Who wants to go fishing?

I just raised my hand. But I've got to work on this water problem. We still don't have a good flow of water in our sinks, so it looks like a couple of more weeks, before we get to do some fishing.

Only One Life

If I had to say there was something I had that I could only live once, it would be a life. Most people would say, "get a life," to which I would say, "Get two, to go." I know. None of this makes any sense. But whatever.

I accidentally pocket dialed Ken Bradshaw today. He called me back about ten minutes later, and I had to have an awkward and unscripted conversation with him this morning. Neither of us had been doing anything, except he had been hunting this morning "in the land of the ice and snow" and had no luck.

I hadn't even done that. I left work about 9:00 and the truck broke down. I limped it back and got another truck and finished everything from there on. I had such a boring day. For lunch I ate a chicken sandwich and read the newspaper. I saved the sports section to read during the game tonight. I hope I don't forget it. I need to set it out to make sure. I start every sentence with "I", almost.

I'm very cold also.

But don't give up now. You have only one life.

There's more to life than meets the eye.

I'm sitting here the day after Christmas, watching Garden State. I'd have to say that it's not going to make my top 10 list. Anyway, as I said, it's the day after Christmas, and I've accentuated my fly fishing gear very nicely. We've racked up two new, water proof fly boxes, leaders, and a new fishing pack.

I bought the pack for myself with money we got from my Granmother. It's a very nice Orvis model with lots of pockets and compartments. I think this is going to be extremely handy when I finally get back out there. After I use it a couple of times, I'll write about it. The old one was a hunk of junk I got from work. It was a promotional item that held everything I needed and was functional, but I needed something with separate compartments and more flexibility.

I'm having an Ebay yardsale to try to raise some money and get some waders. I think I'm going to need them for the Conasauga. Not sure at this point when or where I'm going fishing next, but I'll let you know how it was.

Until then, buenos nachos.

I've been doing everything wrong

I haven't been fishing in forever. The plan is to go to Little Cedar Creek, which I found out is open year round for trout fishing, hopefully Christmas weekend, or the first Sunday in January.

I'm also working on a trip to the Conasauga River, in the Cohutta Wilderness area, for the spring. I'm not sure if I want to make this a daytrip, a weekend, or just go all out and do it for a week. Ken Bradshaw, of the Cohutta Chapter of TU has fished the area for many years and recommends doing a whole week there. But I'm not sure I'm up for it. Maybe it's just the cold, and maybe I'll be more enthusiastic when it gets warm, and when everything gets settled at work so I can start taking some weekends off.

Anyway, if anyone wants to go to Little Cedar Creek, that can fish, just let me know.

9/25/2010 The hole in the wall that you made with your elbow

Saturday, Sept 25 2010

On the banks of Little Cedar Creek in Cave Spring, GA, sits a small fishing village. Well, not really a fishing village, just a few extended stay cabins on the west side of town. I want give the exact location because it's not open to the public. Anyway, the fishing is excellent. I caught my first trout on a fly. My spinning rod is non-functional, so I didn't try it out there. This area is open wide on the one side of the creek, while the other is inaccessible brush. But one side's all you need.

I started out directing my casts under the overgrowth and floating under the tree limbs without much luck. As I moved my way down the creek, I hardly saw any fish at all except some bluegills along the opposite bank. But when I got down to the bend in the creek, where the water slows a bit, from where I was standing, I could see the rainbows hovering in the current. After a few casts, and getting the drift just right, they were all over my mayfly. I may have caught the same fish, but I caught him a dozen times, all eight inchers, and looking about the same.

I'm not sure if John's Creek is going to make the short list this year. Everything has been so busy lately and only two more, well this weekend is out, so one more chance, and then it's over. Next spring though, we'll be all over it. I've heard about some secret holes they've been stocking and I bet those fish will be big in the spring. Speaking of this weekend, Andy Bowen, owner of Cohutta Fishing Company,, has an intro to fly fishing, covering gear, necessities, and maybe a little casting out back, for free, which is sweet. It's from 9:30am to 11:30am at the store in Cartersville, on Main Street behind the Wachovia.

9/19/2010 I think the name of the band was Smallmouth Buffalo

Sunday, Sept 19 2010

Armuchee Creek, home to the elusive, if not downright, repugnant, ignorant, and uncatchable smallmouth buffalo, was teeming with fish this morning. Not much was biting but they were surely out there. I saw many shiny, silvery fish jumping in the deeper pools across the creek from me. I caught a few bream and had a larger fish escape me, then decided to get out my spincaster and shoot for those fish further away, as I have not mastered the art of shooting line yet. As I was casting out and up the creek to nail one of these little fish, I noticed right in front of me, 7 or 8 feet out, in three feet of water, a large fish in the 18-24 inch range. Until I got home and researched it, I thought the fish may be a rainbow due to the golden hue on it's back and sides. It turned out to be the smallmouth buffalo, which explains why I wasn't able to bring him in.

According to most of what I read about the smallmouth buffalo, they are very hard to catch. Being mostly bottom, filter feeders, it's hard to find a good bait that they'll strike. I found none. I drug four different spinner baits right under his nose. I sunk mayflies, grubs, and woolly boogers right in front of him while he taunted me for an hour and a half.

Trout season is counting down towards halloween, so I guess we'll start working on John's Creek and Cedar Creek the next few weeks. I scoped out Cedar Creek at Rolater Park tonight and only saw 3 or 4 riding the current. My spincaster is locked up, so there's lots of work to be done before next Sunday.

I must offer an amendment to this section, as, after further review, I believe the fish was a Golden Redhorse rather than the Smallmouth Buffalo. The Redhorse gives a slimmer profile like the fish I saw and is more common to the area, as well as matches the description of other fish I have seen in the creek over the years. I left the story with Smallmouth Buffalo, though, because it sounds cool. Like a Neil Young song.

9/12/2010 I don't think we're in Texas anymore Dorothy

Sunday, Sept 12 2010

This was probably my best fly-fishing day to date. I caught alot of fish and only lost one fly. I did catch a few trees, but not to worry, played right through it. Frustration didn't take hold as I fished four different locations.

Early in the morning, I started fishing at Ridge Ferry Park on some rocks jutting out into the Oostanaula, just upstream from the trestle. With the right bait, fishing could be good here. Streamers would be a good choice, however, the water is murky and there are lots of underwater obstacles. The river bed is littered with tree trunks, rocks, branches, trash, and any other fly-snagging items you can think of. The white bass seem to feed in this shallow area, I suppose on shad or darters, just about anytime of day. I have seen some large catfish and possibly a sturgeon around those rocks.

After a while, I decided to move on, so I went to the mud shoal behind the library. Not much to speak of here. A guy caught a catfish when I was climbing down to the river. He caught it on a chicken liver. If you're after the bottom feeders, then this could be your spot. Not mine though. I hate catfish.

I moved on from there and went to Armuchee Park to fish on the creek of the same name, around the swimming hole. This is a nice spot to fish. The water is crystal clear running and just a little murky in the deep standing pools. There are alot of fish to catch here, but be prepared to do some wading, as some of the spots aren't accessible from the steep bank. Wading to these spots means a foot or two of water, so not to bad. I didn't catch anything to speak of, but I will back with some good wading shoes.

The last spot I fished that day was the Hippy Hole on Big Texas Valley Road. I caught a feisty Red-Breasted Sunfish (Bream) under the bridge, and his girlfriend, and about 10 or 15 more in another hole downstream from there. It's very tight there, with low hanging branches and the creek is 10 to 15 feet wide in most spots. My leader is 9 feet so there is a low margin of error. It's quite nice though with a mountain stream feel, just a few yards off the road. I finally caught my fly in a tree branch bad enough that I couldn't shake loose. I pulled the limb down to where I could almost grab it and the leader broke. After searching through the tree to find the fly, I couldn't bear to lose, having caught two dozen fish on, I finally saw it on the bottom of the creek. A few minutes of delicate trolling with a long stick and the fly was back in my possession. And my day was done.