Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Hazel Creek Adventure May 23-25, 2009

So, after about three years of thinking about it and ten years or more reading about it, I finally made it to Hazel Creek. I went with my buddy Pete from Maryville, Tn. We took the boat shuttle at about 9 AM on Saturday morning. After about an hour and a half of hiking we settled in at camp site #85 also called "Sawdust Pile". We cooked some lunch and decided afterwards to hike up to Bone Valley to do some fishing and sightseeing. We stopped at the "Hall Cabin" and rested for a while. I was almost falling asleep at the cabin due to being tired. Pete thought his stories about Colorado put me to sleep. We spoke with a nice gentleman from Powell, TN who was hiking down from the "big hill". I only caught one small bow on Bone Valley Creek. We hiked down to camp to fix some supper and headed out for the "evening hatch". At about 8 PM a fairly heavy Yellow Sally egg laying flight began. I took one 10" Brown and a 9" Bow on a Yellow Stimulator size 14. Both fish were actively feeding on top. The darkness came fast and the evenings total came to 3 bows and one brown. I had a hard time sleeping on my thermarest pad. I definitely need to upgrade ot an inflatable. We had to listen to some party folks who shared the campsite. I got in a couple of hours of sleep. Decided to get up early to walk up to a spring about a mile and a half above our camp. It was tasting wonderful. After lunch we kind of relaxed and waited on the Sunday evening emergence of flies. I had hoped for an even better egg laying flight. To much dismay I only found sporadic activity. I found some feeding fish about five minutes before complete darkness and I lost several bows. Only landed two small rainbows on Sunday night. Monday we got up early and everything was somewhat damp after the Sunday night drizzle. We hiked down to meet the boat and the hike out was a little hard on my psyche. It was a wonderful trip but it wouldn't have been so fun without the good sport of Pete Czornohus who is a real outdoorsman who knows his way around and is very great in estimating distances and such. I hope to go soon again but have to recover, I did about 24 miles in two days and I feel somewhat drained but in a good way.


My friend Pete getting ready for the boat ride over Fontana Lake NC.



A happy camper on his way to Hazel Creek.


10 inch brown from Hazel Creek


Hall Cabin "Bone Valley, NC


Sunday, May 10, 2009

NC Camping Trip

East Fork French Broad River Brook Trout.



The highest spot on the Blue Ridge Pkwy near Richland Balsam, NC
West Fork French Broad River, NC


East Fork French Broad Brookie.
Indian Creek Falls, NC


Thom Branch Falls, NC







Juney Whank Falls, NC









I left work Friday to go on my second camping trip for the year. I had booked two night at a campground in Balsam NC. It was a lovely camp ground and very friendly staff and the grounds were very clean. I had some bad luck with the weather and had to set up my tent in a hailstorm. I managed to stay dry for the most part though. I fished the East Fork of French Broad River on Saturday. It was very crowded and I caught a very fat Brockie on a Yellow Partridge size 16 fished down and on the swing. That was all I caught. Between the showers and all the crowded fishing spots on the DH streams right now it was a miracle I caught that one. I fished the east fork for a couple of hours with no luck mid day. Went back to camp and later in the evening I did some water falls in Deep Creek area of NC.

Here's some photos:

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Duck You Sucker and Miller's Crossing

I have always loved everything by Sergio Leone. The fantastic Italian director who died way too early. One of his most underrated movies are "Duck You Sucker" or as it is also called " A fistful of Dynamite. It is a somewhat comical tale of an IRA terrorist on the run who meets a local desperado in rural Mexico at the time of the revolution and Pancho Villa. It's done somewhat in the same realm as the spaghetti westerns Leone is famous for but it is not entirely the same as those. It has more humour and it's moving along at a somewhat faster pace. It's a great performance by James Coburn and Rod Steiger.

As for Millers Crossing, The Cohen brothers are movie geniuses. I am particularly fond of "Fargo" but Millers Crossing stands out as a gem on it's own. In this movie we deal with the classic example of gang wars and rivaling factions in the big city. This time it is between the Irish mobsters and the Italian ditto. This movie also shows some humour and with all its blood and gore it's typical Cohen fare. Not the top movie from them but definitely a must see. Marcia Gay Harden, and Gabriel Byrne both stand out in this movie.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Heaven & Hell

Well, it's here, The new Heaven & Hell album. "The devil you know". For those of you who don't know you're hard rock, Heaven & Hell is the current line up of Black Sabbath with Dio. It's Ronnie James Dio song, Toni Iommi guitar, Vinnie Appice drums and Geezer Butler bass. I.e. Black Sabbath without Ozzy. Toni owns the rights to the name but choose not to tour as Black Sabbath. They decided to use the name Heaven and Hell after the album of the same name from 1980.

Anyway, the new album is more Dio than Sabbath. Dio's singing is superb but the music sounds a little uninspired in my opinion. Bu it is light years ahead of what the so called modern rock tries to do. The greats from the seventies will always have a place in my heart.

I also recently bought Ian Gillan's new album. One eye to Morocco. It is a mish mash of genres from folk to blues. I have to say that I have always had difficulties with Gillan's projects outside of Deep Purple. I guess in my book he shouldn't stray from the Purple fold. Gillan had some decent albums with his own band Ian Gillan Band as well as Gillan. Solo though, he is not that great. It hurts to say that but I feel I can since I'm a whole hearted supporter of anything Purple with Gillan. David Coverdale is a good singer but Gillan is for me "the purple singer".

No fishing due to the weather. Next weekend might be different.