Fur, feathers, trout, and lasers

July 4th weekend observation: Kyle Petty rips off Ice T's look

2010-07-03T20:05:00.005-04:00

Barney Frank on NPR's Morning Edition: Priceless discourse

2008-11-19T08:51:00.009-05:00

I have been utterly moved this morning to come out of my blogging seclusion to comment on a recurring piece of sheer entertainment on National Public Radio's Morning Edition (NPR ME). Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) is the current chair for the House Financial Services Committee--an extremely busy and high profile post in current times. As such, he is continually working image control on the 'bailouts' that began with AIG, continued through much of the financial sector, and now are focused on the US auto industry. My comments here are completely a-political, rather my goal is to make sure anyone who reads this takes at least a moment to listen to one of these interviews! As the title uses the word, I reiterate: priceless.

Rep. Frank cannot help himself but to fill every second of each of these interviews with his opinionated and assertive blather; but I cannot help but listen. There is no interviewer necessary. The first such discourse I heard was 'moderated' by ME's Renee Montagne. Frank took the opportunity to deliver a speech regarding the importance of the government's 'investment' into the financial sector. Throughout the interview, he refused to be interrupted by Ms. Montagne in her attempts to guide the discussion, question Frank's arguments, or request clarification. When she finally gained Mr. Frank's attention for such a request, the interview slipped off into oblivion as the representative continued to clarify his point into the next break. The second intervew was similar and Mr. Frank continued to talk as Ms. Montagne proclaimed as loudly as she could that they were out of time.

This morning I nearly spat my coffee onto the dash of the car when I heard that Montagne's co-host Steve Innskeep would interview Frank. Montagne and Innskeep must have formed a gameplan in the wee hours of the morning and decided that Innskeep was the man to carry it out. The interview followed a familiar format, with Innskeep asking a specific question and Frank replying with an encompassing essay with opinionated and conjecturing supporting statements. As you may have already surmised, there are no conclusions in Frank's verbal essays. Toward the end of the interview, Innskeep managed to get Frank to hush up long enough for "one last question, and we only have a few seconds for your response". Frank quickly piped up, before the question had even been posed, "well, you'd better not make it complicated if I only have a few seconds [sic]because I need time to respond to these things...." Innskeep could no longer control himself and burst out into what must have been simmering laughter that was finally brought to a boil after a morning's worth of preparations for this gem of an interview.

You may listen to the most recent interview on NPR's website by clicking the link here: NPR's 11.19.2008 interview with Rep. Barney Frank

This article is not attended as an endorsement of any political ideology, party, or representative. It is, however, intended as an endorsement of NPR's Morning Edition and their continuing interview series with Rep. Frank.

Poor Francis Rags to Riches Best in Show Lowe

2008-01-14T20:21:00.000-05:00

In early 2007 PFRRBSL (top left), or Frankie as she is known around the house, was living a tough life under the pseudonym Isabelle (or Izzy) at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Christiansburg, VA. Lucky for her, the Friends of the shelter had her best interests in mind for finding her a new home.

In February and March 2007, our tongue-in-cheek comments on getting a second dog turned more serious (as that kind of repetitive joking tends to do). We became convinced that our other beagle, Billie (full name: Billie Jean Is Not My Lover Run for the Roses Lowe) was in severe need of a canine companion--and what better companion for a beagle than another beagle. Natasha began window shopping the area shelter websites for young beagles that may still have the hope to be 'trained' for the lush indoor life that Billie had been enjoying for more than 2 years at that point. Of 'pure-bred' dogs, beagles may be the most common to wind up in shelters (no reference given here, so treat it as conjecture) for various reasons which have perhaps already been discussed in the well-received blog entry here. As we soon found out, if you want a beagle you can probably find one (or more) in your local shelter.

Natasha was still working at Montgomery Regional Hospital at that time and before going to work one weekend asked me to call area shelters about the dogs that they had. I called the Montgomery County shelter and mentioned that I was a beagle owner and was looking for a buddy for our 34lb 2 year old female. The lady with whom I spoke mentioned that she would pass my information immediately on to the local beagle rescue (not sure if this is a formal or informal organization) about our request for a second companion. Later that Saturday night, I had a call from Kim from beagle rescue telling me that she had the dog for us. I told her more details about Billie and she invited Natasha and me to the dog walk on Sunday, even though the shelter was closed that day.

We arrived not long after noon on Sunday, and was greeted by Kim and two of the other Friends of the shelter who introduced us to Frankie. She was a ragged-looking, excited dog who was dwarfed by Billie's 'barrel-chested' physique. There is a wonderful fenced playing area that allowed us to see how Frankie and Billie would tolerate each other.

In their first meeting, Frankie was playful and Billie responded excitedly. They ran several laps around the enclosed area, and then I tested Frankie to see how she responded to commands and people in general. She picked up quickly on the basics and came equipped with sit and her favorite to this day, turn-around. She really knew how to put on a good show for adoption day, which pleasantly surprised Kim, who knew how timid Frankie really is.

We could not possibly say no to taking Frankie home. She had failed at two other adoptions before ours, apparently for barking too much. Our guess is that she was put on a tie-out and left there, where almost no beagle would last too long before driving an owner batty with the barking. We asked Kim to get the paperwork started, and commenced the process of adopting Frankie. We filled out the approximately 10 lines of information and then was asked for the $10 adoption fee. For some reason, we did not have any cash (no surprise to my dad, I am sure); so I told them, hold on Wachovia is 2 miles away, I'll be back. As I walked out to the car another Friend came jogging after me, "There's no reason for you drive to get the money, come on back in and we'll get you fixed up." Kim told me, as I reentered the shelter, "We just want to make sure that folks are willing to make a commitment, and you obviously know how to take care of Billie and are familiar with beagles." We left that day with Frankie and a great deal of gratitude for the Friends. Later that month we made a donation to the shelter to cover her adoption fee and to become Friends ourselves.

To our great fortune, Frankie is a wonderful dog. In addition to sit and turn-around, she came house trained and is still better trained than Billie in those respects. We are most-thankful to have the opportunity to host Frankie in our home, and look forward to spending the years with her.

'Off the hook' Appearance

2007-09-26T23:30:00.000-04:00

Big Ed, host of 'Off the Hook' of WWBU 101.7FM (http://www.oth247.com/) in Fairlawn, VA was kind enough to invite me to represent NRVTU in an interview on his 9/26/2007 show. This was a ton of fun, and Big Ed hosted an good interview. I discussed the need to be mindful toward our cold-water resources, noting that trout cannot survive in water hotter than 70deg.F for extended periods. We talked about what was going on at NRVTU, especially the camping trip coming up, and discussed ways for people to get involved with trout fishing for wild specimens. Overall, this was a wonderful experience, and Big Ed has invited me to come back on and talk about techniques later this fall. Certainly nymphing will be the thing to discuss, as fall waters cool down and sub-surface activities heat up.

www.nrvtu.org

2007-09-26T23:29:00.000-04:00

Seriously, go check out http://www.nrvtu.org/!

Nissan selling junk

2007-08-14T20:01:00.000-04:00

After our 2002 Nissan Altima had been burning oil for a couple of years, I decided to check on the issue. Unfortunately, this is common among owners. And Nissan has been thoroughly evasive about resolving it. Until this day, I would recommend this vehicle to anyone; but reading this commonality among owners, I must discourage Nissan ownership. Before, I saw this as an inconvenience that required us to put a quart of oil in our car every 700miles; but I now realize that it is only a matter of time before our car's engine fails. And this has been a known problem that has been actively avoided by the manufacturer.

New River Valley Trout Unlimited

2007-05-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

NRVTU has a new site: http://www.nrvtu.org/

Virginia Tech

2007-04-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

The Hokie Nation has received wonderful support from so many. Each one of us has experienced the compassion of friends, family, and strangers that has served enormous comfort during this difficult time. It is utterly remarkable the amount of genuine concern that has been expressed to even those like me, who were not even on campus during the event. None I have spoken with have any doubt about the future recovery of this great institution.

South Fork Holston, March 24-25, 2007

2007-03-26T12:32:00.000-04:00

My dad and I were lucky enough to be able to take a Southwest Virginia adventure last weekend. I called him up on Friday to ask if he would be interested in camping somewhere on Saturday, and it took no amount of convincing to get a 'yeah, that sounds pretty good' from him. With my perpetually busy weekends while a student, we have not been able to take one of these trips for as long as I can remember, so this one was a real treat.

The weekend started as usual with a couple of issues, namely that we had no sleeping bags and no tent. Well, of course I have a tent that my parents bought N and I for Christmas, but in my haste to get out the door on Saturday morning from Blacksburg it was left in the closet. Anyway, my folks had a tent as well, but it happened to be in the attic of the house that they moved from last year. To make a long story short there, I was able to get up with my cousin who now lives there and retrieve the tent although we had to do it without him present...

It was about 5:30pm when my dad and I piled all our gear and ourselves into his Chevy S-10 pickup, looking like gypsies living out the back of the thing with trash bags of bedding supplies protruding from the top of the truck bed. Did I mention that we did not have sleeping bags? More on that later.

So, we took off a few minutes before 6pm with plans on fishing the South Fork of the Holston River in Smyth County before dark. Now may be a good time to introduce the map (you may click on it to biggie size it):
In this map, our tour on Saturday is shown in a thick black line, while our Sunday adventure is the red line.

Our trip started and ended in beautiful Cedar Bluff, VA (1 and 8 on the map above). We had studied the trusty DeLorme Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer for a good half an hour before taking off since neither of us had fished the trout portion of S. Fork Holston before this trip and therefore did not know exactly how to get there. We knew step one for sure, go to Chilhowie.

Now my dad had talked to folks about getting there and he knew "you just go to Chilhowie and turn at the flashing light and follow the road up the river." Well, it turned out that this description was not entirely inaccurate except the 'just' in it. From the time we got to Saltville, north of Chilhowie, I meticulously continued to study the map to figure out how to get to that elusive flashing light that of course did not appear on the map. As Whitetop Road passed by Shuler Hollow Rd., then Old Airport Rd., we knew we were on the right track. Then at the bottom of the hill, the yellow flashing lights appeared, just before Whitetop Road crossed a river, the S. Fork of the Holston River.

The left at the light put us well on our way and before long we pulled into the Buller Fish Cultural Station that we sought to fish (2 on the map). It was now about 7:15pm, so time was of the essence if we were to get any good fishing in. Oh, and where were we going to camp anyway? Obviously not at Buller.

The hatchery has a little dam in the S. Fork at the head of the land where a 500ft section of river is managed as put and take. Just below the dam is a 1/2mile section of catch and release trophy trout water that is managed by stocking fingerling trout with presumably some natural reproduction occurring as well. I quickly unpacked my rod and headed straight for the special regulation area, while my dad grabbed his to see how the dam was fishing.

The first thing I noticed as I approached the stream just below the dam was a definite hatch occurring. In my haste to fish, I did not identify the small insects, but in my memory they were size #14-16 dark colored mayflies, possibly Hendrickson's or even Blue-winged Olives (with an over-estimated size in my memory) but not necessarily. I did not fish the hole just below the dam, theorizing that it was overfished anyway, but headed downstream to the next nice pocket. I found a nice deep run that I just knew had to hold a fish and began casting to it with an ugly double beadhead bug that Steve at Tangent Outfitters had shown me the week before. It was good and heavy so that the bug would penetrate the healthy but not overwhelming current.

On my third or fourth cast, I was astonished to see a trout rise just a foot or so from where I was casting. Now, in the brook trout streams I frequent I would have already caught or missed that fish, but in the semi-technical and semi-big water at S. Fork, this fish could rightfully possess an affinity for holding a rise lane. I casted again, trying to find the right current to drift the bug right by the previous rise, without a take. I tried again with the same result. I may have given up in usual brookie fishing conditions, but decided to give another try, and when my fly line paused slightly in the current, I quickly stripped the slack with my right hand (I fish left handed) and felt the weight and surge of a trout. This fish fought strongly, but not with the strength of one of the 3 pounders that are rumored to haunt this section of stream. I quickly played him, but knew I needed some proof of the catch; so I fumbled around with getting my camera out of its pouch to photograph the fish. As it neared me, I could not have been more pleased with the rainbow as it flashed its brilliant red cheeks and dark spots my way. It was immediately clear that if this fish was not stream bred, it had been a resident for a while. The two photos I took:

Later in the trip, I was able to land a few other rainbows, but none of them had the beautiful markings of this one. It was clear looking at this fish in person and even in the photograph that its beautiful spots and natural coloring serve a definite purpose in camouflaging the fish from the would-be avian predators (I saw a great blue heron there the next day). In contrast, the recently stocked fish also have spots but lack the warmth of color while their spots appear to be there due to an obligation to the Maker. It amazes me to see the effect that nature has on these creatures.

As I brought the fish to hand, I was able to keep it in the water to release it, but did grasp it with a wet hand. The fish was firm and stout with quite a girth for its 13" length.
I ventured downstream after that catch looking for similar runs and believing that the last 30 minutes of daylight would be spent in trout heaven. I came upon a nice set of runs that would take some time to fish properly and hopped into the water. To my disappointment, the bugs that swarmed around the leeside of the dam were absent. And so were the strikes. I caught no more fish that evening.

I walked back to the truck and asked my dad about his luck. He had one good bite, but no takers. After casting a couple of times in the slow water, we hopped in the truck with an appetite.

We needed a bite to eat and a place to stay, so we headed toward Marion via Sugar Grove (3 on the map). The same road that appeared at the flashing lights took us straight there and we turned left onto Route 16 toward Marion. It was 8:15pm when we passed a 'Bed and Breakfast' in Sugar Grove called the Sugar Grove Restaurant and Lodging. We walked up to the open door of the rustic-styled dinning room and asked if we were too late for a bite to eat. They welcomed us in with the warning that they could do everything but chicken and steak--they didn't tell us that they were out of cole slaw then, though. This place turned out to be a real gem of an eatery, with entrees that cost about $5 and delicious home cooking. Indeed, the establishment had won the best home-style restaurant in Smyth County for three years running. I got the special of the day, homemade pork BBQ, that had a flavor I had not tasted before that was achieved by the addition of either ham or bacon to the usual Boston Butt-style meat. My dad's pintos must have been pretty good because we both left with a smile.

As we left the restaurant, we decided it was worth a shot at getting lodging there--wimp out of the camping trip--but some missionaries had taken all the rooms that night so we were out of luck. I hopped in the truck to find some National Forest land on the map to set up camp, but my dad soon said that 'we would head on over to Camp', 'back to one of his old haunts' (4 on the map). I feel as though those are exact quotes, but I did not record them, so I cannot be for certain. Anyway, I did not know about 'Camp', but quickly found it on the map. I began to give my dad directions, when he interrupted me that he knew where he was now so that I could just relax.

We turned right at the big barn in Camp, as my dad had mentioned before and headed up a dirt road. We finally reached National Forest and found a roadside camping spot with a great little plot right on beautiful Middle Creek that followed the road. My dad mentioned that this was a place he would come with friends and family to hunt at the base of Iron Mountain.
We pulled out the tent that had been in the attic for several years and began to blunder with putting it up. It is grotesquely cliche to describe the imbecility of two men putting up a tent, so I will be brief: 1. We put it up with the tent inside out, 2. We put the poles on the inside when they should go on the outside. We left it at 2. Then we opened our trash bag of bedding and stretched out on the bed rolls.

Not long after we began to rest, my dad said that "it's almost too warm for a blanket but too cold not to use one." Those words were true at the moment, but the crystal clear sky of the evening foretold of the change that was to occur. Well, it did not get too cold, but the lack of foresight in packing the proper bedding would make it plenty cold enough. With just one blanket a piece, we both tossed and turned the night away trying to bundle tighter. I am certain that the blanket I used breathed with every movement or breeze that entered the tent. Even worse, if I stretched it tighter, it breathed deeper.

We made it through the night sans sleep. It was a wonderfully peaceful night, with the only traffic coming as one truck passed while we were fumbling with the tent, but a little sleep would not have hurt. I got up at 5:30am to fix some salmon cakes with the canned salmon and crackers we had packed from home, when my dad asked "you aren't planning on making a fire are you?"
"Well, I was going to..."
"No, let's not do that..."
And then we were packing up and moving on.

We headed back to Sugar Grove to find some gas and eats, but nothing was open just yet; so we headed on up Rt. 16 to Marion (5 on the map). After grabbing some gas and a couple of biscuits and spilling a cup of coffee in the store, we were headed south again towards S. Fork. We got to Buller (6 on the map) with perfect timing, just before sunrise. I hopped in the river to fish the hole right below the dam and my dad casted out into the slow water above it. I foul-hooked and caught one 9 incher that still had the look of a stocker and headed back up to where my dad was fishing. He had caught one by that time and had seen a couple others caught. We decided to stay another hour there before venturing on.

Walking past the huge culturing ponds at Buller, I was looking for a prime stretch of the S. Fork to fish thoroughly. I hate to admit it, but the stretch I chose was one that had been channelized by slabs of concrete on the far bank. This stretch had it all, though, save beautiful riparian flora. There were swift runs, slow pools, and plunges--all my usual trout habitat pre-requisites. I fished this section fairly well, and was pleased to get several rises to a #16 black ant and caught two of those. Both were small and one was tiny. Its markings indicated that indeed the state does manage this stretch of the fishery by stocking fingerling trout.

I walked the 1/4mile back up to the dam to see if my dad was ready to hang it up. He had not caught any more but had lost a nice one on a meal worm that he found laying on the ground. We got back in the S-10 to head on out.

My dad knew that Rural Retreat Lake pond (7 on the map) was stocked a couple of days before and since it was kind of on our way, we decided to try it out. We headed back past Sugar Grove and by Cedar Springs until we reached the pond. I put on a stocker-favorite and began casting to the very muddy water. There were several people there fishing, probably as many as 25, which is a good number for a pond that is 200ft by 400ft in dimensions. I caught my second trout of the day by foul hooking soon after we arrived and tossed him on a stick against my dad's recommendation. I told him that there was no way I tried to snag the fish and so I did not understand the purpose of releasing it.

After that, I tied on a dropper fly that looks like a wax worm and immediately began getting hits. My dad found some corn on the ground and dropped it below a bobber with the same results. I believe that he was getting bites from trout, but my elusive bites turned out to be crappie. This was not so bad, since the one I actually landed was a good 5 1/2-6", but it was nothing for the skillet.

As we headed out, a game warden came around to check our licenses and creels. He noticed our gypsy-pack and asked if we had been camping the night before and where--in particular, he wanted to know if we had camped at Rural Retreat Lake. My dad told him we had camped at Camp to which the warden replied that it was a nice night for it. True enough, it sure was, but my dad said "well, it was a little chilly."

I piped up to say that it would have been great, if we had sleeping bags.
The warden seemed at a loss for a moment that we did not have sleeping bags. Even in my sleepy haze, this was amusing.

After that we headed back to Cedar Bluff via I-81 to Wythville to I-77 to Bastian, down through Grapefield. We hopped on Rt. 61 and were back where we started in another 45 minutes.
All-in-all, a great trip. I spent much of the rest of Sunday at a BBQ at my wife's grandparents and groggily played outside with my 7 year old niece. As for the fish, I grilled them in aluminum foil but had no takers--I wonder if they were eaten later. Later, my mom fixed a very nice dinner for the family and my wife drove us home. I don't remember that drive.

This week, I had one big priority--order a sleeping bag. It arrived on Thursday.

More poppers!

2007-03-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

An orange/red pencil popper. These Sharpie colors will blend nicely:

A brook trout pattern:A green pattern:All the eyes were done with a RoseArt ColorSharp metallic gold marker with black Sharpie for the pupil.

Little Stony heating up!

2007-03-23T14:16:00.000-04:00

After a friend at Tangent Outfitters told a couple of guys and me about the large natives he caught the day before, a fellow TU'er and I headed up the road in Pembroke to try out Little Stony yesterday. This stream is a regional favorite and when given the chance to fish it on a weekday when fishing and hiking pressure is low, I have to jump at the opportunity. Unfortunately, neither my friend or me had much time to fish, but that didn't seem to matter. In about a half an hour of fishing, I managed to pull out three fish--two wild rainbows and a native brookie--on a #12 brown hare's ear beadhead. I fished about four holes in the lower section by the parking lot, so not a bad haul. None of the fish were large, one of the rainbows may have gone 6", but they were beautiful, strong, and healthy. In particular, the brookie was a parr but was colored as brilliantly as a spawning adult in many other streams around. All-in-all, very fortunate to cast a line for a short while before dark, and catching some beauts was a true pleasure.

North Fork of Big Stony Creek: Zug Bug blues

2007-03-04T10:58:00.000-05:00

As promised, I have news about using the Zug Bug in some early season conditions on the North Fork of Big Stony Creek in Giles County, VA. Unfortunately, there is no good news to tell. The creek was running high, as expected after significant rains that fell this past week along with the melt-off of a larger-than-average ice pack that accumulated through February. This section of stream has been defined in the past by its beaver dams; but on this trip, we found only one such dam intact and others that had been washed out to leave apparently sterile sections of the stream. From my research on the matter, beaver dams are great for the first 3-5 years since they give a few fish a large amount of habitat and food as the young pond develops, yielding large fish. Unfortunately, brook trout have a terrible habit of over-population that causes the later generations to be stunted in their growth due to food competition and the inability of the mature pond to produce the same amount of trout food as a normal stretch of river would contain. The result is smaller fish and a gradual warming of the stream due to the slow moving water. With that being said, one beautiful day in the summer of 2004, a friend and I saw and caught some beautiful fish in the beaver dams on North Fork.

I was originally very disturbed by the North Fork trip. My friend and I saw not a peep of a trout, and as far as lesser beings, only a crawfish...I thought. I kept flipping rocks looking for nymphs and saw only a few very small worm-like (probably some sort of midge) nymphs a lots of long (2-7mm), strange triangular cross-section, immobile creatures. I was not impressed by the former and was convinced that the latter were some trash organism come in to claim the nearly dead stream. But after a discussion at the monthly TU meeting, a more benign identification was obtained. Turns out most-likely to be an American Grannom, Brachycentrus numerosus, or the ubiquitous green caddisfly. These are noted by Dick Pobst in his short guide Trout Stream Insects as 'second in importance nationwide' of the caddisflies (second only to the little black caddis Chimarra aterrima).

In conclusion, it was a bad fishing day with possibly some bad angling going on. However, the day was beautiful, the stream and country were also as such, and my friend and I had a' good time' bushwacking through the laurels. The brightest spot of the day was giving a very short lesson to my friend on his first attempt at fly fishing and seeing him take to it like he was born with a fly rod in hand. It makes me look forward to a wild trout season to share with new folks who have an interest in the beauty of the creatures, outdoors and the sport.

Fly of the day! Zug Bug

2007-03-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

To continue the 'fly of the day' series, let's look at one of the most-recognized flies of today: the zug bug. This is another of the impressionistic flies (almost all that I fish are as such) so that it does not look like any real bug, but kind of like a lot of them. The popularity and success of this fly has been attributed in part to the liberal use of peacock herl for most of the fly. As natural materials go, peacock herl is as near candy to trout's (or panfish's) eyes as it gets. Its shiny, detailed, iridescent, and just looks like something tasty to them.

Now I have to come a little bit clean on this fly. I cannot remember if I have ever caught anything on it before. But the fact that I may be ostracized by the fly-fishing community for admitting that is, to me, an indicator that it deserves a place in my box and in the 'fly of the day' series. I will try one out tomorrow and report back as to whether my experience with this fly has changed. Who knows, the early season brookies may have an eye for gratuitous herl.

Zug Bug

Hook: #10-#14
Tail: Several strands of peacock herl
Body: Several strands of peacock herl
Ribbing: Silver wire or tinsel
Wing case: Soft hackle used here, just about anything will work.

As far as I know, you can fish this guy like a nymph or an emerger. We will see if I gain any insight on how the Zug Bug fishes tomorrow.

Fly of the day! Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

2007-02-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

After a long hiatus in the fly of the day series, we return today with one of the best in my box, Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly. This is another of the patterns developed by Harry Murray of Virginia fly fishing fame. The pattern is an excellent general dry fly pattern that is nearly guaranteed to produce on mountain trout streams. It does a nice job of imitating the March Brown mayfly and is an excellent search pattern. Best of all, the yellow hair wing is easily visible from as far as I can cast and does not blend in with flotsam as a white wing may. The fly is heavily hackled, and with the additional floatation provided by the hair wing and tail it will ride rough currents almost like a cork. I fish this fly in sizes #12-#16 from March to November.

Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

Hook: Dry fly hook #12-#16
Thread: Brown or black
Tail: Black deer or moose hair
Wing: Yellow-died calf's tail, split to form separate wings (see below)
Body: Light brown natural dubbing (hare's ear pictured) mixed with sulfur superfine dubbing
Hackle: Heavily hackle using coachman brown hackle and grizzly hackle.

Little Stony Creek: Cascades Rec Area, 17 Feb 2007

2007-02-17T19:14:00.000-05:00

With the cold temps and frozen precip of late, the conditions have made the well-known hike along Little Stony Creek in Giles County a wintertime treat. Equipped with our traction-enhancing slip-over-the-shoe chains, the treacherous trail was passable.

There were lots of folks there who did not have the experience of hiking this trail in the icy winter and paid the price by falling or resorting to hiking very, very slowly to avoid the fall. Natasha and I were particularly astonished at one 'hiker' just getting started who was wearing her designer hole-in-the-knee jeans and high heel boots. I can only imagine how far she made it up the two-mile long trail before turning around.

For those resilient enough, the views of the 60ft falls at the top of the trail were astounding. As we reached that point, a light snow began to fall and made the scene even more picturesque. The entire landscape is a sight to see, and the pictures below do not do it full justice.

Great read: Marley and Me

2007-02-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading a book by John Grogan of the Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled Marley & Me: life and love with the world's worst dog. It is obvious why this book has resonated with so many people, just as it did with me--it tells a story of an unconditional love so many of us have experienced with four-legged friends and it does so in a style that was totally endearing to this reader.

John (after reading this very personal story, I feel like I am on a first-name basis) tells the story of how a family was formed around an irrepressible force of a 96lb Yellow Lab named Marley. Despite everything that he (and myself up until reading this book) had read and heard prior to getting Marley that Labs were the best-behaved, most-tractable, brightest, most-obedient family dog, Marley stands as a glaring example of how these labels may be over-stated.

I particularly empathize with that facet, as I experienced the same mis-information before adopting our beloved beagle, Billie. Everywhere I looked when I thought about getting a beagle, folks were talking about their gentle, lazy, good nature that makes them one of America's favorite family dogs. Unfortunately, I got one whose entire puppyhood was dedicated to sinking her teeth into any and everything. OK, so this is not so unusual for a puppy; but with Billie, everything included our hands, wrists, legs, ankles, pant-legs, and worst of all, the soft skin on the underside of my arms (or in the case of the photo above, my Mom's). When Billie was about 4 months old, she still had many of her baby teeth and I had nightmares of those needle-like protuberances sinking into my prone skin. In one of these night-time episodes, I woke up my wife to help me rummage through the bed sheets to look for a 'baby alligator' that I was certain had breeched the safety of our bedroom. When I 'snapped out of it', I realized that it was only the apprehensions of the previous weeks of relentless attacks on all my extremities that had triggered this reptilian to visit my dreams.

Marley's story is incredibly touching, amusing, and real on many fronts. John framed the emotions of having such a disobedient but constant companion in a most-succinct way that I will not forget for some time. As one of his chapters described the bad dog support group that came as a result to his journalistic ode to Marley's impact on the Grogan family, I also sensed this same support that came just from hearing his well-told story. Excellent read.

Photos: Top, Billie as a puppy attacking me for the camera. Middle, Billie attacking my mother in that particularly painful area I spoke about above. Below, Billie giving her new toy Frisbee hell with the spirit of Cerberus driving her actions. Bottom, Billie struggling with 'dominance issues' with my sister.

Rock Castle Creek: Great bugs, where were the trout?

2007-01-27T21:45:00.000-05:00

I just took my first trip to Rock Castle Creek in Patrick County, Virginia today. My friend and I chose to head down that way on a beautiful 55degF January day to see the wild trout of this stream. Unfortunately, the trout had other plans, as the best we turned up was a spotting I made of a somewhat lethargic 7 incher that, upon spotting me, ambled from a slack hole to the shelter of a nearby rock. Throughout the afternoon, though, I spent nearly as much time fishing as I did turning over rocks in the stream looking for other fauna. I was impressed with each rock I picked up to see a plethora of creatures scurrying to get to the other side. There was an entire spectrum of sizes of mayfly nymphs from tiny (let's say #26) to about #12, a few caddis larvae, and plenty of stone fly nymphs. The first rock I flipped even had a freshwater shrimp (is this called a scud in this case??). I was particularly impressed to see a very large stone fly nymph under each of the reasonably large-sized rocks that I flipped. These bugs would have been a real treat for any hungry trout, at sizes of #8-#10 by my estimates.

Seeing all the great aquatic insect (and crustacean) life made me really wonder where the trout were. I can only guess that the recent two weeks of actual winter weather had really slowed down the feeding action. It was my hope that today's warm temps would have the trout up and going, but apparently the ice storm that struck last week had waited until today to melt off and leach 32degF water into the otherwise warming stream. Well, all for the better, these fish will have no hope if August brings 75degF water temps; so I guess for now, the best thing to do is to be happy with a chance trout spotting and dream of the March Browns when they hatch.

Self-improvement

2007-01-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

My wife is always adamant that I plan and pack ahead of any significant event involving travel. Well, for me a significant event can be as insignificant as half-day fishing trip.

Now to plan for the trip, no problem. I know enough about places around and have spoken to people about where to go, what to take, etc. to be ready. The problem is the actual execution of the plan in terms of the 'packing' or in this case preparing.

When it comes to fishing, there is a danger for me of beginning this too far in advance. No, I don't mean days or weeks in advance, but even the night before. Despite my terrible proclivity to forget vital items when packing for say, a trip to Europe, I pack for fishing with a meticulousness not known to most other facets of my life. Every little piece of equipment has the potential to be improved--frayed leaders; not enough #14 royal Humpies; out of #6 tippet; clean the fly line; grease the reel; the list goes on. If I begin to address any one of these the night before, it could snowball into a 4 hour affair that may include a trip to –GASP- WalMart before it is all over. I have found, however, that if I refuse to think about these things, I can for the most part just throw together what I usually use, hop in the car and go. Certainly, I catch just as many fish as when I extensively prepare the night before; and I spare myself the disappointment that comes with the build-up of excitement during the preparations.

This year, I am trying the mature fly-fishing method instead. I have read of those who handle their lists of to-do’s for gear improvement throughout the winter as therapy for the lack of time actually fishing. It’s not easy for a night-before’er, but I figured it is worth a try. So far this year, I’ve handled an astonishing amount of these preparations at a snail’s pace. For instance, I will tie three or four flies several nights a week and this will adequately stock my fly box soon, at least for the undiscriminating brookies I love to catch (I’m putting off tying those tiny flies needed for a trip to a place like Smith River in Henry County, Virginia known for its scholarly brown trout). For the first time in memory, I cleaned my fly lines. There’s still more to do, but I still have some time. Yes, this is the way to go; and here’s hoping that I remember that next winter.

HCRI Roanoke Area Practice Group

2007-01-21T11:07:00.000-05:00

I attended the intensive Hollins Fluency System (HFS) course in April of 2006 to improve the fluency of my speech, and the results have absolutely changed my outlook on life! In the two weeks span before attending HCRI and finishing the course, I went from uncomfortable in nearly every speaking situation to being confident and fluent in every situation. I am happy to say that I have relasped very little since, including increasing my speaking situations enormously in public speaking engagements and numerous 'cold' phone calls for building our business (Applied University Research, Inc.).

Many mutual thanks go to the attendees of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI) Roanoke Area Practice Group that met Saturday, January 20 at HCRI. This was the first Roanoke practice group that has convened since my attendance of the course, and it was a great experience to share thoughts and sharpen 'targets' with fellow HCRI'ers. Through only three HCRI functions (the HFS, the 2006 phonathon, and this practice group meeting), I have met some of the most-remarkable people in all walks of life. I am amazed about the number of shared perceptions and experiences that we all have; its like instantly meeting friends you never knew you had!

I would certainly recommend the HFS to anyone serious about improving their fluency and reducing the amount they stutter. The system addresses the root causes of stuttering--the biomechanics of speaking, not the psychological issues that may accompany disfluency. By doing this, you are given actual tools for improving your fluency--you can control it! If you have specific questions about attending the system, you may contact me directly. Otherwise, feel free to visit the HCRI website and contact the fine professionals there.

Pseudoscorpions!!

2007-01-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

My wife discovered a most-curious 'bug' the other day crawling around on a pillow case in our house. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it and we both went through a couple of reactions. First, the creature was tiny, flat, and it clearly had eight legs--so instantly we thought we were dealing with a tick. Its body was very robust-looking, not spidery at all. Next, my mind just could not come to terms with the fact that this thing had claws that stuck out at least as long as its body was. My third-grade-quality sketch:

I quickly went to trusty Google and typed in 'tick with claws' and, -BAM-, there it was thanks to someone else who made the same 'discovery' and searched in a similar way. There was a site devoted to these harmless and in-fact beneficial creatures, pseudoscorpions. These guys are mite predators that live throughout the world and amount to a miniature scorpion without its stinger. They are tiny, no bigger than a couple of millimeters, and they are prolific, some 2000 plus species exist worldwide. If this has piqued your interest, check out the links:
Wiki
What's that bug?

Now for some lasers...

2007-01-16T21:03:00.000-05:00

I was pleased to stumble upon a page buried in the National Science Foundation website that highlighted the work that Dr. Roger Simpson and I conducted during my Ph.D. studies. The website (http://www.nsf.gov/eng/cbet/nuggets/1443/1443_simpson.htm) contains a descriptive 'nugget' of our accomplishments in developing laser instruments for near-surface fluid flow characterization. Ours was selected as one of three among several funded research programs to represent the Fluid Dynamics initiative of the Chemical, Bioengineering Environmental and Transport Systems program. Our program managers for this have been Drs. Michael Plesniak and William Schultz. We are certainly indebted to them for their support during our funding term.

Fly of the day! Hard Foam Bass Popper

2007-01-12T22:54:00.000-05:00

An exciting Trout Unlimited joint chapter meeting between the Clinch Valley and New River Valley chapters led to a lot of shared information last night at Tangent Outfitters in Pembroke, VA. Apart from the great brook trout conservation on the horizon at Dismal Creek in Giles County, the folks at Tangent gave great demonstations for tying some flies of local interest. I was amazed at a hard-foam popper recipe that Tracy at Tangent has worked-up and discussed there. These flies are deadly for smallmouth bass in the New River (and beyond) and could not be easier to make for the wow factor and productivity they give. I wish to thank Tracy again for sharing his insight on this fly, which I ran home to tie as soon as I was able!
Hard Foam Bass Popper

Hook and body: Wapsi Perfect Popper
Tail: Saddle feathers, flashabou, crystal flash, marabou, use your imaginination!
Hackle: Saddle
Legs: Rubber legs, flashabou, etc.

Brook trout fever

2007-01-10T17:37:00.000-05:00

The warm weather of late has drawn my wife and I out-of-doors this winter much more than usual. Although the 'weather outside is frightful' and not because it is cold (as paraphrased/quoted from a headline in the Roanoke Times), it does make for good early season native trout fishing. I was amazed on an outing Saturday (Jan. 6th) that fish were very actively feeding in the 68deg.F. heat of the afternoon. I even saw one brookie take something on the surface! Right after that I caught her on my black Marabou Nymph.
Now, I didn't get any 'lunkers' on Saturday like this one from Little Stony Creek (Giles County) in 2002:

(and yes, a 12-incher is a lunker in my book!), but it was hard for me to beat a 20 fish afternoon in a step-across stream in January! I hope these warm temps do not exacerbate summer water temps, but for the time being a few warm days sure offer great therapy for cabin fever.

Fly of the day: Murray's Hellgramite

2007-01-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

For today's fly, I have decided to wrap up an old promise I made to a friend as he and his son began fly fishing for smallmouth bass in SWVA. I told him about a favorite I had read about in Harry Murray's book, Virginia Blue Ribbon Streams, and on his website, http://www.murraysflyshop.com/. Mr. Murray is one of the most-renowned fly-fishers of the area, so Ithought giving my friend one or two of this highly recommended pattern would be a safe bet for catching fish. Unfortunately, more than two years have passed since I promised those flies, but I have finally 'gotten around' to tying some of this pattern. Simple to tie and, though I have not fished one yet, I would imagine it to fish fairly simply as well. Hellgramites hug the bottom, so I have heavily weighted this fly. The one photographed below is tied on a #8 streamer hook, but I would readily tie these up to #0 or even #1/0.
Murray's Hellgramite

Tail, body, antennae: Black ostrich
Hackle: Strung black hen for woolly buggers
Thread: 6/0 black
Clip tail to uniform length and optionally clip hackle for rough look.

Boise State University: National Champs

2007-01-09T00:05:00.000-05:00

Alright, only one BCS team finished the season undefeated. Bronco's are National Champs...right?

BCS = bad, Fox+BCS = disaster

2007-01-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

As one of the millions who love to watch college football (Go Hokies!), it is of no use for me to decry the BCS in light of a play-off system since every TV and radio analyst in the U.S. is already doing so. But I have not heard much about the TERRIBLE JOB FOX IS DOING FOR COVERAGE OF THE BCS GAMES!! It's honestly hard for me to begin to criticize the entire operation, but a couple of problems:
1. The NFL is not the measuring stick for every play, player, tradition, event, etc. that occurs during a college football game. Since these announcers primarily have experience with the pro's, most references made are comparisons to the NFL; and it comes off as if college football is lacking in its own richness. Many, many college football fans could give a flip about the NFL, and even for those who enjoy the NFL those references are very annoying and exhibit little respect for the game being played.
2. Way over-produced. Did you see a) the BCS selection show, b) the intro to the 2007 national championship? Holy cow.

To be fair, I like Fox's handling of the NFL (although they lost a lot when James Brown left), but stick to the pro's and leave college to Disney.

Fly tying, marabou nymph

2007-01-08T21:17:00.000-05:00

I could post hundreds of links to more-complete fly-tying information (and eventually, I will give some of these I am sure), but for this blog, I will exhibit some of the things I do to create flies that catch the beautiful native and wild trout that inhabit SWVA waters.

First, I'm proud of the fly tying station that went up just this weekend!

Now, I would love to chronicle the flies that I tie as 'fly of the []' []=day, week, month, although I realize fully that the ambition I have now to do so will fade with time.... But for today, the 'Fly of the Day' is one I call the Marabou Nymph tied in olive in the photo below. I did not invent this pattern, but it was shown to me on the stream one day and it works. I caught and released native brook trout all day Saturday on the black version.
Marabou Nymph

Thread: 8/0 Brown
Tail: Olive marabou tips
Dubbing: Olive-died hare
Rib: Gold 'Ultra-Wire'
Legs: Clipped marabou
Hook: 12 streamer
Head: 5/32 oz. gold bead

Fur, feathers, trout, and lasers...

2007-01-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

Well, at least it's not MySpace...

Here, I will share some information about our adventures in the outdoors of Southwest Virginia with an emphasis on fly-fishing and conservation. As an active member of the New River Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited, I welcome readers to learn more about our work.

Shameless plug: Please check out my work: http://www.aurinc.com/
Our company, Applied University Research, Inc., develops and markets high performance laser-Doppler velocimetry/anemometry instruments for several applications including turbomachinery, aircraft and submarine noise, and wind tunnel testing. We can also do on-site flow measurements using our advanced instruments such as the sub-miniature laser Doppler velocimeter.

To come: fly-tying, SWVA fishing journal, and more about lasers.