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.