A Fine Return to Home Waters

Dorothy had it absolutely right. There’s no place like home.

Friday morning, a little more than a week after a serious skunking on the Davidson, it felt good to be walking down the path to my regular out-of-the-way spots on the Haw River. I hoped that the previous couple of warm days, an overcast sky, and an approaching front would spur the largemouths into action. I originally intended to take the new 8wt out for the first time, but at the last moment pulled out my workhorse 6wt, hoping for more than just casting practice. In retrospect, the 8 might have been the way to go.

Pocosin Portraits

My neighbors, and friends, Mike Dun and Juan Pons, both accomplished wildlife photographers, led a three day workshop sponsored by the Pocosin Arts foundation and I had the good fortune to be able to tag along. The goal was to photograph migratory birds, predominantly snow geese and swans, and black bears in the amazing refuges around North Carolina's Albemarle Sound. Sad to say, the geese forgot to coordinate with our calendars and departed for Alaska and points north before we arrived and the black bears chose to remain incognito. None the less, the remaining wildlife was still captivating and the habitat spectacular.

Here are a few of the images I captured.


Rich sunrise at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

Technical(ly) Foul on the D

In one of his presentations at last month’s Charlotte Fly Fishing Show, Jim Casada, a noted North Carolina outdoorsman, referred to the Davidson as a “very technical stream”. He didn’t go into details, but I took him to mean that unless you were a skilled and savvy trout fisherman, you weren’t going to catch many fish. Well, I guess I’m not and I definitely didn’t. A day and a half on the D earlier this week confirmed his assessment. In fact, I came up an “m” short of “not many”. Not any.