The Jackson Kayak Dealer Summit was earlier this week and I finally found the time to make my way up to Tennessee to attend. So after attending the Brew at the Zoo on Friday night, trying a boatload of great home brew, and one terrible beer (never try Ghost Face Killah, no matter how much you like Wu-Tang), I got up bright and early on Saturday and began the journey North and East. The drive was a fairly easy one with Birmingham being the biggest city I would pass; barely a car on the interstate on a Saturday morning. I left early enough to make a quick pit stop at an old haunt outside of Huntsville before continuing on to Rock Island. The river was in great shape and needed to be waded. I quickly grabbed the six weight and started throwing a popper-dropper looking for anything that would bite.
No bass caught, then again I didn’t fish very long as I didn’t want to have to set up camp in the dark. After a gorgeous drive through southern Tennessee, I made it to my campsite with light fading fast and set up camp trying to beat the dark and the rain. A celebratory beer was in order as I don’t know when the last time I set up a tent was and I was pretty sure I did it right. That was followed by a few more beers around a campfire as I met Jackson teammates I’ve only seen online and caught up with others that I’ve had the pleasure to fish with in the past. A plan was hatched for Sunday that included a river float to fish for some toothy critters, unicorns they call them, fish of a thousand casts.
Surprisingly once one catfish was hooked the rest scattered, the bream not so much. I can’t wait until Marin is a little bit older and I can introduce her to the sport as our neighborhood pond is the perfect spot to introduce a kid to fishing – non-stop action and right down the street.
Mountains to Marsh 