Floating....

Rochelle and I went Rafting on the New River last weekend with her sister and some of her friends. It was a blast!!! Here are some highlights! I am starboard front and she is directly behind me.

Blair sending texts from the Outer Banks

Smallmouth and Bourbon on the Rocks

Smallmouth and bourbon on the rocks, the drink of reel men. Garnish with a watermelon-red flake gitzit.

7-19-08 Riverbend Solo Canoe

Holy crap, I paddled 3 miles upstream and ate lunch on an island that was carp city. I just ate my sandwich, drank coke and looked at these huge fish, the biggest much larger in circumference than my thigh and over 3 feet long.
I floated back, catching well over 30 smallies, a few huge bluegill, and some catfish on gitzits, I even had two 15-20 lb cats chase two different 13 inch smallies I had caught. The biggest 3 fish went 12-13 inches and fat. Lots of 10-12. I saw several 3-5 lbers on the float. The huge 8-20 lb blue cats were everywhwere, I saw at least fifty all day, no shit. Awesome Saturday.
So which one of my buddies is going to stop being a pussy and come up here to fish? I have several floats, including one with the the start and end points both within 11 miles of our place...

7-13-08 Riverbend Solo Canoe

I love having a canoe. I have cleaned it all up , removed peeling decals, applied plastic conditioner to the hull, and repaired popped rivets in the seat mounts and keel support. I think I might even put some real classy redneck stickers of a Smallie, oh yeah. they will go well with my mustache project I plan to get going in august while on some fishing trips. I took my first solo river paddle, going 1.5 miles upstream and floating back. I caught 25+ fish including a 13.5 and 17 incher (not to mention some huge bluegills).

Bay Fishing with Greg and Blair

the weather was beautiful. We looked for flounder and found few. We searched for specks and found few. Blair and I bottom fished coming up with a nice blue, and mess of croaker and spot. The grass beds looked great, just couldn't get the right tide. Crabfeast on my birthday (notice my beverage of choice). Then I started working insanely, only having 2 days and a morning in June of fishing.

Memorial Day 2008 - NC Backwater with Shad

Loaded up

The big dog estimated at 14 lbs and 34 inches

Shad needed a fishing trip and he got one. I've never fished in backwater infused with cypress stumps... not many catfish and no bass i could see, but we got plenty of panfish for dinner and caught our first Bowfin, including one of Shads that was probably two pounds short of the state record, no shit. Here are the pics...
oh yeah - greg and I went out and caught our limit of rockfish the night before I went to NC, my only spring rockfish trip. These rocks are for you Blair!

Belated Summer Posts

Man I've been working too much, and the blog is suffering (although, I don't see any posts from the other boys, come on guys!). I've been working 3 jobs, and now i am close to just working one, so more adventure coming, the next few posts are belated ones, not much time to write, but here are the pics will be in the next few posts...