Appalachian Trail Hike

Hiked 22 miles on the Appalachian Trail On the West Virginia/Virginia line. We hiked up to 3,800 feet then across a ridge line and back down. The first day we had to cross a river to get to the trail on a swing and pulley rig, then up hill for a few miles, across the ridge, camped in a shelter, then seven miles down to the valley below to complete the 22 miles.

No sharks

 So I never caught any sharks when we went to South Carolina a a couple of months ago but I did catch some fish.  

Me on the left carrying all my gear;
And on the right fishing from the pier with my first fish, a silver mooney.


















Not sure what these two are called but caught them down by the jeti (big rock wall). The big one down there is called an oyster toad fish because they use there big mouth and teeth to crack oysters.

Shark!

The Reel

Last year I talked about fly fishing and let you in on my struggles to get that perfect cast. I ended the season with only one little trout but it was a huge accomplishment, to me, to be able to cast perfectly and bring in that fish all on a fly rod. This year, for a fishing adventure, I will be targeting something a little larger, sharks. As your imagination runs out of control, especially since last week was shark week on the Discovery Channel that shows great whites in the 20 foot range, let me “reel” you back in. did you see what I did there? I’ll be looking to catch a 4-6 foot black tip, fine tooth, or other species in that range. The rod and reel I’ll be using for this adventure is a complete 180 from the fly rod of last year. A thick ten foot rod housing a reel that weighs around three pounds spooled with line strong enough to, well, land a shark. The reel alone weighs more than the fly rod, reel, and line all together. To make things just a little more interesting I’ll be surf fishing, meaning I’ll be casting from the shore and pulling the behemoths onto land to, this is where the fun starts, remove the hook. Yea, I said it. Remove the hook from a shark’s mouth. The hooks are made to rotate to the corner of the mouth causing less damage to the shark and make it easier to remove with long pliers of course. You didn’t think I was going to stick my hand in the mouth did you? Now I won’t be just focusing on catching Jaws, but other fish as well such as croaker, whiting, sea trout, mullet, red drum (also known as red fish), and other less toothy fish. Some of them we will be using as bait, others will be tossed back, and some will be cooked for dinner, no sharks on the menu for us but all other is fair game. If you have ever had fresh seafood, I mean right out of the water onto the grill, you’ll know why I’m excited about that. So by the end of our week long stent in South Carolina I hope to have caught and released a shark without losing a limb, caught my own dinner, get sunburned, and actually get a chance to relax in the sun before winter comes leaving me stuck inside for another four months.  

The Target (black tip)

Found this picture on the internet and the caption read, "Flat tire in Antartica." I laughed for a solid five minutes.

My dream motorcycle with kayak, mountain bike, and dog of course. 

Ol' Boat & Bottle

Here are a couple of pics from our first trip to Mexico last November. I'm a big fan, right now, of the un-sharp mask tool and brightness/contrast adjuster when editing my photos.

Fishing with Dad

Went out on the boat with dad to do some fishing, I caught eleven fish and this is the fish he wants to take a picture of;

In case you are wondering it is a large mouth bass and the minnow I caught him on was a little smaller than him. I guess he lives by the rule, go big or go home.