Reservoir Dogs

Tuesday night my brother, his wife, and I went canoeing on the Rivanna Reservoir. "D" (my bro's wife) bought my borther a canoe for his last birthday. Best. Birthday. Present. EVER!!!!

I took off work an hour early and swung by the grocery store to buy some beer (for the canoe), some OJ, and some bread (the latter two for home). I met B (my bro) and D outside of the sporting goods joint, which was in the same shopping center.

We caravaned up Route 29 a bit and left my car at Harris Teeter, since parking at the boat ramp is limited. We then got in D's Xtera and headed out to the reservoir.

B and I easily hauled the 14 foot canoe off the roof and put it in the water and away we went! We put in at around 5 PM. With B and I paddling we got the canoe going at a pretty decent clip. Diesel power!

I brought my little Zebco 33 rod and my vest (which serves as my tackle box). It was so quiet out there where we were paddling. We paddled back into the backwaters of the reservoir where at points the water was only inches deep. It was so quiet, as a matter of fact, that the clicking noise of my closed face Zebco was really annoying me.

I've been meaning to get a decent open faced reel anyways. I got the Zebco because it was cheap and at the time I wasn't sure if I was going to be getting back into fishing seriously or not. That question is answered, I guess! I now have a 4 wt fly rod, a 6 wt fly rod, a large Penn open-faced rod-n-reel setup, and the Zebco.

I was tempted to bring the fly rod, but I think with three people in the canoe that casting would have been difficult, especially with the fact that I'm fairly new at fly casting and hadn't been in a canoe for well over a decade. I tell you what, though - the insect activity on the water was robust to say the least. We were seeing tons of surface strikes all evening. I bet some caddis and anything mimicking a dragonfly would have torn it up out there.

In any event, we saw quite a bit of wildlife while we were out on the water. We saw a couple of herons (that's what we think they were, anyway), geese, a couple of beavers, turtles, and some deer.

All evening only B was able to catch a fish. A glorious bluegill! It was of moderate size and he released it.

Towards the end of the evening, some good ole boys in a nice jon boat were tearing up some bass. They caught one that was at least two feet long as we were watching them from a distance.

By nine o'clock we took out and headed back to their place for dinner. My brother has a garden that has really taken off and he's a top-knotch chef, to boot. You know dinner was good!

Let me see if I can remember it all: bed of butterleaf lettuce, radishes, finger carrots, beets, chicken, and an avacado/onion salad on top. The beets, radishes, and carrots were tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a crushed garlic clove and then cooked in the oven until slightly tender. Everything except the chicken and the avacado was from my brother's garden, too.

(heron)

(geese)

(geek)

(bow-chicka-bow-wow)

ps - dealing with image placement in Blogger is teh ghetto...

Memorial Day Weekend @ Smith Mountain Lake

This last weekend my friends Mark, Earl, Sam, Adam, Anna, and I went to Smith Mountain Lake State Park for the weekend.

Friday, 22 May 2009

I got over to my friend Mark's joint at around 9 AM and we loaded my gear into his truck. Sam was easily convinced to come with us. Earl got off work at 11:30 or so and we met him at his place. After loading his gear and his brother Adam's gear and gathering Anna, we were on the road.

It was about a two hour trip. Not too bad, even with a couple of Google Maps induced fits of directional confusion. We set up the camp first and then headed out to Mango's Bar and Grill. It was a total tourist trap Jimmy Buffet-esque joint complete with totally mediocre food and overpriced drinks. The shot "Sex with a Catfish" is to be avoided at all costs!

I could see Mango's being a good choice for a family outing. There was putt-putt golf right there, an old-school video arcade, and some shops all situated right around Mango's. Mom and Dad could send the kiddies off to play putt-putt or video games or shop while they had a drink and enjoyed some music. Although the act they had for a big weekend like Memorial Day weekend was fucking terrible. The Breeze Boys. Two dudes in their late fourties with receeding hairlines, a karaoke machine, a bass guitar, and very little talent. They ended up driving us out of there early.

That was okay, we went back to camp and partied like a mahfukkah! I brought a bunch of homebrews (California Commons and Oaked Imperial Stout) and whiskey and store beer was also present. We ended up staying up real late and making a lot of noise. I mean, not a terrible ruckus, but we weren't exactly whispering.

Sam and Earl stayed up pretty late that night, annoying the hell out of the people in the campsite next to ours. I love hanging out with these guys... it's always a lot of laughs.

Saturday, 23 May 2009

We got up around 7 the next morning. I made breakfast - camp slop, what else? This time it was about a dozen eggs and a dozen sausage links, though.

After getting everything sorted out concerning the day, Earl, Mark, and I headed out to Parrot Cove Marina to get the boat. I felt kind of bad to leave Adam, Anna, and Sam out of our boat trip but we hadn't originally planned on them coming, so Mark rented the 17 footer. It turned out that the marina wasn't open until 8 anyways, so we were right on time, really.

A word of advice to anyone thinking of renting a boat to fish at Smith Mountain Lake: you're only going to get good evening and morning fishes in if you rent the boat for two days. All the marinas down there open at around 8 and close at around 6 or so. This means you can't get your boat until after the morning fishing is pretty much done and you have to return it just as evening fishing is heating up. It's a bit of a scam in that way.

That being said, we had a lot of fun, even with just having the boat one day. Being Memorial Day weekend, there was so much boat traffic that all the big fish in the main lake were driven down deep. We saw plenty of them on the fish finder - big fish down at 120 feet to 160 feet, but they weren't biting on anything.

We ended up hitting the coves and trying to find spots where there were no other boats. We'd cruise up in these quiet coves and cast under overhanging trees. Those were the only spots we found any action all day - either way up north in coves or in coves off the state park. I ended up getting the big fish for the day - a 17 or 18 inch catfish... probably around 2 lbs. It was good eating, too! Mark caught a small largemouth and then we all caught a bunch of tiny sunfish.

I even did a little flycasting from the boat. A lot of fun. It's really the only way to fly fish on a lake!

At around 4 or so, we cruised up into a cove in the State Park and called Sam. He answered and said he was just done with a shower. He took the path directly behind our campsite down to the water and there he was! We had successfully picked the right cove and everything. Earl ended up getting off the boat and Sam got on. We goofed around a bit more on the water and then took the boat back at around 5:30 or so.

Sunday, 25 May 2009

Not much on this day. We got up, brewed coffee, broke camp, and went to the White House Restaraunt for a good southern breakfast buffet. Simple and delicious - the selection consisted of biscuits and sausage gravy, sausages, bacon, french toast sticks, and scrambled eggs. That's it.

The waitress was very nice and asked us if we wanted eggs cooked any other way. I had mine over-medium. That, and some coffee hit the mutha-jumpin' spot.

After that we were on the road again - this time heading home.