The honeymoon and getting settled.

So I'm back from the honeymoon in Naples, Fl (no, not Italy).  It was a great week with the weather and temperature about as perfect as you can get for end of July in Florida.  I was told (without me evening having to ask) that my fly rod would not be allowed on our honeymoon.  I didn't put up a fight knowing that I don't want to start out the marriage on the wrong foot.  Not going to lie though, there were several instances where I was biting at the bit to run down to the Naples fly shop and by an 8 wt.  On that subject, Mangrove Outfitters is a very nice fly shop and I did drop some money on there fly tying section.  One of the best fly tying material shops I have been to in the south.  Owner was very friendly and will hopefully be back armed with a fly rod in hand.  Enough chat, here are some pictures.

The Resort:

Our Resort

Twenty feet from the hotel to the beach.

Some of the activities:

So what, I consider napping an activity.

Parisailing

Yes, I did get crabs on my honeymoon (pun intended)

Lots of this!



Sunsets and random pics:

That there is an awesome dolphin shot.

Florida Fighing Conch. 

Huge moth.

Got back to Virginia on a Friday and spent all Saturday and Sunday getting settled in.

Yes I did claim a section of our room.

Messing around with material I got in Florida.

My wife's (still not use to saying wife) dog also claimed a part of the couch.

Feels good to be back.

Thanks for reading!

Will be on a small hiatus.

I'm getting hitched this weekend and will be on my honeymoon down in south south Florida next week.  I have been told I am not allowed to take my fly rod and it shall about nearly kill me.  I will be minutes from bonefish, tarpon, redfish....I need to stop the list there because a pool of drool is forming on my keyboard.  Oh well, I know there will be another time to fish down there.  See ya'll in about a week and a half.

Insert me holding on to fly rod. 

Warmwater Photo Dump

Here is a photo dump from the past couple days. These first couple are pictures from a local pond.  Nothing big but still fish on a fly and this is a fly fishing blog so enjoy.

Also, all weekend I've been moving into my new apartment.  Lovin having a pond a short walk from my apartment.  My soon to be sister in law wanted to go fishing so her mom bought her the infamous barbie rod at Walmart.  She's funny though and had a blast catching her first fish.

Her smile she is working on.

I even got to fish a little in between casting her barbie rod for her. You can see how short of a walk it is from the apartment buildings to the pond. I'm going to love it here.

Cool sunset to wrap up the report.

Thanks for reading.

Brookie Fast Over

Been about a month since I've been able to go brookie fishing.  WAY TOO LONG!  100+ degree weather and no rain made wild trout a no go in the small streams.  With all the rain and the cold front we've had in VA, yesterday I figured it would be safe for an after work quick trip.  Got to the stream and it was still low.  Rain must be hit and miss in the mountains.

Here is a picture of what the stream looked like a month ago after a little bit of rain.

Here is what the stream looked like yesterday.

Lowest I've seen it.  Water was cold though and the brook trout seemed to be doing good.  Some of the pools still held a lot of water.  Caught about 6 and missed few.  Not a badly spent hour.  Some marginal clouds drove me off the stream early.  On my way back down the mountain I decided to try a stretch 200 yards down from where I normally fish and every pool was chucked full of of creek chub.  Kinda strange considering 200 yards upstream I have never seen or caught a creek chub, yet a little ways down stream there are about 50 in every pool.

Love huge caravans in the mountains.  Nothing like driving 25 mph in a 45.....

And there was the hold up.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be on a small trout stream again soon...that is if the mountains get some rain!

Smallies in the HEAT!

Today is supposed to get up to 101 degrees in VA so that means fishing for smallies.  They were very stubborn today though!  Did catch about a dozen smallmouth and also caught tons of fall fish and panfish.  Felt good to be in the river though, but after five hours I had enough of this heat.

Buddies Smallie

Big dead sucker

Not a bad morning.  Thanks for reading, oh and I miss trout :(

Storm and Warmwater Week

With how hot it has been, I have given the brookies a break and been catching a lot of these:

So back tracking to Friday night, I was in Roanoke with my fiancee's family.  We all were in the pool when the storm sweep through and it was the worst non hurricane storm I've ever experienced.  They recorded 81 mph wind gust at the Roanoke Airport.  Here is a picture of some trees that went down in her yard.

Spent all Saturday morning and afternoon cutting down trees and chopping wood at her house and her grandparents house.  Cleaned up there yard and pool as well and was done around dinner.  After dinner I went down to the river at a spot a friend informed me of and fished for about an hour before I had enough of the heat. 

Also got to enjoy a wild blackberry pie.

Left Roanoke around 7 pm Sunday to get back to my apt in Lynchburg to find out I don't have power!  Talk about a warm welcome.  My refrigerator was rank!  Luckily one of my friends had power and let me crash at his place.  My work was out of power as well I did not have to go in Monday (SCORE!).  Ended up getting power at my place around 4 pm Monday and all is returning back to normal.  Looking forward to some 4th of July festivities!

Thanks for reading and keep cool out there!