Out West

I was just looking at the blog, and realized that it has been a little over a month since I last posted on here. I knew it had been a while, but I didn't think it had been that long. I also know that I haven't been online as much lately commenting on other blogs, which I still love to read. I'll try to do better, hopefully with summer coming I can spend a little more time reading and writing. There's plenty to blog about here lately, from spring turkey hunting to the garden, and hopefully there will be time for some smallmouth and trout fishing soon. I've got several posts planned, so hopefully this place won't feel so neglected. I'll also try to keep the spam comments cleaned up around here, it had gotten pretty ridiculous while I was away. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this story about a fishing trip from several years back. As always, thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings. 
- Joseph

I started this blog with the intentions of rambling about North Carolina outdoor experiences, and this is still the main focus but I decided to write about ramblings a little further west in this post. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Jackson, Wyoming and see Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The aunt and uncle of one of my friends spend their summer in Jackson, WY volunteering at the Yellowstone Visitors Center, and they invited us to come spend some time with them fishing and exploring Yellowstone park. Of course, I couldn't make a trip like this without taking my fly rod along and fishing some of the famous water that I had heard so much about. I had just recently starting fly fishing at the time, so I threw the old familiar spinning rod in too as a backup. However, I only used the spinning rod once, and wound up fly fishing almost the entire trip. I think this experience helped solidify my interest in fly fishing, although I still have and occasionally use the very spinning rod that accompanied me on this trip.

Growing up in NC and having never traveled to the Rocky Mountains, I had no idea just how impressive they would be. My first look at the Tetons came when we landed at the Jackson Hole airport. I had no idea that mountains could be that high! This was when I began to realize that I was in a very different landscape than I was used to.

Fishing the Green River

My first experience fishing in Wyoming was at the Green River near Pinedale. This was a completely new experience to me, fishing a large river in the middle of a prairie setting. Where were the rhododendron and hemlocks that always seemed to catch my fly? I didn't catch any of the huge trout that my friend's uncle, who we were staying with, had sent pictures of before our trip. However, I did manage my very first trout outside of NC, a small brown that took a Royal Wulff. I remember that trout well, because it was my first western trout and I had actually tied the fly I caught it on. At that time, I had just began tying my own flies and I was worried that my flies wouldn't be good enough to catch fish, especially out west.

First Wyoming trout

This trout, and a few others, helped build my confidence that maybe I could catch a few trout on this trip. I also had the experience of catching a whitefish, something that I had never seen before. After fishing the Green, we headed back to the camper to plan our trip into Yellowstone Park in a few days. In the meantime, we decided to try fishing the Snake River below Jackson Lake dam to see if we could catch our first Snake River fine spotted cutthroat trout.

Snake River

The Snake River was the next place I fished in Wyoming, and I will never forget the experience. As we were fishing, I witnessed a bald eagle fighting with an osprey over a very nice trout. That aerial battle distracted me from the fishing for several minutes, with the end result being the trout was dropped in the water and both birds went fishless. This alone would have made the day for me, but there were trout rising and I had to figure out how to catch one! Catching a cutthroat was one of my main fishing goals on this trip, because I knew it was possibly (hopefully not) a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Finally, I had some success fishing with an elk hair caddis. I missed a nice trout, and then a few casts later I had my very first cutthroat! It wasn't very big, but it was a Snake River cutthroat trout, and that made it a trophy worth remembering.

Snake River Cutthroat Trout

After the Snake, it was on to Yellowstone! As much as I love fishing, I only fished about half of the days we spent in the park. The scenery was just too much to miss. Elk, buffalo, and deer were everywhere, and we even got the opportunity to see wolves from a distance one evening in the Lamar valley. We saw all the major sights while we were there - Old Faithful, the Old Faithful Inn, Mammoth Hot Springs, the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake, and more mud pots, fumaroles, hot springs, and geysers than I can recall the names of.  I have tons of pictures of the park, but since this blog is focused on hunting and fishing, I will spare you most of the pictures of geysers, waterfalls, canyons, and critters. However, I can't help but include a few before I talk about fishing in the park.

We have arrived!

Local Traffic

Upper Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

Old Faithful 

When we explored the area around Yellowstone Lake, one interesting feature I saw was what is known as the Fishing Cone. There are geothermal features all over Yellowstone, and this one was basically a hot spring inside a cone in the edge of the lake. According to the information sign, in the old days fishermen would cook the trout they caught in the lake by simply dropping them into the boiling water in the spring! Of course this has not been allowed for many years, and I'm pretty sure that all cutthroat trout are catch-and-release only in the park now, but it could be an interesting solution to the lake trout problem in Yellowstone Lake!  

The Fishing Cone - Yellowstone Lake

After sightseeing around the park, we decided to do some fishing. I don't know about now but at the time a 3 day Yellowstone Park fishing license was $15, which seemed like a bargain compared to most out of state licenses! We started off fishing the Madison River inside the park, but were skunked. I saw fish, and I saw some very nice ones, but I couldn't figure out what they wanted to eat that day. After giving the Madison a try, we moved on to Soda Butte Creek to try for some Yellowstone cutthroat trout. This was a little more like what I was used to, a small stream with eager trout. 

First Yellowstone Cutthroat

We were able to catch several cutthroats in Soda Butte, and they reminded me of the wild trout in our mountains. They didn't seem too selective about fly pattern, but they were cautious and spooked if you got too close or made a sloppy presentation. I was thrilled to be there, catching a new species (and subspecies) of trout, and in Yellowstone! In fact, I was so focused on the fishing then that I didn't notice I had company until my friend's uncle showed me this picture that he made while I was fishing.

I'm ashamed to admit I didn't see this deer

I'm just glad that it was a deer and not a grizzly! This trip was one of the highlights of my fishing career, and I tell my wife often (probably more often than she wants to hear) that we need to take a trip back out west so she can see the incredible sights (and I can fish!). I have no plans to ever move away from North Carolina, but I do think that anyone who has not been to Yellowstone or the Rocky Mountain west owes it to themselves to see it at least once in their life. If you are like me, once will not be enough!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Farm Pond Fun

Farm ponds are where I first learned to fish, before I knew anything about fly fishing or trout, and I still enjoy getting to fish places like this. They are small enough that I feel like I can learn a few of their secrets, but big enough that I can't ever get too confident. I've had some wonderful days on ponds, and then I've had other days when it seemed like there were no fish anywhere. It seems like more and more I'm drawn to moving water, whether its a trout stream or a smallmouth river, but I've never lost my love of farm ponds.

After trout fishing last Tuesday, I decided to change things up on Wednesday after I got an invitation to do some fishing at a farm pond with a friend of mine. It seems like I'm fly fishing for everything more and more these days, from trout to smallmouth, but on this trip I went back to my roots and grabbed the ultralight spinning rod. We were both fishing for whatever wanted to bite, with the hope of catching some crappie along the way.

Largemouth Bass

We took my friend's john boat and a couple of paddles and made our way back to the pond. I started off fishing a small inline spinner, but with the cool weather the fish didn't seem aggressive enough to be interested. Knowing that there were some nice crappie in the pond, I switched to a 1/16th oz jig with a curly tail grub in the hopes of getting a few crappie to bite. It turned out that this was the lure the fish wanted, and we both fished these the rest of the day. I'm no expert, and don't claim to be, but it seemed like the largemouth bass in the pond were possibly in a prespawn pattern. The bass were schooled up, and several that we caught had the look of carrying eggs. I was surprised at how many bass we caught on these small jigs, since in the past I've caught an occasional bass on these lures but the majority of the fish have been crappie and bluegill. Whatever the reason, the bass in this particular pond seemed to really like them!

Bluegill

We fished our way around the pond, alternating between paddling and casting. We did finally find what we were looking for, which were some of the nice crappie that we knew lived here. They seemed to be schooling around brush and trees along the edge of the pond, possibly also getting ready to spawn. Between the two of us, we caught several nice crappie, a bunch of bass, and some nice bluegill. It was one of those days that I dream about as a fisherman, where everything just seemed to fall into place. We were both talking as we fished about how days like this were few and far between, and the best thing to do was just enjoy the moment.

Crappie

It was a nice change of pace from trout fishing, and to be honest I had forgotten just how much fun a bass on ultralight tackle could be. We didn't catch any huge fish, although I did have one break my line that felt bigger than any others that I caught. It's always the same story though, the ones that get away are always bigger than the ones that get caught. It was a great day to be on the water, and I'm looking forward to doing some more pond fishing soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Spring Break Trout Fishing

The school that I teach at has been off this week for our Easter/spring break, and I decided Tuesday to take advantage of the time off and pretty weather to catch up on some trout fishing. With my time being somewhat limited, I decided that a trip to South Mountains State Park would be my best option for some trout fishing close to home. I've been hoping to make it a little further west into the mountains to fish some of my favorite wild trout streams, but with some good Delayed Harvest trout fishing only 25 minutes from home, South Mountains is often where I find myself when I have a couple hours to grab a fly rod and get away. There are wild trout here also, but unfortunately I didn't have the time to commit to hiking to the areas they live. 

Getting Close

Another reason I think that I fish here so often is that this state park was my classroom when I was first learning to trout fish. The main stream of the Jacob Fork and one of it's tributaries are where I first figured out how to read water, wade, and occasionally catch a trout. It was definitely a time of trial and error, with a lot of error, lost flies, and skinned knees and shins from taking falls. It's also where I learned to appreciate felt soles on wading boots as opposed to the old tennis shoes I started out wearing. 

Jacob Fork

The day started out cool, but by the middle of the day the sun was out and the weather was comfortable. It won't be long before I will be leaving the waders at home and enjoying the cool water as summer's heat gets closer. I was surprised at the number of people that were here on a Tuesday, but then I figured that a lot of people were out of school and possibly had time off from work for Easter. There were also a lot of fishermen, but luckily I have fished here long enough to know of a few out of the way spots where I can usually have some water to myself without crowding other fishermen. I started out the day fishing nymphs, and found the trout seemed to be stacked up in pools together, as opposed to spread out like I'm used to on this stream. Several pools that have been productive in the past seemed to be empty this time, and other pools might hold a dozen fish. I started out the day with a nice rainbow trout that wanted to put on a show, jumping two or three times and making a few good runs before I brought him to the net. 

The Jumper

I worked this pool for a while, taking several brook trout and another small rainbow before I decided to head upstream in search of new fish and new water. I'm not sure if this is the case, but it seems like the majority of the spring stockings this year have been brook trout. They made up most of the fish that I caught and saw on my last few trips. After catching several trout on nymphs, and seeing a few mayflies in the air, I decided it was time to switch up and try to catch my first trout of the year on dry flies. 

Jacob Fork Brook Trout

I fished my way upstream using a Rio Grande Trude, an attractor dry fly pattern that I've had luck with over the years. I tend to believe that for the freestone creeks here in NC that I fish, presentation trumps pattern most of the time. We have lots of different insects, but not the heavy hatches that can cause fish to be selective. I have a hand full of similar attractor dry fly patterns that I carry and fish pretty much from spring to fall, with the exception being rivers like the Davidson that do see heavy insect hatches and lots of fishing pressure. I was excited to see that the fish were willing to rise for a dry fly, and I managed several more brook trout as I worked my way upstream. I also had a nice surprise in the form of a small brown trout that had the look of a wild fish. I'm assuming it came down from further upstream where there are some wild browns, and I'm basing my guess that it was a wild fish on it's size, color, and the fact that it had intact fins as opposed to the ragged pectoral fins I was seeing on most of the hatchery fish I caught. Either way, it was nice to catch a brown trout, and as a bonus catching it allowed me the rare opportunity to catch all three species of trout that inhabit the stream. 

Brown on a Rio Grande

After fishing a while, I decided to get out of the stream and go for a short hike along the trail that paralleled the river. It was a nice change of pace to just go for a walk and look at the stream from a different perspective. I was also happy to see that there were lots of small hemlocks growing beside the trail, because I've been seeing signs of the hemlock woolly adelgid in the park for the last several years. I'm hoping the hemlocks can survive this invasive species, both to provide shade for the trout streams, and also because they are an important part of the mountain ecosystem. 

River Trail

It was a nice day to get out and enjoy nature, and the trout were an added bonus. The hike and the fishing made for a great day outdoors, and I'm looking forward to going back soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Signs of Spring

While I truly enjoy blogging, I must admit that I've had a hard time lately keeping up with my own goals for updating this blog more than once or twice a month. To make things even harder, with Daylight Savings Time in full swing and the onset of warmer weather, it's been hard for me to find the time to sit at the computer and write about all the outdoor activities that I have been involved in. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining, that's not my intention at all. With that said, I'll try to do a little better at keeping things current on here.

Rainbow on a Triple Threat

There are several things to me that herald the arrival of spring around my area of North Carolina. One of the first signs that spring is closing in is the end of the small game seasons, and the stocking of the Delayed Harvest trout waters in our state. I try (although it doesn't always work out) to trout fish year round, and my preference is for wild trout when I have the time to get to the places where they live, but with a Delayed Harvest stream in a state park only 25 minutes up the road, this time of year I tend to take advantage of the opportunities that I have close to home.

Trent's Brook Trout

  After rabbit season closed, and we had some warm days, I began to really get the urge to go check on the Jacob's Fork, and hopefully catch a few trout in the process. I will admit that I figured my odds were improved by the recent stocking a few days before, so I headed up to South Mountain the first Saturday of this month to give the fly rod a workout and scratch my fishing itch. The fish didn't seem quite willing to hit a dry fly yet, but my brother-in-law Trent and I did manage several fish on streamers and nymphs.

Delayed Harvest Brook Trout

It seemed to me that the NC Wildlife Resources Commission had stocked larger trout than usual, and we saw several large fish in the pools as we worked our way upstream. I had success fishing black/gold/tan triple threat streamers and a hare's ear bird's nest nymph, with about half of the fish coming on each. This trip was just the first of hopefully many to come as the trout fishing will only get better for the next month or two. Hopefully a trip to a wild trout stream will be in the cards before long.

Planting Potatoes

After I got my trout fishing fix, it was time to try to get this year's garden started. I had planned to try a few new early crops in the garden this year, along with the usual onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and leaf lettuce that I normally plant in early spring. This year I decided to add potatoes and English peas to the early crops. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to get the garden plowed in time, because we've seemed to have an unusually wet late winter this year. Either that, or it's been dry long enough that this winter seemed wetter than usual. As a gardener, I would never complain about rain, but I will admit I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to plow until May! Finally we had several dry days in a row and I was able to get the garden tilled and planted.

I always get excited when it's time to plant the garden, and my wife was overheard making the comment to the owner of our local hardware store that I always get a little bit ambitious when it came time to plan out our garden. I guess I'm guilty as charged on that one, because I'm always thinking of new vegetables to try or new things to do with our garden. I really think that it must be something that gets in your blood, and I'm sure my grandfathers' are partially to thank for my love of gardening.

Speaking of being ambitious, my uncle gave me some blueberry seedlings that were left after he finished pruning and thinning his bushes, so I added 9 more plants to my blueberry bed that already had six bushes. As I was out checking on the new plantings the other day, I noticed our peach trees were starting to bloom and the apple and cherry trees were budding.

Peach Blossoms

I'm a little nervous that last night's below freezing temperatures may have harmed the peach blooms, but for the time being all I can do is wait and hope that there will be peaches to pick this summer. The muscadine vines have been pruned, and I think our little orchard is in the best shape it can be at this point. Now it's just going to take patience and a little help from Mother Nature.

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. The garden is started, the fish are biting, and the turkeys have been strutting and gobbling as their mating season approaches. It's a busy time for me, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Beagle Music

Last Saturday, I once again had the opportunity to go rabbit hunting with some good friends and good beagles. We started our day hunting a cut over that was a few years old, and was thick with head high briars and small trees. It was excellent rabbit habitat, and the beagles jumped several rabbits, but it presented a challenge to us hunters, both in visibility and mobility. I did see a woodcock flush out of a swampy little creek, and one of the hunters did manage a rabbit, but overall it was difficult to see any of the rabbits the dogs were running.

The cut over where we started

After spending an hour or two hunting this thicket, we moved to another spot across the road that was a little less thick and we were able to have a successful day hunting. This area was more open woods with a couple fields that were full of broom sage, but not the head high briars that we had encountered earlier. There were several smaller thickets in these fields, and it just had the look of good rabbit habitat. In the distance, there was snow on the Blue Ridge mountains, and it made a scenic backdrop for the day's hunt.

Snow on the Blue Ridge (background) with the South Mountains in the foreground

 The dogs jumped several rabbits, and to my surprise, about half of the rabbits we jumped were hiding in the high broom sage in the fields, rather than in the briar thickets that were scattered throughout the field. We did jump several rabbits in the thickets, but I had never seen so many rabbits hiding in the middle of fields. I guess the broom sage was high and thick enough to provide them with adequate cover.

Some of the hunting party in the woods

All in all, it was a great day to be outdoors, and I never get tired of seeing and hearing the beagles make their own special music as they trail a rabbit. I've often thought that there's a lesson to be learned from these wonderful little dogs. They approach their "job" with an excitement and enthusiasm that is hard to match anywhere else. 

Beagles working out a track

Rabbit season is quickly coming to a close here in North Carolina, with February 28 marking the last day of most of our small game seasons, including rabbit, squirrel, and quail. I'm going to miss the Saturday morning fellowship and the walks following the dogs, but I know that it won't be too long until it will be time for us to get together to hear that wonderful beagle music once again. 

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Cabbage, Rabbits, and Giving Back

The last few weeks have been busy ones for me, which is the excuse I'm going to give for the recent lack of blog posts. It seems like this time of year would be a slow time for me as an outdoorsman, with deer season over and fishing possible but not likely for the next month or two. However, it's been just the opposite. Here's a rambling account of the month of January, as it relates to my outdoor pursuits.

Beagles working the thicket

A couple of Saturdays ago I went on another rabbit hunt, but this hunt involved lots of walking through some good looking rabbit cover with the dogs only jumping one rabbit. It was still a nice day to be outdoors with good dogs and good friends, and a walk in the woods is always worthwhile, rabbits or not. It was a mystery that we didn't jump more rabbits, because we were hunting areas that had been productive for us during past seasons. It seemed more like a deer hunt instead of a rabbit hunt, as we jumped deer several times during the course of the day. Luckily the dogs left the deer alone for the most part, although they did have to be called off of the first group of deer that we jumped.

Clay watching for a rabbit

In the meantime, the cabbage plants that my wife and I set out back during the fall were finally ready to be harvested. I'm not too much of a winter gardener but I do usually grow a few cabbage and occasionally some broccoli. There is something about being able to pick fresh vegetables in January that still amazes me, and the slaw and cooked cabbage was a nice compliment to a meal of pintos and cornbread on a cold night. I'm not sure if it's just the fact that we grew it or not, but cabbage from the garden always seems to have a different flavor than cabbage from the grocery store. It could be my imagination, but it does give me an excuse to plant a few every year.

My wife Trina with a winter cabbage from the garden

This past Saturday a good friend and I went squirrel hunting, but once again it turned out to be a nice walk in the woods carrying a .22 rifle. It was the day after we had experienced some nasty winter weather, and I think this might have affected the squirrel movement. We covered a lot of ground, and did manage to find some several rubbed trees that the deer had left behind, but we didn't see a single squirrel. We did hear two barred owls calling to each other, and found some fresh scratchings left behind by a flock of turkeys.

Hunter Safety Instructor Badge

To top it all off, this week I have been helping teach Hunter Safety after school. This past summer a friend and fellow agriculture teacher and I took the course to become certified NC Hunter Safety Volunteer Instructors and this week marks the second time we have taught the class. I'm thoroughly enjoying teaching this, both because I love any chance to share my passion for the outdoors, and also because I feel like in some small way I'm helping preserve the outdoor lifestyle for future generations. It makes me feel good to know that some of my students share my love of the outdoors, and hopefully through that they will become motivated to become the next generation of sportsmen conservationists.

It has been a busy January for sure, but all the different directions my outdoor ramblings have taken me in this past month have only helped make it more interesting.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Small Game Saturday

This past Saturday, with deer season over and Christmas and New Year's behind me, I got the opportunity to go rabbit hunting with some good friends. I've never owned any beagles myself, but I have been fortunate enough to have friends that have beagles and don't mind me tagging along. We started out around 9:00 am and the dogs jumped a rabbit within the first few minutes after we got into the briers.

Starting the Hunt

 From there on, it was steady action with the dogs jumping rabbits from all the likely places. For anyone who has never been rabbit hunting, let me say this - a running rabbit presents a pretty good challenge, especially if your shotgun skills are a little rusty like mine were. The last rabbit hunt I had been on was at the end of the season last February, so needless to say I missed more rabbits than I hit. I did manage one rabbit, but missed a few others. Fortunately my hunting companions were better shots than I was that day. In all, our group ended up with 10 rabbits, and there were a few that got away.

Dale with a rabbit

For me, rabbit hunting has always been about the dogs. I enjoy eating fried rabbit about as much as any wild game, but the big draw for me is seeing the beagles work out a trail and listening to their music as they trail a rabbit through the briers and brush. I have often said that if I had more time to work with them, I would like to get some beagles myself. For the present though, I'm thankful that I have friends who invite me to hunt with them. We had a successful morning, and jumped a dozen or so rabbits, along with a covey of quail. I was excited to see the bobwhites, because they have become scarce around home in the last several years.

Luke and Dale

 We had planned to wind up our hunt around 1:00 pm, and by 1:30 or so we had the dogs caught and loaded up. After the usual story telling around the tailgate, it was time to call it a day. My friend Luke and I had decided the day before that after we finished rabbit hunting, there would be plenty of time left in the day to go squirrel hunting for a few hours.

Tired after a day of hunting

Squirrel hunting was my introduction to the sport of hunting, and for several years was the main type of hunting I did. When I was young, there weren't that many deer around home, and there were even less when my Dad was growing up. Dad has never been a deer or turkey hunter, but squirrel, rabbit, and dove hunting were what he grew up doing. He introduced me to these when I was young, and I've never lost my enjoyment of small game hunting. I'm grateful that I was introduced to hunting this way, because squirrel hunting taught me skills that helped me when I decided to try hunting deer and turkeys, patience being among the key lessons.

Gray Squirrel

After everyone left from our rabbit hunt, Luke and I swapped our shotguns for .22 rifles and headed to the woods to see if we could have any success with the squirrels. We managed three in an hour or two of hunting, and it was a fitting end to the day. Then it was time to clean the squirrels and rabbits, and prepare for some good eating down the road. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday outdoors than with good friends and good dogs. I truly enjoy deer and turkey hunting, but I think that when I have children and the time comes to introduce them to hunting, it will be on a hardwood ridge with a .22 rifle or 20 gauge shotgun and hopefully a tree full of squirrels. I don't know of any better way to pass on the same values and appreciation of hunting and nature that Dad taught me many years ago.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph