04 I Can't Be Satisfied - Gregg Allman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIGziNjQXmc#ws)
I blame
my newest obsession on the following on :
1. Matt
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s4/v12/p1009072585-4.jpg)
2. These boys
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s5/v133/p442353440-4.jpg)
Allow me to remind you how much boats can suck, even if they aren't yours:
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s5/v122/p270888808-4.jpg)
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s5/v125/p385660397-4.jpg)
He has spent countless hours patching fiberglass, learning how to apply gelcoat, buying this-n-that for an endeavor that initially seems like a whole lot of effort for an unknown amount of reward.
We have been on the floor of the boat in the cold & the rain running wiring, drinking beer, dreaming of flats fishing. All the while not having a real clue what we might be getting ourselves into.
We have organized fly boxes, bought rods, bought reels, bought lines, bought leaders . . . what feels like a single-handed driving of the economics of saltwater fly fishing.
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s5/v126/p441087388-4.jpg)
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s10/v110/p290732293-4.jpg)
We spent almost the entire day the weekend prior chatting up the LCFS crew, the guys from Mystic fly rods, and nearly anybody else who had an opinion about Charleston flats fishing. Who'd a thunk that the WNC Flyfishing Expo held so much interest in saltwater fly fishing in Charleston?
I had a project to go review in the lowcountry, so Thursday morning saw me watching the sunrise in Columbia traffic, around mile marker 105, wondering how big the red fish we would catch this weekend would be.
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s10/v98/p162063273-4.jpg)
It's not nearly as nice as this view:
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s10/v114/p26919961-4.jpg)
Thursday was a beautiful day and I finished early enough that I
could should have gone out with a guide, but one can't plan these things very well all the time. Instead, I went to LCFS and pestered Paul Puckett about flies, and winter flats fishing; Scotty having dispersed to parts unknown.
The boys with the boat weren't showing up until well after dark and I couldn't get into the condo until then; so I hung out eating a grouper sandwich, enjoying some Holy City Porter and picking a couple of locals about some areas in the general vicinity of where we were staying.
It should have been epic. It should have been grand. It should have been a whole lot different than reality proved.
I had to be at the Summerville office at 0700 to update some corporate portraits then bug out for a day on the water.
That's about the only part that worked.
I did learn a few lessons:
1. Never go fishing on a falling tide in a boat that pretends to be a flats boat.
2. Never go flats fishing without a poling platform.
3. Never go full-throttle through a channel you've never been through before knowing full well you don't know how deep it isn't.
4. Never trust a non-electrical person to properly wire up a trolling motor (24v vs. 12v)
5. Charleston area flats stretch for somewhere in the vicinity of 734gabillion sq miles - don't expect to catch fish on the fly your first time out. Unless you spend $ with people who can put you on 'em.
6. Never underestimate the ability of a psychiatrist to completely screw up your loved ones medications, requiring crisis intervention and hospitalization when you are 3+ hrs from home.
Yep, got a phone call and quickly said goodbye to the Lowcountry for a while, thinking all the while that I need to explore this area for an entire lifetime.
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s10/v108/p262501908-4.jpg)
(http://www.rbphotostudio.net/img/s10/v113/p284245114-4.jpg)
Raymond