Okay, this trip had nothing to do with fishing, although I did take a rod in the futile hope that I’d find time for some fishing. Last weekend, several of us pooled our resources and rented a cabin near Gatlinburg. Yes, that Gatlinburg. That mother of all tourist traps. We even had to drive through Pigeon Forge to get there, a town I intensely dislike (no offense meant to the good citizens of that town) and that if anything is even more garish than Gatlinburg. I do hold some fondness for Gatlinburg despite its more grotesque aspects. I like that the town is easily walked rather than having to drive from place to place, and there are some nice joints to grab a bite to eat, enjoy a drink or sample excellent pipe tobaccos (the Gatlinburlier in the Mountain Mall is a great pipe and cigar shop). And the town did serve as the base for my first few fly fishing trips to the mountains. We took a look at a few trout streams, and they all looked pretty darn cold, especially up high where some streams were completely frozen over. Maybe they’ll warm up a bit before my first planned fly fishing trip in April. Here’s a quick photo essay:

I'm usually not much on cabins, being more of a camper and cheapskate, but this one had the goods - not to mention it was cheap in the off-season. Here's the game room where Dewayne completely destroyed me at foosball.

And here's the movie theater room, complete with nice chairs and an 11 ft. projection screen.

Most of the group at the Hofbrauhaus Restaurant, an excellent little sandwich shop in Gatlinburg. Get the Reuben or the Hoagie - both fantastic with a cold Beck's.

A stream along the Alum Cave Bluff Trail. We hiked to Arch Rock.

Another shot of the creek along the trail.

Here's Jacqulyn and her sister Gina near the beginning of the trail. We hiked in fairly deep but compacted snow all the way to Arch Rock.

Jacqulyn and yours truly at Arch Rock. The top steps were solid chunks of ice, so we turned back lacking any gear for handling that much slippiness as Bear Grylls would say.

Icicles near Newfound Gap.

Newfound Gap had lots of snow, and it was brutally cold with a strong wind. We didn't stay long.

I guess winter is setting in. It’s cold, windy and rainy here in North Alabama. For all intents and purposes, fishing season is over. Sure, there’s no closed fishing season here, and you can still fish if you want to, but as John Gierach says, “You don’t have to.” Even if you did fish in this kind of weather, you probably wouldn’t catch much unless you’re into watching a bobber with a minnow under it or crawling bass lures over deep ledges. A few trips to Tennessee tailwaters are planned over the winter, but there isn’t much urgency right now. At least not until after the Bama-Florida game this coming weekend.

It’s hitting me hard this time, the whole winter and not fishing thing. I fished less this year than any other year in my life, well, at least the years that count. And it’s eating at me. I’m already restless before December. Destination guides are piling up beside the bed and toilet. By the end of February things could be downright desperate. In the meantime, I’ve apparently decided to amuse myself with photos of leaves. You’ll find a couple from the weekend below.

In other news, Reed Curry’s book on Trout, UV Vision and fly tying is finally out! He sent me a copy to review, and I’ll post my thoughts as soon as I can plow through it. In the meantime you shouldn’t wait on my review to buy the book. Reed’s as fine a writer as you’ll come across, and you can bet his book is entertaining, quirky, informative and highly useful. Check it out on his site!

I think all these leaves are from a pear tree.

I arranged them a couple ways, aiming for something sort of random but not quite.

Take care,
Nathan

In A River Runs Through It (whether the movie or the novella I don’t remember – I sometimes confuse scenes from the two), Norman Maclean tells of how his father valued brevity in writing. Reading through my post about online fishing magazines, I realize this is something sorely missing from my own writing style.

The latest issue of Fish Can’t Read was just published. It’s full of good material. I like it. I also like Catch magazine. Between the two, you’ll find just about the best fly fishing content on the web. I’m just not sure the periodically-published flipbook style will persist. I think more regularly published high quality content will eventually prove more successful. There – that’s really all I wanted to say with that bloated post from a couple weeks back.

Jason fishing a small North Alabama stream in early morning light.

Brevity is also of use in reporting on the fishing trip Jason Kelley and I took over the weekend. The plan was to scout lots of potential smallmouth streams in our area, and catch some good fish to end up the season. We did scout several streams, some of which looked very good. We didn’t catch many fish. No smallmouth. We tried everything we could think of to no avail. The weather was great. We sampled several good beers. Dinner at Logans Roadhouse was good, and both Alabama (for me – Roll Tide!) and Arkansas (for Jason – Go Razorbacks!) won big in their games on Saturday night. We decided that we didn’t face enough adversity to deserve to catch any fish. With that in mind we plan to take our next trip during severe storms, only drink Natty Light, eat turkey dogs charred over a campfire and be Vanderbilt fans for the night. To the left is a shot of Jason fishing the first creek of the morning. I’m still editing photos, and I’ll post a few more as I finish them. I imagined how I wanted this shot to look when I snapped the photo and came pretty close to getting it there in the post-processing.

Take care,
Nathan

One day this week, I’ll post a report on a smallmouth trip Jason Kelley and I took over the weekend, but don’t expect many fish photos. We knew going in that this would be a scouting trip, and for the most part we struck out. Okay, that’s an understatement. We were completely whipped and embarrassed by not just the smallmouth but by all warmwater species present in our streams. At least the scenery was nice. Here’s Jason fishing one of the small creeks we explored:

Jason fishing a small stream in North Alabama.

I’ve been intrigued this year with decaying fall leaves. I’ll just be walking along idly staring at the ground, and suddenly I’ll be struck with the pattern of veins or the unusual coloring of a particular leaf out of a ground covered with them. I’d like to set up some nice still life scenes using these leaves, setting them in artfully amongst a pile of other fallen leaves. You can see some nice samples of stuff like I mean on sites like www.naturephotographers.net (look in the flora gallery). So far I haven’t found the time, so I’ve gone a quicker route. I’ve always liked old wood as a background for fall leaves. Not very creative, I suppose, but it works in a pinch. A couple were photographed near where I found them while two are photographed next to a nice knot in the landscaping ties at my in-laws. I was more interested in the patterns and texture as opposed to the colors, so I went the monochrome route with them. Of course, what all this probably means is that I really need to get out and go fishing…

This leaf was still bright green in the center but fringed with a ring of decay.

I found this leaf lying near these small ferns. The lines of the ferns and the leaf are in opposing tension with each other. Not sure the composition works, but I still like the leaf.

I really liked the detail and curves of this leaf. If I had it to do over again, I would have tried to make sure the entire leaf was in focus.

These are leaves from a black walnut tree. I liked how they stood out from their mossy background, and there seems to be a sense of balance to the twig even though its weighted heavily to one side.

Take care,
Nathan

Took me awhile to get this done. We’ve had some pretty severe illness in the family which took up a good bit of my time. This trip took place Aug 21 – Sep 5.

The Great Plains
This trip marked my third road trip to the Rockies in the last four years. The otherworldly charm of the Great Plains is wearing off. At one rest area I read that it took pioneers in covered wagons a full month just to cross Nebraska. “That’s pretty rough, but at least it wasn’t South Dakota,” is all I could think. The third day on the road found me and my sore hindquarters desperate for a sight of the mountains. That first glimpse of the Big Horns is like a drink of cold spring water on a dusty late summer day. Some day I hope to take a more leisurely tour of the Rockies. When and if I do, I will plunge into those mountains and give them a good looking over. This time we just drove right on past. The first time I went to the Rockies, several of us younger folks drove 32 hours straight (with visits to a few spots along the way) before stopping to rest. At the time, when we were desperately searching for a hotel with a vacancy before we passed out completely, it felt like a really stupid idea. This time we had parents with us who struggle to do 10 hours on the road at once. The idea was to take it easy with the trip spread over four days. I have decided I like the suicidal 30 hour drive better. Just get it all over with at once if you and your group is physically capable.

My parents and Jacqulyn at Avalanche Lake.

The Alabama Bar
We stayed our first two nights in Glacier at Lake Macdonald Lodge. I liked the place. The hunting lodge atmosphere was cool and the food was great for a national park. After dinner a few of us went to the little bar for a drink. When we walked in there were only two other people present (it was near closing time). I had on my Bama ball cap. I ordered a favorite Montana beer – Moose Drool – and the bar tender, in a distinctly Southern drawl, asked where we came from. The girls said Alabama, and the guy laughed, said he was from Birmingham and pointed at the only other person in the room, a fellow sitting at the bar who looked a lot like Tom McGuane. When he told us he was from Sylacauga, AL it became pretty obvious he wasn’t Tom McGuane, but it was almost as cool that the bar was entirely populated by native Alabamians at that point.

Avalanche Lake
The next day I had a day hike planned for everyone to Avalanche Lake. We spent a long time trying to find a parking spot. I wouldn’t recommend this trail if you want anything even remotely resembling solitude. Dad and I carried our fly rods on the hike to the lake, but when we got there we found so many people milling about and throwing rocks that we just sat on a log and enjoyed the view. I took a few photos, but the light was pretty harsh.

That's me netting a nice cutthroat.

The Good Fishing
We drove across Going-to-the-Sun Road to St. Mary Campground where we would spend the next five nights. The first full day Dad, Jacqulyn and I hiked into a high alpine lake where we found absolutely stunning scenery and abundant rising cutthroats. This was really my first experience with good high mountain lake fishing, and I loved it! 10 nice cutts between 15 and 18″ came reluctantly to my hand. It was pretty easy to spot cruising fish in the crystal clear water even though the surface was choppy. The trick was finding what they wanted. I had good luck on mayfly emergers and caddis dries. Dad and Jacqulyn didn’t have as good a luck, but both of them missed some fish and Dad caught a couple. This lake is far from a secret, but I’m not going to name it anyway. If only we’d gone back there a couple days later…

Back at camp, we drove over to the KOA for showers and a meal at the Park Cafe. Try the Park Cafe if you’re in St. Mary. Good hamburgers and fantastic pies. If you’re in a big group, don’t make the mistake of asking for separate checks. One of the girls working there was pretty rude when one of our group asked if they’d mind separating them. Still, the pies and burgers are worth a bit of rudeness.

A cutthroat trout caught in Glacier National Park.

Dad casting to cruising cutts on our lake.

I waited forever for Dad to cast for this shot, but he must have had the mother of all tangles, so I just snapped it anyway.

Another of the cutts I brought to hand.

(more…)

Just in case you haven’t checked his blog in awhile, my friend Reed Curry over at the Contemplative Angler is releasing a book this fall. The book is entitled The New Scientific Angling: Trout and Ultraviolet Vision. Reed posted a couple of articles on his blog awhile back that first explored this idea. Personally, I think it has the potential to really change the way people think about tying flies. In fact, I think it’s the coolest idea in fly tying that I’ve seen since taking up the sport. If nothing else it’ll provide me with just one more excuse on a tough day: “Well, I probably would have caught several nice trout, but I haven’t been able to locate those Bolivian scarlet titmouse feathers with the proper UV characteristics, either that or the weather’s got ‘em holed up somewhere.”

A new online fishing magazine was released recently which I’ve enjoyed: Fish Can’t Read. The folks over at Chiwulff and Singlebarbed have all been involved. I highly recommend you take a look. These online magazines with the flipbook format seem to really be catching on lately. There are two others that I’m aware of: Catch and This is Fly. Of the three, Fish Can’t Read and Catch are more along what I like. This is Fly is pretty cool, and I probably would have liked it if I’d been into fly fishing as a teenager, but the style is just a bit over the top for me now. I don’t know how long the flipbook format will persist, but something like this is likely the future of fly fishing periodicals. I’m surprised the paper magazines haven’t caught on. Also, this is just my opinion mind you, but I think making the magazines freely accessible is the way to go as well. People will probably cease paying for magazines whether online or not just due to the fact that so much information is out there freely available. I know I have. I’ve got a single straggling subscription left that I’m strongly considering doing away with. It’s really just a waste of money and a waste of storage space to store the old magazines (which I never can bring myself to throw away). If you publish good work, you can probably get enough revenue to support it through advertising.

I’m still working on my Glacier photos. The truth is I’ve really struggled finding time to work on the website here or work on photography or go fishing or even take a walk in the woods. I can’t even put my finger on the problem. “Things” just seem busy lately. I know the job’s been more stressful. Heck, I don’t know. But I do know this: something’s got to give. It has become abundantly clear to everyone around me that I need to be in the outdoors. If I’m not, things get rather ugly rather quickly. Still, I have played around with my photos a bit. Lately I’ve become interested in black and white and “sort of” black and white photos. One thing I discovered about myself on the Glacier trip: I really enjoy working with photography. I still need lots of work to be anywhere close to good, but I do honestly enjoy it. Anyone who reads the site knows I’ve sort of been into photography for awhile, but usually I’m too involved in the fishing to concentrate on it. Glacier offered a chance to focus. I got up at daylight nearly every day of the trip for photos, and several evenings found me waiting for just the right light at some photogenic spot. I’ve GOT to start updating the photoblog more often. Here’s another of my better shots:

Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier Valley in the early morning.

I recently read a wonderful little book of essays on fine art photography by Brooks Jensen entitled Letting Go of the Camera. Jensen publishes the magazine LensWork, one of the best out there. Check out the book if you’re the least interested in fine art photography or even just the life of a fine art photographer.

Take care,
Nathan

Tonight I took my first look at the photos I took in Glacier. I’m not happy with most of them (as usual), but I sort of liked this one in black and white. I took it from the observation deck at Many Glacier Hotel after a thunderstorm had passed. Although the fishing didn’t pan out like we’d hoped, it’s difficult to argue with the scenery. Almost makes not catching fish worth it. Almost.

Many Glacier Valley after a summer thunderstorm.

Take care,
Nathan

This is my accounting of the backpacking and fly fishing trip I took on Memorial Day weekend. I wrote it in a different style than normal. Hope you enjoy!

My camp on the river that shall not be named.

It is Memorial Day weekend, and the lower stretches of the watershed along the paved road are glutted with tourists and local families and teenagers and fishermen. Once I turn off the main roadway and onto the gravel Forest Service road, I enter a different atmosphere. For the first three miles I see no one else at all. I roll down the windows to feel the air cool as I climb higher into the mountains. I turn off the radio which had been blaring the latest Brad Paisley country song. I love the sound of a gravel road under the tires of my truck and the deep silence of the ancient mountains beyond, broken only here and there by a lonely song bird. I’m always surprised at the silence of the deep woods. There are many more songbirds in my tiny backyard. A large pileated woodpecker flushes and leads me down a hollow toward the river for a good half mile. To the chorus of the tires and the gravel and the birdsong is added the melody of flowing water, my favorite music.

I don’t see the well-concealed trailhead the first time I pass and end up on an impossibly narrow dirt road, trying to squeeze by another truck whose driver appears unhappy to see me and my big Dodge. I finally find a spot wide enough to turn back toward the river and park at a bridge. I find the trailhead on the right side of the bridge and there meet a golden retriever attended by two humans, a father and son out for a short hike. They will be two of only five people I will see during my three days on the river. Not bad for a holiday weekend, one traditionally viewed as the beginning of summer in these parts.

My pack feels lighter than in the past. I use an old Kelty Trekker external frame pack, both for its efficient load handling and its versatility in strapping on gear. I worked hard this time to eliminate extraneous gear, and I’ve just bought a pair of waist-high waders which weigh about half as much as my old chest-highs. The work is paying off, although I already miss my pipe and my journal. I don’t plan to go far, maybe a mile or two. It’s getting late, I’m not familiar with this trail, and I don’t trust the pack to feel light for long. (more…)

I don’t have much time while I’m typing this tonight. It’s for a good reason, I promise. I’m getting up early to go fishing tomorrow. Still there are a few things I want to highlight on Friday for you unfortunates stuck in front of a computer monitor.

I received a couple of boxes of flies from James Marsh over at Fly Fishing the Smoky Mountains. They’re a selection from his Perfect Fly Store. He sent me quite a variety from tiny midge patterns for trout to big hair bugs for bass to crab patterns for permit and bonefish. I’m going to take some photos soon and give you a report on how some of them work. I may try a couple patterns tomorrow for bass and bluegills. All of the patterns look great. I was really impressed with the quality of his spun deer hair flies and the caddis patterns. Check out his sites often. I don’t know how he finds time to update his blog so often. I can’t even keep up reading it all.

Matthew Crampton sent me a copy of the book I highlighted two weeks ago, Tales from the Angler’s Retreat. I’ve already begun reading it, and I’ve loved it so far! It’s such a neat little book. Before Matthew contacted me, I wasn’t even aware of the fishing on the island of South Uist off the coast of Scotland. Now they’ve got me wanting to pack up and head over. Just what I needed…another destination to add to my wishlist of places I’ll probably never get to. The book isn’t just a collection of fishing stories. It also tells a bit of the history, environment, culture, what it’s like to fish there, etc. I’ll talk more about it once I finish, which might actually be awhile. You see, I have this problem where I can’t wait to start a new book when I get one. Since I’m a book-aholic, I’m constantly getting new books. This in turn means I’m constantly starting new books before I finish the old ones. I’m currently reading seven books, no, I think it’s closer to ten…especially if you count a couple of destination books I’ve been scanning. Anyway, at least check out the excerpts on the site dedicated to the book. I think you’ll enjoy them.

Twisted Root and Waterfall - Monte Sano State Park

One of my favorite blogs recently changed both its name and web address. You might have noticed if you’ve kept up with the blogroll. Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone has changed to Chi Wulff. Interesting name, huh? There’s a neat story behind it that’s worth checking out. It sounds similar to the story surrounding a beaten-up gold Rattletrap that I used back in my bass fishing days. I still have it. It’s sitting in my old tackle box, retired. I caught two bass over 8 lbs on it, one over 7, and one over 6. Plus there were many in the 4 and 5 lb range. It was eerie. No other gold Rattletrap worked as well. Anyway, back to Chi Wulff. This is absolutely the best site out there for up-to-date information on the fishing in the Yellowstone area. Nothing out there comes close in my book. Last year before our trip to Yellowstone, I agonized over their website every day looking for updates on the runoff and which rivers had turned on. If you’re going to the Greater Yellowstone area for some fly fishing, you need look no where else.

I wanted to highlight a new blog I’ve added to the blogroll. It’s called Fly Art Studio and is run by Neal Osborn. I found the site through Zach Matthews’ Itinerant Angler board. Mr. Osborn has put together one of the most useful and practical blogs out there. Really excellent stuff! If you’re looking for information on shooting macro photography of flies, Fly Art Studio is the place.

Finally, I added the last photo from Monte Sano to the photoblog. It’s of the waterfall just below the picnic area. I forget its name right now, and I don’t have the energy to look it up. Anyway, I think the shot turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Obviously I did some post-processing work (and I’ll probably do a little more before I leave it alone). Once again, the colors were rather bland due to the top of the mountain still being in winter mode, but I like how the split-toning and saturation tweaks brought out some interesting textures.

Take care,
Nathan