Smokies Camping Trip September 2013

I have been anxious to get back into the mountains on a camping trip, and had an entire weekend planned recently.  However, I then was informed of my nomination as my son's kickball coach and the pending schedule, and thought my chances for another trip this year were lost.  Thankfully, my wife was willing to agree to my terms, and I found myself packing our vehicle.  The plan was for my wife and I to take both our kids on this trip to meet a co-worker and her family at the campground so they could all play together.  My son loves to go camping and fish with me, but this would be our 2-yr old daughter's first camping experience.  Unfortunately, she started having allergy and sinus problems late in the week, so mamaw to the rescue.  We quickly wrapped up my son's practice and game on Saturday morning and hauled tail for Elkmont.  I knew from looking at the reservation system that the place would be more than half empty, and would allow lots of space for the kids.  Just what I like to see when I go camping!

We found our site, and true to my expectations most of the sites around us were vacant.  My wife and I got everything setup while my son quickly started setting up his "gold mining operation" in the nearby trickle of a stream.  Thanks Gold Rush!  :) 

Last time I took my son he was disappointed when he realized all the other kids had their bikes with them, so I made sure to bring it along this time.  Soon thereafter, he was off riding around the entire vacant section of campground.

Eventually, our camp mates showed up, and a friendly game of forest soccer ensued.

As the afternoon wore on, I soon got the urge to go wet a fly.  So, I geared up and my son came along with me.  We slowly worked our way upstream, with him wading along right behind me.  I managed to hook two small bows on a yellow sparkle caddis dry, but they both came unhooked while trying to get my son up with me to see them.  Then, the inevitable happened, he fell up to his chest in that cold mountain water, and he was done fishing then.  I did make it out later for another 30 minutes or so of fishing about 1/2 mile up Jakes Creek.  No fish brought to hand, although I did let a couple more come unbuttoned before I got them to hand.

That night we dined on hot dogs, grilled okra, and a dessert of camp apple cobbler.  It was quite tasty!

After everybody turned in for the night, I hung out in the hammock outside enjoying the night air.  Around 9:00, I heard something nearby and looked up to see a shadow walking through the woods near our camp.  I snapped on my headlight and saw a coyote standing about 20' away just staring at me.  It turned and trotted away to somebody else's campsite.  Later on that night I was awakened by the howling of a coyote up on the hillside from the campground.  That was a pretty neat experience, as I have never been that close to a coyote.  I have seen them while hunting before, but never anything like that.

I later learned that a son of our camp mates had seen a wild hog in their campsite the evening before.  He didn't tell anybody, because he didn't really think anything of it.

The next morning, I had planned a treat for my wife and son.  I woke up early and got a campfire going, and began cooking bacon, eggs, and camp biscuits.

Just before we broke camp to head home I went back up Jakes Creek to try my hand on some better water.  I managed to bring 3 to hand, including a surprising tiny brown.  All three were very small, but I did have a couple chances at better fish but couldn't connect.

The water was a little skinny, and the fish were a little skittish.  However, it was a great pre-autumn camping trip with the family and some friends.  Hopefully, we will get another one in this year before the campgrounds begin to close.

The next few weeks will find me with two trips to Colorado, and I am hoping to get some on the water time with the illustrious Mr. David Knapp.  Stay tuned for reports from those trips...

Tight Lines and God Bless
Travis

If At First You Don't Succeed...

I have had a crazy couple of weeks at work, and told the wife I had to have some fishing time this week for sanity sake. So, Thursday evening I contacted Buzz about doing a little smallie fishing on Little River, and he was game. I haven't been smallie fishing in probably two years, and was anxious to give it a go again. I had to work in the morning, so we didn't meet up until around 2:00. When we got to the river, the sun was high and the temperature felt even higher. Additionally, the water level and flow was much higher than I anticipated.

We made our way into the river, and found it slow going with the fast current. After about an hour of wading difficulty, no takes, and about a gallon of sweat we chose to try our luck on trout in the park.

Time was not necessarily on our side, so we had to pick somewhere that was more convenient instead of less populated or better chances at a good day. It had been a while since either of us had fished MPLR, so we figured it would be worth a shot.

On the hike in we saw this interesting snail about 3' off the ground on this tree.


Buzz was the first to hop in the water, and he found success in his first run.


I went upstream a little way, and shortly thereafter brought my first bow to hand.


He came out of this nice little run:


The fishing was sporadically intermittent, and a couple of times I found wet bootprints. So, I think we were going in and out of "used" water and that is where the fishing was slow. Regardless, the bows were looking up and taking dries quite readily.


Here is Buzz working another run.


Eventually, my best dry pattern got water logged, and I switched over to a pink weenie (barbie bug). This is of interest to me, because I have never caught a trout in the park on a green or pink weenie. However, all the posts showing people using them made me figure I would give it another try. Not long after the switch, I brought one to hand. Unfortunately, he didn't cooperate with the photo shoot, but thankfully I had another willing model in the next run.


As we came around the corner into a clearing we noticed the ominous clouds in the sky, and chose to call it a day. We didn't catch tons of fish, but considering where and when we were fishing it was a successful outing. It was good to get out again, and maybe I should make more of an effort to get out before the stress level gets so high again.

Until next time, tight lines and God bless!

A Quick Trip With My Wife

Before our kids were born, my wife enjoyed going on fishing trips with me.  Not to fish, but to just enjoy the peace and quiet while watching me fish.  So, when she recommended we do that today, I immediately took her up on the offer.  Knowing it was going to be a busy weekend, I needed a stream that would offer the following:

• Convenience of trail by the stream
• Relatively short hiking distance
• Typically overlooked fishery

I have three such streams that I keep in my back pocket for such days as this.  Unfortunately, one of these is over in North Carolina, and another was right in the middle of an area that was going to be busy this weekend.  So, that left me with only one option.  We got to the trailhead around 10:00, much later than I originally intended.  On the drive in, I was concerned when I saw lots of color in the water, and remembered that storms crossed the mountains yesterday evening.  So, I was beginning to question my decision for the day, until we got our first glimpse of the water.

Water Looking Perfect

We walked in a distance, then realizing that we may have gone too far, turned around and backtracked looking for a good spot.  We found a spot with good pocket water, and a convenient place for my wife to sit.

Amy Trying Out my Alite Monarch Chair

We packed along my new Alite Monarch Butterfly chair for my wife to sit in, and she put it to good use while reading something on her Nook.  I didn't see any fish rising or any flies dancing above the water, but I chose to go with my recent go-to Yellow Sally pattern.  It didn't take long to find a willing participant:

Beautifully Colored Bow

After a couple more takers, my fly really started to get water logged and I needed to switch.  Now, keep in mind that this is the very same fly I used almost exclusively on my last backpacking trip, and the trip last weekend.  So, this one fly was on its third trip, and had landed numerous fish.  It was about time to retire it because I was having difficulty floating with all the fish slime on it.  I switched flies a few times, and got a few slashing strikes but overall success was much less than with their predecessors.    Finally, I did manage to land one on a extended body yellow sally pattern.

He came out of this really nice run underneath overhanging branches.

Unfortunately, the fishing continued to be less productive than previously, and I was contemplating calling it quits.  So, I did a quick change of location and tried my best to revive the previously retired fly.  Right on cue the fishing began to pick up, so I began to think that maybe there was something about the patter that was special.  I flipped through my fly selection and discovered that this was the only pattern I had like it in my box, so I quickly snapped a picture so that I could try my best to replicate it later.  

 

I tied this pattern a could years ago while tying up a batch of foam neversink caddis patterns.  I didn't like the blocky foam body sticking out the back, so I thought I would see what one looked like if I wrapped a thin strip of foam around the body.  I then hackled the fly with brown whiting saddle hackle, added a wing of sparkle flash and bleached elk hair.  For some reason I used black thread for this fly, whereas I would probably normally use yellow.  Whatever it was, the fish definitely seem to like this fly.  It has easily outproduced other commercially available yellow sally patterns 4 to 1 in recent weeks.

The water was looking just absolutely fantastic in this area, and the fish were quite aggressive.  Although, many were very small, around 3" to 4". 

We decided to call it quits around 12:30 since we needed to make our way back to Knoxville to collect the kids from the grandparents, most likely loaded with sugar and caffeine by now...

On the walk out we saw lots of butterflies, more dayhikers, and even some dayhikers taking pictures of butterflies.  Kind of like this... :)

Amazingly we saw probably 50 - 60 hikers today, but not another fisherman.  That is why I love this area.  There are two streams in this vicinity that see lots of day hikers, but most likely go for days without seeing a fly drift by.

On the way out, our stomachs were really rumbling, so we stopped in at a small BBQ joint for some amazing food.

It was nice having my wife with me riverside again.  It had been over two years since our last trip, but this is something we should try to do every so often again. 

Three Generations Camping Trip

I have been trying to get my dad out on a camping trip for a couple years now, and with this past weekend being Father's Day he finally gave in.  Now, it should be known that my dad used to camp on a regular basis back when I was a little tike, but now he rarely takes the time to do something for himself.  So, I was shocked when he told me that he was planning on going along.  Unfortunately, I was concerned when I heard that the campground we intended to stay at had taken a hit from an F1 tornado and 60% of the sites were closed.  A quick call to the campground confirmed that there were some open sites, so away we went. 

Not long after arriving, we had the tent setup and were getting settled in.

Big Agnes King Creek 4 in Fastfly Setup

My dad and son were anxious to watch me fish.  Not expecting much success, we hopped in the stream near the campground.  You can imagine my surprise when I landed this guy on the first cast.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled in this 7" brookie from a spot numerous people swim in daily.  Even greater to my surprise was that we continued working our way upstream and I hooked a brookie in every likely hole I presented my yellow sally fly to.  I ended up landing 4 more that we only about 3" long, and had 3 more get off as I was trying to land them.  Considering that I only fished for 30 minutes, I consider those to be good results.  By this time we were getting into some areas that my son was having difficulty keeping up, so we called it a day.

walking back from our successful excursion

Then we started thinking about dinner, and knew we needed to get some good coals before we could cook.  My dad seems to be amazed by bonfires, so I left him in charge of the fire.

Tending the fire and cooking potatoes & onions

We had to pass some time while waiting for the potatoes to cook and coals to form.  So, nothing says camping quite like badminton and football...

Eventually, it was time to put dinner on the fire.  Tonight's menu is deer steak, potatoes, and onions.

Deer steak, potatoes, and onions

For desert, is there anything more a kid would want than marshmallows?

Excited about roasted marshmallows

Shortly after dinner and desert it was time to turn in for the night.  It was a little warm, even sleeping outside of my bag.  After a restful nights sleep, the next morning brought more activity and games around camp with my son.  We just mainly took our time eating breakfast, breaking camp, and then roasting sausages for lunch.  On the way out, dad asked if I was going to fish anymore, so I stopped at a convenient pullout and geared up.  You can imagine my surprise when once again on my first cast I brought this guy to hand...

Then about 5 minutes later this guy...

Once again, I worked my way upstream fishing every little riffle and run I saw.  I called it quits after about 20 minutes because we really needed to get back home, but managed to land three bows in that time frame.  Once again, this was in a location that regularly has swimmers, waders, and fishermen.  So, I was surprised at how fruitful this small stream was, even after hearing one less than positive comment from somebody in a site nearby.

It was great getting my dad and Trey out camping together on this trip, my dad really enjoyed himself.  Trey is now asking for a fly rod of his own so that he can fish with daddy.  My little buddy is getting big, and I may have myself a little fishing buddy from now on.  I have an upcoming trip to the South Holston planned for this week, assuming my work schedule allows me to go.  However, we are already planning our next family trip, and I am sure it will be a blast.

Family Fishing (A Little Bit of Everything)

Recently my son commented that I hadn't taken him fishing in a while, and unfortunately he was correct.  So, this past Friday we made some time to take a fishing trip.  My son really enjoys fishing, camping, and hunting with daddy, but this was my daughter's first experience fishing.  To make things interesting we went out to the garden and dug around for worms just to give them the entire experience.  We were not having much luck in the worm hunting business, so I brought along some of my other gear in case things got a little slow with the worms.  I personally prefer to use crickets when taking kids fishing as the action seems to be always non-stop when using crickets and it is easier to keep the kids interested.  However, there wasn't anywhere on the way that sold crickets, so worms and plastics it would be.

I elected to take the kids to a little park on a smaller area lake that was relatively close to the main channel knowing that this would be more favorable to larger predatory species instead of the typical backwater areas bluegill inhabit.  It wasn't long before Trey was into his first bluegill.

First bluegill of the trip

Although, a group of carp cruising the area provided lots of distractions and enticement, he managed to stay focused on the task at hand.  Eventually he got tired of using his little rod, and wanted to give daddy's rod a spin.

While he was fishing, daddy decided to try his hand with some topwater action, and in short order landed the first largemouth of the trip.

Wanting to touch the bass

Sissy wanted in on the "shishing", and she did quite well I must say. 

Looks like the question about whether to get her a Lifetime Sportsman License is answered.  By the way, we got Trey one when he turned one, and it is an amazing deal for the youth of TN.

Trey had to reclaim his rod from Sissy, and that freed up daddy to throw the topwater some more.  After landing a couple more largemouths, I get a ferocious strike and was surprised to see this come to the surface.

A Smallmouth Surprise

This bronzeback was an unexpected surprise, and I was quite pleased with it.  Sure would have been a good fight on the fly rod.

As is normally the case though, the temptation to throw rocks and sticks overwhelmed the kids and we called it a day.  However, I feel much more comfortable taking my little buddy on more and longer fishing trips as his attention span and interest is increasing. 

Until next time, tight lines and God bless.

Buzz Showing How It Is Done

First Overnight Backcountry Trip

I have been wanting to do a backcountry trip for a year or, so sometime back around January a buddy and I exchanged emails about doing a backcountry trip. Well, work and weather got in the way, and that trip seemed to fizzle away. Thankfully, things seemed to start looking better and we made plans for this weekend. As the date drew closer, the trip shrunk from a two night trip to just Friday night. However, we wanted to make the most of the day, so we planned to set out from the trailhead around 10AM. This would allow us to fish all afternoon and evening. Surprisingly, the online booking tool showed that Thursday was completely booked up, but Friday only had five occupants including us. So, it was with some anxiety that we began the day on Friday not knowing whether the camp had been inhabited by a party crowd that would leave it trashed, a group of boyscouts, or worse fly fishermen...

A quick stop at Little River Outfitters to get some last minute supplies and Daniel told me about a group that had just stopped in and had some success fishing the day before. Although, I also talked with others who had poor luck and I didn't know what to expect. Additionally, the weather forecast had changed significantly, and the chance of storms had increased.

When we arrived at the trailhead, we saw a large group of guys leaving. We stopped to chat for a while and learned that they were the group from the camp and only one of them in the group had fished the day before with some success. Things were starting to look up.

The mandatory hike in photo:


Hanging out around camp, planning our fishing day.


It wasn't long before we got into the water. I can honestly say there was more fishable water in this area than I have ever seen before. Buzz working the first run as soon as we stepped into the water.


While I was putting my camera away I hear, "this is what we are here for". He had already hooked up and landed a rainbow, not 30 seconds into our fishing day. This got me excited. So I moved on up to the next little stretch, and hooked into this guy on my second cast.


I pulled this little guy from this tiny little side run that probably 90% of the fishermen would pass right over to reach the bigger water.


Five minutes later, I had this guy to hand.


Buzz and I continued to play leap frog up the river hitting every other hole and landing many fish in the process. Almost exactly one hour after landing my rainbow I completed my slam with this guy.


Amazingly, it took one hour and ten minutes to achieve my slam and all within a couple hundred yards of each other. It wasn't long afterward that we began to hear the rumble of thunder, and so we hoofed it back to camp just in case. Thankfully it passed north of us and we ate some dinner and got back on the water. About 7:00 the yellow sallies started coming off heavily, and there was a very large light cahill spinner fall. We fished until we couldn't see where we were walking and called it a day.

Around 1AM it began to rain, and continued to do so until we reached our vehicles at 11AM. As I was driving back to Knoxville, the sun popped out briefly only to quickly be overcome by rain clouds for the rest of the afternoon. All my gear is currently setup in the garage trying to dry out, but it was all worth it.

Buzz caught a lot more fish than I did, and completed a slam himself shortly after I did. Unfortunately, it was quite evident that my lack of fishing last year really hurt my presentation efficiency. However, I would consider this a tremendously successful outing regardless of how poor my presentation was. This was also my first real overnight backcountry trip, and I think I am hooked. Can't wait to do it again!  I got to try out some new camping gear, that I hope to do a video review on and post in the near future.

Camp Pillow Comparison

While trying to develop my camping gear kit, I have learned that some items tend to lose their comfort level after some use.  This is not a good thing for somebody like me who likes to buy lots of gear whether it be camping, fishing, or photography.  One such item I have learned is a camp pillow.  I know some people consider this to be a silly issue because traditionally people did not even consider taking a pillow with them on a camping trip, and especially not on a backpacking trip.  However, recent advancements in materials have allowed for a surge in very compact and compressible pillows.  Four such pillows that I have tested are the Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow, Therm-a-rest Compressible Pillow, Exped Air Pillow, and Exped ComfortFoam Pillow.  This review will focus on the first of these three as I actually exchanged my Exped ComfortFoam Pillow for the Exped Air Pillow.  So, let's get started:

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow

This was the first pillow I purchased while trying to develop my gear kit.  I was lured in by the low price, compact size, and weight.  I used this pillow many nights, and even took it with me on work trips just in case I got stuck in the airport with weather delays. 

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow

 

This pillow has two distinct sides to it; 1) a slick nylon and 2) a soft microfiber on the other. 

Soft Microfiber Finish

While this was originally a selling feature of the pillow for me, it ultimately became one of my greatest frustrations with it.  You see, the microfiber feels really nice against your skin, however that means the slick nylon is down against the surface you are laying on.  Did I mention that it was slick?  It would slide all around, and like physics suggests it would end up in the completely opposite place of my head.  Occasionally I would sweet talk the pillow and promise to be nice to it, and it would stay in place well enough for me to get a good nights sleep. 

Cocoon AirCore Travel Pillow Packed

Additionally, the material used for the internal air bladder had zero stretch and actually came across as hard, especially when used on a cool night.  This is not a pillow that one would want to sleep on inflated 100%, for that matter probably not even 75%...  I found that it worked best when inflated to somewhere between 50% and 75%.  This allowed the pillow to form to my head while laying on my back.  Unfortunately, this was not very comfortable when laying on my side.  Finally, the valve has been very moody at best.  On a trip the valve actually failed after a nights sleep, and I could not get the pillow deflated.  It took a good ten minutes of piddling around with the valve before it finally became unstuck and allowed me to deflate it.

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow

I actually purchased this pillow on my way to Great Smoky Mountains National Park with my son for his first father/son camping trip.  While walking around a camping store picking up some last minute supplies he saw this pillow and asked that I get it for him.  He used it that first night and asked to use it in his bed instead of his regular pillow.

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow

Eventually, I got it away from him long enough to try it myself.  I have to say this is a very comfortable pillow, and that is probably because it is the only one of the bunch that begins with an actual pillow pedigree.  This pillow has a very nice feel to it, and stays where you put it (unlike the Cocoon AirCore). 

Therm-A-Rest Compressible Pillow Compressed

There are no valves with the Therm-A-Rest to mess with or foul, but the downside is the extremely large packed size in comparison to the other two pillows.  Depending on an individuals limitations, this could be a huge negative with the Therm-A-Rest. 

Exped Air Pillow

This leads us to the last pillow in this review, the Exped Air Pillow.  Prior to purchasing the Exped Air Pillow, I bought the Exped ComfortFoam Pillow.  The ComfortFoam Pillow was immensely comfortable, but had a significantly large packed size.  Not quite as large as the Therm-A-Rest, but about 2.5 times larger than the Cocoon.  So, I chose to exchange the ComfortFoam Pillow for the Exped Air Pillow.  I have had previous experience with Exped products, and was very pleased with their quality and the flat valves. 

Exped Air Pillow

The Exped has a very unique design in that it has an asymmetrical  shape that forms to the back of your neck for comfort.  This actually makes the pillow extremely comfortable for both back and side sleepers.  I can inflate this pillow to around 80 - 90%  full and it is almost perfect.  The materials and the texture are very comfortable as well, and this helps prevent the pillow from sliding all around during the night.

Exped Air Pillow Shape and Texture

The Exped is by far the most compressible and smallest packed size pillow of the group.  Couple that with the wonderful Exped flat valves and this is a wonderful combination. 

Exped Flat Valve

Although this is an air pillow, it is very comfortable.  I attribute this not only to the shape of the pillow and materials, but also that the pillow feels to have a little stretch to it that allows it to conform to my head. 

Side-by-Side Comparisons:

From L to R: Therm-A-Rest, Cocoon, Exped

From L to R: Therm-A-Rest, Cocoon, (Pepsi Can), Exped

Summary

In conclusion, my choice for a pillow will be the Exped.  It gives me the combination of packability, comfort, and weight that I am looking for in a camp pillow.  I hope you have found this review helpful, and please feel free to leave a comment or question.