Hangover

The "cult hit" Hangover has been on everyone's radar lately. People at work talk about it and every newspaper and magazine has done mostly favorable reviews of it. It also has grossed a record amount of money for an R rated flick. So we decided (my wife and I) to go and see it at the Downtown Riviera movie theater in Knoxville. We did some house cleaning and then we went down to the "Tomato Head" for a quick lunch. I love the pizza at that place. We got to the movie and after basically forking over my entire savings account for a combo we sat down. The movie begun promising with some good soundtrack music and nice crude jokes right from the start. However, after about half an hour or so of the same stuff I begun to wonder, when is this going to take off? It never really did. It was an OK movie but somehow I felt like it should have something else. It didn't drag but it didn't really take off either. I guess it was just not my kind of movie. It's not bad but it's not great either. I give it a C.

Campsite #60, Deep Creek, NC

I decided after a long night thinking about it to go back to campsite #60 in GSMP, to do a one night camping trip. I went about six weeks ago but didn't feel well on that trip.

I left Knoxville around 7 am and got to the trail head at about 9:30 am. I quickly made my way up to the campsite and had my tent and everything set up by 11 am. I decided to hike upstream around Bumgardner bend. Man is that ridge a heart pumper or what!. I was pretty tired by the time I got to the water on the other side somewhere below camp site #59. The water was cold and somewhat swift. Very good conditions for July. The temp in the air was an unbelievable cool, I estimated it to be high sixties. The water temp was 58. I fished for about two hours and only saw three people on the trail. I managed to catch three rainbows and one brown which pushed 9". Not too bad for being in the middle of the day. It was time to go back to camp to fix supper. I was solo at camp until I was done eating at about 5 pm when a dad and his son came. I spoke with them briefly after my evening fishing session. What about the fishing?, well it wasn't easy. I was pretty tired from all the hiking so I only fished for about an hour or so. I spoke with one other fisherman who said he only caught one small rainbow. I managed to catch two bows. One was 8" the other very small. I decide it was time to go back to the tent and sleep. I was in bed by 8 pm. I know I know, I missed probably the best fishing time of the day but I was wore out.

The next morning I got up at abut 6 am and after breakfast it was time to hike out. I drove up to the Oconaluftee to fish a couple of hours around the visitors center. I managed to catch two small rainbows on a nymph. The water was very cold for being at such a low elevation. and for being in July, it was reading 59 on my thermometer. Got home around 2 pm and that was the end for another great camping trip in the park.

The Hemlocks are falling

I decided to head up high for a day trip to fish for Specs. I hiked up towards Buck Fork and fished for about quarter of a mile. The water temp was great at 60 degrees. I just had to take a picture of this majestic Hemlock which had fallen across the stream. I have a feeling we will see a lot more of this in the future due to the invasive adelgid which kills the trees. It's a sad sight and I wonder what it will do to our beloved streams.

I picked up a few rainbows and some specs but the to be honest, I was not feeling safe pushing on solo due to the risk of injuries and the water was pretty swift. I decided to hike back down in order to fish upstream on Ramsay Prong. I began picking up quite a few specs when I encountered the best one so far.


The best spec of the day.


I pushed upstream and after about a mile or so I decide it was time to hike back down. I met a gentleman at one pool who caught some fish on a nymph. He was just out checking the area, and he didn't have the proper gear to do the rock climbing you have to do on these kind of streams. In fact I actually ran in to a couple of other fishermen earlier in the day so a lot of folks were out and about today. It didn't seem to affect the fishing though. I picked up several dozen today. No size mind you but they were pretty fat. It looks like all this rain have brought terrestrials and ants to the stream.




The last fish of the day



I got to my truck and decided to fish for the last thirty minutes before dark at my truck in order to catch a better sized rainbow. I succeeded, although he was only about 8". It was the most beautiful rainbow of the day however. All in all a very nice day indeed.

A Trout Bum's Fourth of July that should have gotten me "bummed out".

"Laurel Fork Brown"

"Laurel Fork Rainbow"




"Laurel Falls"






"Big Falls" Elk River, NC







My friend Mike fishing the South Holston River, TN.


I have another camping adventure down my belt. I set out from work thirty minutes early and was out of town at about 4:15 pm on Thursday afternoon. Destination: Cardens Bluff Campground on beautiful Watauga lake. Traffic was not too bad and I eased my way up the interstate towards Johnson City, Tn. I got through Elizabethton pretty easily and when I spotted the lake I thought man! this is such a nice and peaceful place. It was obvious that the weekend was going to be somewhat mixed since my first problem came upon me as soon as I entered the campground. It was full. Oh well, I circled the grounds and decided my back up place would be just as good. Up the mountain I went and prayed at the same time that my luck would turn. I got to Dennis Cove and to my surprise there were only a half a dozen campers there. I set up camp and went to bed pretty early after cooking some food. It was a very unseasonal and cold night. I know the elevation is in the 3000 ft range but it's supposed to be July. I'm not complaining though. I got up to fish SoHo early. I had a tough time only having one strike on a zebra midge in the morning. I finally began to pick up fish on a Sulphur Comparadun. The fishing was so so. I was waiting on Mike Pope from Bluff City, who had told me he would be showing up at around 11:30 Am, which he did. We fished together for two and a half hours before the water came up. I ended up catching about 8 fish but no real brutes today. I stopped for lunch in Elizabethton and headed on up to Laurel Fork River. This is my absolute favorite of the mountain streams in Tn. Not only does it have wild bows browns, and brookies, up high. It has stocked fish in the lower sections. The scenery around the river is superb with several waterfalls. The gem of them all being "Laurel Falls". I fished upstream above the campground on Friday evening and managed to catch a dozen or so. I caught several ten inch browns and two 11" stocker bows. I was pretty tired around 8 Pm so I decided to head back to camp. On Saturday morning I decided to drive over to Elk river across the border in to Nc. This is a hatchery supported stream and it's very beautiful as it winds it's way in to Tn and eventually Watauga Lake. I didn't have any luck though. There were several other people fishing it and the access is somewhat spotty. The falls area is very pretty though. I decided to head back to Tn for lunch and fish the falls area of Laurel Fork later in the evening. After lunch I drove back to the campground and rested for a while. I had severe sinus headaches all week and today was no different. I suffered for a few hours and then decided it's better to get out and hike. I parked my car at the trail head for Pond Mountain Wilderness. I decided to hike for about an hour or so towards Hampton Tn. I ran in to a couple of spin fishermen above the falls but the rest of the river was empty. I just knew this was going to be great. I began fishing around the wooden bridges below the falls right at about 5 Pm. I was sluggish at first. I found out that the water temp was getting up there. It was 66 degrees where I began fishing. After about twenty minutes or so I got a strike but missed the trout. Soon after that I got a better take and my first brown for the day came to hand. A very nice 10" fish. I proceeded upstream and discovered somewhat cooler water. I found it to be 64 degrees closer to the falls and I began picking up browns in just about every pool. I caught 11 Browns with several pushing 11" each. They are all hard fighting and taking on top. What a nice experience. I got to the falls at about 8 Pm and decided to do the same thing I did last year. Tie on a black wooly bugger to see if I could catch some of the stocker bows that reside in that huge pool. Sure enough, on my second cast, wham! a 10 " bow, next cast another one. On my third cast I hooked in to a bigger fish. I had to fight him for a while. It turned out to be the best fish of the trip. A nice 13" rainbow. It was now getting somewhat dark and for you who has been at this location, a gruesome climb back out to the trail. This brings me to the "bummed out part of the trip". In my tiredness I slipped and fell on some rocks and managed to scrape my leg. Oh well, that's alright I thought when I discovered in disbelief that my beloved St Croix Imperial 9 ft 4 pc 5 wt, which I got on eBay real cheap was broken. The tip section managed to break at the joint with the second section, effectively splicing the graphite. It is not repairable and I'm the second owner so no luck there. I know have two pieces of a four piece rod. I guess this taught me the lesson of being humble. I thought I was on top of the world fishing like that, but Murphy had to take care of it. I'm not complaining though. I wasn't seriously hurt and the camping trip as a whole was a literal success. Here's some pics from the trip.