The Great Outsmores

Last Thursday, before leaving for a wedding in Ocean Isle Beach, NC, I got an email from my buddy Edward showing off the 9 pound largemouth he had caught the day before.  Said he got it on a top water near his Columbus, GA.  Not bad…

 Now, I’m normally happy for somebody who lands a monster, but upon checking my email when I returned I got another such email. Second 9+ lb. bass in two days.  The smile on your face says it all you lucky (insert word of choice here).

We’ll look for you on the BASS Master tour next week, Edward.

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Last Sunday, I got the chance to go back one of my favorite spots in Georgia, Dicks Creek Falls on the Chattooga River. I used to see this place once or twice a month in college, before giving up paddling in ‘03. This time, we parked at the trailhead off of Sandy Ford Road, East of Clayton on Warwoman Road. It was an easy 1/2 mile hike to the top of the falls, which for some reason I had never gotten out of the boat to do. Dicks Creek Falls is about a 60 foot slide into section three of the Chattooga Wild & Scenic River. The falls overlook a river wide class 3/4 ledge (depending on water level).

One last note, a quarter mile down the trail and below the falls is a wonderful camping spot. There’s room for two or three tents on sandy beach next to the river with a comanding view of both upstream and down.

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The pups woke me early, just before sunrise, on Saturday morning.  This time I couldn’t be any happier.  The predawn glow outside the cabin was amplified by a blanket of fog over the water.  Within minutes I had the boat down off the lift, and Aspen, Layla, and myself were headed for dam to do a little trout fishing.

Visibility was about thirty yards or so on the main body of the lake, and when I got down to dam, there were actually four more boats that would drift in and out of sight in the dense fog. I dropped four lines, one at each corner, with live worms and a peice of corn for color to varying depths of 20 to 40 feet in hopes of finding a big brown cruising the thermocline. I’ve done this a dozen times or so, and its usually hit (in a big way) or miss. An hour and a half went by, and nobody else on the neighboring boats was connecting either. Then the dreaded cell phone, the family was up, and breakfast was needing my attention. Mental note: blogging about fishing beforehand may be the ultimate jinx.

So with the fog burnig off, I cruised back zeroed so far on the day.

I’m not going to lie, I was bummed, so when I got back I tried throwing 3/8 oz. spoon off the swim dock and did a little better.  A pretty good sized yellow perch, kept me from being zeroed on the day:

Over the weekend, we did see one school of yellow herring a hundred yards off stern. They were jumping and flipping, indicating that some bass had them schooled and were feeding. With a pretied blue & white rapala, and a matching soft bait, Jenn & I tossed into the school to no avail. And then it was gone, was it too early in the fall, or was it just not my day?

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I’ve been sitting on a few posts regarding the weekend, updating some new features for OutdoorsBlogger in the mean time.

Last Friday, before we headed up to Lake Burton, I stopped off at a neighborhood pond I used to fish when I was a kid. No, I’m telling you which one, and here’s why:

I thought I was getting skunked, as I hadn’t gotten a bite in over an hour. Then I hooked up with this guy, I’m guessing he’s in the 6 to 7 pound range (I didn’t have a scale in the box). He did however measure at 19″, and put up a respectable fight even for his size. I got him on a black and red Zoom worm rigged Carolina style with a 3/8 oz. bullet on the front end, running 8 lb. low-vis green spider wire mono.

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Well, now that the water temp. has fallen somewhere below the boiling point, I have big plans for fishing a few bodies of water near my home and in Rabun County, GA.  I’m going to hit a small (5-6 acre) bass hot spot near my home in suburban Atlanta, while our infamous traffic situation sorts itself out.  Tonight I’m heading up the Lake Burton, in Rabun County near the North & South Carolina borders.  There I’m hoping that oxygen levels have raised enough from summer to get the huge lake trout hungry, and that the blue back herring are schooling so I might have a chance to hook up with some good spotted bass in the open water.  I’ll let y’all know how it goes when I get back…

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Quail Unlimited has introduced The Canine Lifetime Hall of Fame last month to honor bird dog’s that have made a lasting impression on their owners.  The web page on Quail Unlimited’s website allows you to”nominate” your favorite bird dog for the not so nominal fee of $200.  That being said, proceeds do go habitat restoration, and since its a 501(c) organization, your donation may be deductible.

My bird dogs are to spoiled to go hunting, they prefer sunbathing and drinking fruity drinks:

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Well, maybe just stand there and look funny anyway.

A camping buddy of mine took this on Peterson Lake Northwest of Rocky Mountain NP.

There’s been no digital editing whatsoever (it’s actually on 35mm), so who can figue out how I pulled off this amazing feat of gravity defiance? Comment below, kudos and a one way link to whomever figures it out.

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After camping out in Northern Colorado a few summers ago, I found myself in a desparate situation. I’ve been lost in the woods in at least four states that I can think of off hand (call me the poster child for GPS), and I have gotten my truck stuck in at least three. This day, would be just a little bit different…

My buddy Rob and I had followed another nondescript forest service road, followed by a good hike up and above the tree line. Immediately after setting up camp, it started to rain but passed quickly as mountain storms usually do. What we didn’t know, is the front seemed to have stalled somewhere to the North of us, and the creeks in the area would soon be at flood stage.

The next morning, we packed up, and left - or tried to do so. A mile down the road, the road had been completely washed away!

Now, there’s only one way out, you are at least 10 miles from anybody, and stuck on the wrong side of a creek much to big and deep to ford with your stock pickup truck.

Would you?

• A) Park the truck and walk to try and get help.
• B) Pull out the lawn chairs and crack a beer, the forest service has to come by this month
• C) Build your own bridge, we’re Americans dammit!

Now that I’m a little older and wiser, or older anyway, I probably hiked the 8 or 9 miles back to the main road and thumbed it to a ranger station. However, we took the latter route and proceeded load the truck bed up with logs & boulders that were conveniently prevelant.

After, safely on the other side

*Tree hugger disclaimer* No salamanders or crayfish were hurt in this incident, all building materials were placed on top of original stream piping, and we even offered to help remove the material when the forest service repaired the road.

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OK, so maybe I’ve done this in my garage, but….

“Hikers On Mountain Use Light From Cell Phones To Find Trail“ 

It appears these two dudes from Massachusetts got caught in a storm in the Presidential Range in New Hampshire, and then thought it best to descend a different route because the original one may be too “slippery.”

I haven’t been to the Presidentials in a few years, but my wife & I are hoping to make it up there for Thanksgiving this fall to see family. I guess I better bring an extra battery for my mobile

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After leaving Tuscany, we travelled by train via Milan to Como (the town) at the base of Lake Como in the Italian lakes district. We then hopped a 100+ seat hydrofoil that took us to our home for the next few days, Bellagio, Italy. That afternoon was great, but by evening, thunderstorms threatened to wreak havoc on my plans to climb Mount Grona the next day…

So we poked around Bellagio and it’s neighboring town Menaggio, finding a whole bunch of cool historical stuff, but no mountain tops Best of which was a church in Bellagio shown here:

On Thursday, we thought it prudent to push back our plans to go to Venice, and stay an extra day. It was a great idea (more on that later). We rented a kayak and cruised the lake a bit in the morning, and then caught the ferry to another lake village, Varenna. This one turned out to be a most splendid town, we got two cocktails, two glasses of wine, lunch, and limoncello for $20 euro! Did I mention we sat a couple meters from the water?

Lake Como from the water:

Lake Como from our hotel:

Varenna, Italy on Lake Como:

On Friday, we got to take a bus from Menaggio to Lugano Switzerland. The bus stop in Menaggio is actually situated next to the lake, so waiting on it was even a charm. Once aboard, the bus climbed it’s way over the mountains and then descended next to Piano lake on it’s way to Lake Lugano. The bus ride was spectacular, following the North edge of Lake Lugano all the way over the border with Switzerland, and into the city of Lugano. We only got to see Lugano for a few hours, but it is certianly a place where I will return.

Lugano, on the lake of the same name:

One last photo I caught the morning before leaving for Venice:

A final note about Venice: Even though we arranged a hotel looking over the Grand Canal during the Venice Historical Regatta (which was very cool), I would advise anybody going to Italy to skip it without reservation. It is a dirty, nasty city, blending the worst aspects of the French Quarter and Disneyworld together and they even give tourists menus with higher prices than they would give to others. To that degree, the best part about Venice was the flight out. We flew just south of the alps, at the border with Switzerland, at sun rise. Can anybody pick out the Matterhorn?

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