never this low! H,mm. The largest of the three was about 7", a respectable size for a native. My largest speck came out of this stream about two years ago, an 11" monster. I caught about 2 miles further upstream. Brownies continued to eat, but things were staring to get a little difficult for Adicus to move through. I swear the dog's half billy goat, but the slick river rocks reek havoc on his traction. More on that shortly .

I came up to another nice pool, made a cast into the center of the current. Once again, I watched the dry suddenly stop in the column. I set the hook, and a monster of a fish tore up through the center of the pool. My drag was screaming and I was really sweating this time. I played this fish for about 25 seconds before he wrapped around a rock and popped off the fly. I was devastated, this fish was easily 14"-16" and I'm being as conservative as I can. The thing looked like a small submarine bouncing off rocks as it desperately tried to find a way to get off the line. Good for him, bad for me. I know where u live!

I moved up to another series of cascades that were hemmed in by sheer rock walls. This is usually when Adicus will run off into the woods to get past the nasty stuff he can't get through well. He also has this obsession to be as near to me as possible when we're fishin. He bounds up onto the top of the rocks lining the pools 20 ft above me. As I' moving up through the pools, he starts to move towards me on sloping drop that went vertical quickly. As noted before, his claws don't get very good traction on wet rock. As I look up an tell him to stop, I see him starting to slide. One of my worst fears is that something is going to happen to Adicus while we're in the back country. I thought I was watching it happen today. I don't know how he kept from falling. His ass end was hanging completely over the edge with his rear legs flailing. Somehow he kept enough of a grip with his front feet to pull himself back up. Thank Goodness!!!

Earlier this year, I was up fishing on Straight Fork past the bridge bout a mile, and he comes up and drops a bloody stick at my feet. When I looked up at him, he had blood pouring out of his mouth. Needless to say, I freaked! We hussled back to the truck (20 or so minutes) while my psycho dog is whining to play fetch! I got him in the truck, which he bled all over for the next 30 minutes while I hauled him to the vet. 4 stitches for a split lip that I have no idea how he got. Thankfully, he could walk out during that episode. If he would have fell today, I would have had to carry him out of the back country and then another 2 miles down a road to get to the truck. It scares me!

Had a very pleasant day out with Stinky catchin browns. My best guess is about 2 dozen browns and 3 specks for the day. Many missed and spooked fish, but many caught. Another forgotten stream because of access and how difficult it is to wade. Probably why I only fish it once a year. I hiked maybe 45 minutes before getting in the water, fished for about 5 hours, and then walked for a good hour and a half to get back to the truck. Great Day!!!!!