Jekyll Island

Christy and I went on vacation recently. When I got back my mom called at work and asked how everything was and I, being in the middle of something, said "great - I'll tell you all about it soon". Well, I didn't so here is a mini summary:

We detoured to Pine Mountain, GA on the way so that we could see the Day Butterfly Center. Christy was in heaven. Butterflies absolutely everywhere. One of those huge Blue Morphos even landed on her to the surprise of the workers. They think she had put on some sort of lotion that fooled the butterfly. Anyway, we have tons of pictures of butterflies. Here's one:

Next we spent a few days on Jekyll Island, a barrier island of Georgia. It used to be a playground for the rich but now the state owns most of it and it is a playground for the middle class. Maybe not for long. We laid out on the beach, swam in the ocean (which was like bath water) and soaked in the TV and air conditioning every moment we were in the hotel room. The island is really nice and small enough that we biked most of it one morning. It still has some of the buildings from the Rockefeller days.

We also visited St Simon and Tybee Island, but Jekyll was our favorite.

Hellbender

Christy and I helped monitor fish this morning on an upper section of Cartoogechaye Creek here in Franklin. We had monitored further down a few weeks ago. We had many more large fish this time including some really nice brown trout. Usually the largest fish we shock up are Redhorses, but today we had at least as many trout and the largest, far and away, was the really big brown.

The neatest thing we got to see today was what is referred to as a Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis).  These are among the largest salamanders in the world, with some reaching around 30 inches. If you didn't know they are harmless they might scare you to death!

Here is a video from hellbenders.org

Learn more about hellbenders @ hellbenders.org

No fish for you

The drought in western North Carolina has been pretty severe. This is bad, but what really stinks is that it has affected the fishing. I like fishing up in the GSMNP, but the freestone streams are really just too low and the fish are hanging on for dear life. We went fishing on our favorite stream there Friday afternoon and got about 2 bites between us. The odd thing is that I actually saw more fish than normal - which I guess was the problem. The water was clear and low and the fish showed no interest in my dry flies. You know it's bad when a fly shop just outside the park suggests you go bass fishing somewhere else. Little River Outfitters (a great shop in Townsend, TN) did just that today.

My theory today was that the tailwaters would be better and I resolved to find out after work on the Tuck. And here came the dilemma: We had a huge thunderstorm which dumped tons of water and muddied the stream enough to ruin any dry fly fishing. So, do I rejoice in the rain that made a small dent in the drought, or do I pout the evening away? Thankfully we ran into some good friend in town and decided to have dinner at our house. That kept my mind off of it. Until now.