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#21

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Dougfish - April 11, 2024, 10:32:05 AM

#3

Still slow to get on the water this year.
And days 2 & 3 proved to be slow fishing.
Swung soft hackles, dry/droppered.
Probably should have euroed.
Saw Bobby for the first time in many months.



Marrried now. And gonna be be a daddy in September.
He had a slow day, too.

Went back on Monday. Similar results.
Went upstream first. Yawn.
Back to the usual. Yawn. Should have gone downstream?
At least the fauna was good.
Bluebells were finishing, Twinleaf was done.





Trilliums.







Star Chickeed, Sessile leaf Bellflower, and Bluets.







Swallowtails are out in bunches.



Got buzzed but 3 F-18's as I crossed the field.



Cheers. not many fish were harmed.
Brookie adventure is next.



 

#22

Warm Water Species / Re: Another Annual Trip to Sha...

Last post by Phil - April 11, 2024, 10:31:20 AM

Fred and Woolly gitten' em!! 

[America's Nuclear War Plan in the 1960s Was Utter Madness. It Still Is.]

#23

The Gravel Bar / Re: unlimited odds and ends

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 11, 2024, 10:18:29 AM

America's Nuclear War Plan in the 1960s Was Utter Madness. It Still Is.

Nuclear war is madness. Were a nuclear weapon to be launched at the United States, including from a rogue nuclear-armed nation like North Korea, American policy dictates a nuclear counterattack. This response would almost certainly set off a series of events that would quickly spiral out of control. "The world could end in the next couple of hours," Gen. Robert Kehler, the former commander of US Strategic Command, told me in an interview.

We sit on the razor's edge. Vladimir Putin has said he is "not bluffing" about the possibility of using weapons of mass destruction should NATO overstep on Ukraine, and North Korea accuses the US of having "a sinister intention to provoke a nuclear war." For generations, the American public has viewed a nuclear World War III as a remote prospect, but the threat is ever-present. "Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation," cautions UN Secretary-General António Guterres. "We must reverse course."

So far, we haven't. The Pentagon's plans for nuclear war remain firmly in place.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/nuclear-war-scenario-book-siop-weapons-annie-jacobsen/


Dan Carlin Hardcore History Addendum
Investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen joins Dan to discuss the contents of her new book which, using insider and expert information, dramatically outlines how a nuclear war might unfold.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history-addendum/id1326393257?i=1000651502148

[How hidden WW2 bombs across the Pacific are found and destroyed, decades after war]

#24

The Gravel Bar / Re: unlimited odds and ends

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 11, 2024, 09:06:18 AM

How hidden WW2 bombs across the Pacific are found and destroyed, decades after war

Teams in the Marshall Islands, which is littered with unexploded weapons from the second world war, uncover and detonate potentially deadly devices

Eight decades after the guns fell silent, munitions left by the US and Japan still litter beaches, jungles, and lagoons and continue to pose a hidden but lethal threat.

Now millions is being spent by the US and others across the Pacific to identify, remove and destroy dormant bombs, also known as unexploded ordnance. Some estimate the number of bombs – found across the region including in Fiji, Palau and Solomon Islands – could be in the hundreds of thousands.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/05/ww2-hidden-bombs-clearing-disposal-pacific-marshall-islands-unexploded-ordnance-uxo

#25

Warm Water Species / Re: Another Annual Trip to Sha...

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 11, 2024, 08:58:02 AM

I feel special! Fred took me out in his new ride. Stuck you in the beater.

His wife said,   "I wouldn't let that Woolly fellow ride in your new boat. He seems kind of sketchy to me. I don't know why you keep inviting him"

And he's trying to sell it to me!

#26

Warm Water Species / Re: Another Annual Trip to Sha...

Last post by driver - April 11, 2024, 07:01:19 AM

I feel special! Fred took me out in his new ride. Stuck you in the beater.

#27

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 10, 2024, 20:48:30 PM

"The "Rod of the Day", was a St. Croix 7'8" Legend Ultra 3 wt."

My go-to 3 wt for small streams even if it is a little stout. Fast action sure comes in handy when throwing a pair of bead heads in a stiff wind. Still has a fine touch though, so a good compromise in my opinion. Mine is an early 3 piece while Trout_Girl's is a later 4 piece. Nice rods I bought from the Champions before they got the shop in TN.

Well, I had my right knee replaced by a robot on Tuesday.  Not the most fun so far, but they say it just takes time and patience and everyone I know who did it says it was the best thing they ever did. Doesn't feel that way right now but I'm a wimp at heart, so there's that. 

TB (now just mostly original)

My St. Croix is a 3 piece

Good luck with your new knee. All I can say is do your rehab!

I just got my 3 ORTHOVISC shots in my right knee — jury is out on effectiveness

#28

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by troutboy_II - April 10, 2024, 20:03:30 PM

"The "Rod of the Day", was a St. Croix 7'8" Legend Ultra 3 wt."

My go-to 3 wt for small streams even if it is a little stout. Fast action sure comes in handy when throwing a pair of bead heads in a stiff wind. Still has a fine touch though, so a good compromise in my opinion. Mine is an early 3 piece while Trout_Girl's is a later 4 piece. Nice rods I bought from the Champions before they got the shop in TN.

Well, I had my right knee replaced by a robot on Tuesday.  Not the most fun so far, but they say it just takes time and patience and everyone I know who did it says it was the best thing they ever did. Doesn't feel that way right now but I'm a wimp at heart, so there's that. Anybody else who has done this successfully and who wants to share their own words of wisdom, please steer them my way. I could use them and I suspect our aging membership might have some interest as well. Perhaps not in this thread though if it would be better elsewhere. What do I know - I'm trying to not use too much of the opioids and what I am using plus the dull pain in my leg is confusing me. Perhaps I  shouldn't have started down this road. My apologies. 

TB (now just mostly original)

#29

Warm Water Species / Another Annual Trip to Shadlan...

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 10, 2024, 15:14:42 PM

#24 -- 36 Sunny, low 60s in the morning, heating up to 78 in the afternoon, with a slight chance of a shower,

Fred and I had been texting about a possible shad date, thing were up in the air as Fred was juggling a new project, but in the end, we decided to go on Tuesday and I drove up Monday evening, using my Marriott "Points" I checked into the Courtyard in Chester, leaving me a 20-minute drive in the morning. The only catch was that it was Championship NCAA Basket Ball night and the game wasn't starting until 9:20 PM 

I started watchin the game, telling myself that I could turn it off at halftime, but that wasn't possibly and I watched the entire game, which I thought was well played by UCON in the second half by shutting down Perdue's offence.

Up by 5 in the morning, eating a Trader Joe's breakfast burrito and hotel room coffee, I was out the door by 5:45 and met Fred at the ramp at 6:05. As usual he was first at the ramp, but others were queuing up shortly after we got the boat loaded.



The river was up higher than I've ever fished it, but Fred thought we still should be able to get into them, "if they are there". He wasn't making any promises this time.

Out on the water we made our way to "the spot" and dropped anchor. Fred was saying that I may have jinxed the whole operation by bringing a cooler filled with ice with the intent of keeping a cooler full of shad for the Carolina Raptor Center. The day started out on the slow side, perhaps it was the turbidity of the water, or the high levels, or the fish weren't there. Was it the jinx of the cooler?

Well it didn't take all that long before Fred hooked up and to my surprise, based upon his reluctance to harvest fish, he placed it on ice. He is a proponent of enacting a 10 fish limit. I hooked on one and the game was on. It wasn't on fire but we managed to put a good number of fish in the cooler, stopping at two in the afternoon. I would extimate 30 - 40 fish but nobody was counting.


Throughout the day boats pulled in alongside us and at one point there were about a dozen close by, everybody was catching fish.


But it wasn't actually on fire and there was no way we would hit 100 as we had in the past, but that's fishing. I had a grand time just being on the boat and catching up with Fred.



We pulled the boat out and I was headed home by 3 or so.



The next morning, I drove on down to the Caronlia Raptor Center to drop of the fish.





Now I've got a cooler to clean out and hopefully that shad odor won't linger in the RAV4!

#30

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 10, 2024, 14:19:09 PM

#24 -- 35 Gas $3.29 Sunny and warm 70s

With just one NC truck in the lot I was surprised to see three anglers fishing below me on a Sunday afternoon. I had struck out on the first run I encountered, there were a couple of risers up against a long on the far side, but I just couldn't get a good angle to get a decent drift in front of them.



I the next spot where I spied the anglers, two at first, but later joined by the third, I did swing up some fish, but unfortunately, they unbuttoned as they jumped clear of the water.

The "Rod of the Day", was a St. Croix 7'8" Legend Ultra 3 wt., I chose it because I wasn't expecting it to be too windy and it has a fast enough action to drive the fly under the rhodo.



The three amigos were staying close to the bank and didn't venture out into the middle, they were casting bobber rigs and reported "We've caught 100s" in jest. Truth was they hadn't had much success, but were enjoying the day away from their homes in Riedsville.

They hadn't been down further than the bottom of the trestle pool, my next stop. I chose to take a beer break and "rest the water" . I made three passes through the pool and brought about a dozen fish to hand. They were just punes but pretty.



I stayed fairly late and caught a couple more in some of the other usual spots.