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!
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...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment