The Saltwater Pier

Beach week is probably one of my favorite weeks of the year to spend with the family in North Carolina. The fishing has evolved for me over the 15 years we’ve been coming here. I’ve done plenty of surf casting with the fly rod for reds and trout and have ventured into the spartina backwaters on kayaks. But, as the kids have taken to fishing, I’ve been able to slow it down some and focus on doing some simple pier fishing for spots; essentially the equivalent to bluegills in the bass pond. It’s fun for the kids and nice to spend the time. Of course one rod will always be hooked with a carolina-rigged mud minnow in case that red or flounder comes cruising by us. This summer Jack-Bo caught a black drum, which was pretty cool. I didn’t even know what it was, but it put up a great little fight for Jack. Next year, I think we try to rent the boat. The kids will be ready!

10 Great Smoky Years

For our ten-year anniversary, we were fortunate enough to have the time and backup team (thanks Grandparents!) to take a week long trip sans kids.  This was our first trip longer than 1-2 nights since the twins were born 4.5 years ago.   For everything we considered, we landed on Asheville, NC as the perfect location under the following criteria.

-          Neither of us had ever been to Asheville / the Smoky mountains.

-          The craft beer scene is amazing.

-          The wild trout fishing is world renown.

Our first part of the trip was spent in Asheville, NC.  We’d heard great things, but overall the (small/quaint) city way exceeded expectations (that were already somewhat high).  We hit a few restaurants and the food was amazing.  The music was awesome and the beer was as advertised.  Disc golf was totally rad, but the highlight was our Penguins won the Stanley Cup Sunday night.  Back-to-Back baby!  The celebration was so much fun and the shots of Jameson with random strangers were flowing.  The trip started well.

We moved to Franklin, NC for an amazing 5 days and got into some real peace and serenity.  These were the mountains of the true Cherokee Indian tribe, which I have lineage to (and explains a lot).  They were powerful, stoic, and you could really feel the ancient energy of these mountains.  The mountains were deep and on most nights, the fog would roll in to completely consume them in a cloud of mist.  It was so cool to watch and felt so mystical.  And each morning, we’d sit on a rocking chair with a cup of coffee and watch the fog lift back off the range and return to the nothingness that they came from.    We hiked, did some gemstone mining (hit it big with some Rubies and Sapphires!), read, relaxed and ate some good food. 

19 weeks...

and still zipping around!

The trout fishing was our thing though.  It always has been since even before we were married.  Just getting back up to the mountains and disappearing on some small trout stream taking turns casting and working the small pools was so much fun.  It’s been years since we could do this.  I did the research and we explored a decent amount of the under the radar mountain trout waters.  Overall, I found the fishing to be a bit tougher than I expected.  With wild mountain trout, I thought every fish in the stream would be fighting to be the first to eat my Royal PMX or terrestrial pattern, while elk bugled in the background.  But, what I quickly learned was that by mid-June these fish can get highly educated and become pretty selective.  Nonetheless, I was wet wading and in a dry fly state of mind for the week, so opted to net less fish for simplicity.  Spence did her usual thing, which is fish a fraction of the time I do, but still manage to land the biggest fish of the week.  It’s beyond a coincidence at this point….she just always catches the biggest fish on our trips.  I love it. 

She also took her camera and was able to get back into photography, which hasn’t been pursued in the last 5 years either.  We were at the perfect rhythm and it was fun enjoying the time to ourselves.  But, with Spence pregnant with our 19 week baby, it was a constant reminder that much has changed in the past 10 years for us.  And though the vacation was so nice and much needed, by the end of the week we missed all our kiddos and looked forward to getting home to see them.