About TVangler Welcome to our site! We're a group of outdoor enthusiasts currently residing in North Alabama in the Tennessee Valley. We write about fly fishing and just about any other type of fishing you might be interested in. We also occasionally write about photography, blogging, conservation, backpacking, hiking and whatever random stuff happens to be on our minds. Hope you enjoy!
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By Nathan Kennedy on January 11th, 2011
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” – Mark Twain
Wow! It’s been months since I’ve posted anything! The famous quote from Mark Twain seems appropriate. In fact, several friends have asked, “Are you dead or something?” No, nothing that exciting. Fact is, I just got really burned out on, well, a lot of things. I simply didn’t feel like writing a thing for months. That’s a first for me. I’ve always enjoyed writing ever since I was a toddler, but for whatever reason, I just felt like vegging out for a while.
But there will be some changes. The site needs a lot of maintenance, and I plan something of a change of structure. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but if anyone’s still reading this, you can certainly expect to see an evolution in the coming weeks/months. One change is I’ll be adding advertising links in various places. We’ve used ads in the past, but I don’t really like ads. However, I would like to make enough to pay for the hosting costs if possible. Hopefully, I’ll come up with an ad structure that’s useful to you as well. For now I’ve just tossed up a few haphazardly, but I’ll come up with something better soon.
So anyway, what did I do the last half of 2010? Mostly working for a paycheck and being generally depressed about the situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have a job, but in the ideal world I’d get paid to travel, backpack and fly fish. Despite being mired in the dregs of the modern workplace, I did manage to get away for a bit of fishing and backpacking, and I went on a few other trips totally non-related to fishing which proved interesting. Here’s a quick recap:
In July I tagged along with my brother and several of his friends on what turned out to be a true test of will. We backpacked roughly 37 miles through the Smokies over four days. We visited three separate watersheds, and the trails involved massive (for me) elevations changes each day. I found the time and energy to go fishing the morning after our first day, but I was too tired every other morning. I caught a half dozen or so browns and rainbows, but nothing to write home about. My feet took a couple weeks to recover, but I’m glad I did it. We suffered through a severe thunderstorm on the last night, and everything we had got soaked. It was okay, though, because everything we had was already soaked with sweat. A couple photos:
 This is the group of guys I backpacked with. They were all in better shape than me and just about did me in.  Our campsite along Forney Creek. In August, Dewayne and I experienced a monumental smallmouth float trip. Well, at least it was monumental for us. We took my old canoe and used spinning gear on a stretch of a local stream that we’d never fished. It was like finding a secret treasure. We caught between 20 and 30 smallmouth with the best going a bit over 2 lbs. I plan to hit this stretch again in the spring and take fly gear this time. A few of the fish: Continue reading Back from My Retreat: 2010 Recap
By Nathan Kennedy on December 1st, 2009
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 [...]
By Nathan Kennedy on October 23rd, 2009
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 [...]
By Nathan Kennedy on October 9th, 2009
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. Continue reading Glacier NP Road Trip Notes
By Nathan Kennedy on September 18th, 2009
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, [...]
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