Let’s talk about camping for a bit. June is a great month to go camping. The nights still drop cool enough to bear sleep, and the days are not overly unbearable. We have so many places to camp that we should be known for our camping opportunities. We can camp along the seashore near Cape Lookout, or we can camp in the deep Linville Gorge in the mountains. We can camp along lakes or rivers, or we can camp in the shadow of Pilot Mountain. Camping can mean several different types of sheltered environments, and I think I will discuss a few of these over the next few weeks. For this week, let’s ..read more

I know, you are probably at your wit’s end being stuck in home with nothing to do. The kids have doubled down on video games but even they are getting bored with the same thing day in and day out. Restrictions are gradually being lifted as the flattening of the curve has happened. Some are still nervous about overdoing the get-out-in-public thing. It can be understood. Well, there is a solution. Remember the old Andy Griffith show intro with Andy and Opie walking to the fishing hole? You know, that isn’t such a bad idea now is it? This is the absolute perfect time for some old school fishi ..read more

Our leases are being removed. At least that seems like a good analogy of the loosening of restrictions that came from the COVID-19 pandemic. With that, I am sure we will all be ready to get out and about. That makes this a good time to offer a reminder of what time of year we are in. With the coming of turkey season, and no that wasn’t the reminder, comes another season, insect season. Nasty biting evil satanic insects at that. Now, we have all heard of the murder hornets. At least we should have. That is the next thing that will take every human’s life it seems. But I am not even talking a ..read more

Several years ago, I headed on a simple fishing trip in which I was floating the Neuse River while fishing for striper bass. They were running although the river was a little high from a recent rain. And as I sometimes do, I decided to make things a little less simple by adding another element in order to make an adventure. That trip, I decided to float a twenty-two mile stretch of the Neuse while fishing…on a paddleboard. It wasn’t your typical paddleboard. It was designed like a barge, held a specially and specifically build cooler that had a tackle tray and several rod holders. Heck, it e ..read more

It is the perfect time of the year for fishing. The crappie have left the deep waters, the bream are hot, the bass are hungry, heck, even the trout are being unloaded in the mountain streams. The weather has been nice. That is saying a lot in itself considering we often have a two-week rendition of spring between winter and summer. Many years ago, my oldest son and I entered a fishing tournament hosted by a former boss. Well, he was my current boss at the time, but now he is my former boss. Now I am my only boss, except for the many clients I go through each year, which means I have way too ..read more

I watched a YouTube video yesterday from one of my favorite vloggers, Thomas Heaton. He is a landscape photographer and his channel centers around his adventures in capturing great landscapes around the world. He is based in the UK, and just like the United States, he is under a mandate to self-isolate at home. This week’s episode had him set up a tent in his garden, which is what they call the backyard there I guess, light a fire using a fire starter, and capturing sunset images with five trees in his neighbor’s yard as the subject of the image. If you are a consistent reader of this colum ..read more

Just three weeks ago, I headed to a lake that I do well with when targeting crappie. I thought to myself, and explained to my wife before my departure, that one, it was a week day, and secondly, it was supposed to rain, so therefore the pressure would likely be light in regards to other people even being at the lake. I was wrong. Every parking spot at the ramp was in use. Every single one. And this wasn’t some small launch area; three full sized ramps and parking for roughly 120 trucks with trailers are there for use. If it wasn’t for one spot that was reduced in size due to some fallen tree ..read more

Do people collect things anymore? And by people, I mean the younger generations. Collecting things were a huge part of my generation’s childhood and early adulthood. We had some things that were more for play such as collecting Star Wars figures after the original movie came out. We also were very adept at collecting both Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Every Friday when my mom would go to town to shop for groceries and such, if I was a good boy, I could pick out a new car or Star Wars figure. My dad had a large collection of marbles. And as any parent would do when their child reached certai ..read more

COVID-19 can cause sore throats, hacking dry coughs, and headaches as some of its symptoms. It can cause anxiety, anger, loneliness, concern, and a bit of stir-craziness, especially if kids are stuck in the home as well. When I was a wee bit of a young’un, I think around three years old or so, I stayed at my Aunt Sue’s house overnight. I was the oldest of the cousins on that side of the family, and Sue hadn’t sprouted any offspring as of yet, so I was kind of the family novelty. At least, that is the way I like to remember it. Sue had a train track that ran behind the house, and I was fasci ..read more

Every March. It doesn’t matter if the winter was brutal. It doesn’t matter if the winter was mild. The groundhog could have seen his shadow or not, it doesn’t influence it. It may have rained hard the previous week, or it could be a two-month long drought. Regardless of the weather, this magic, or maybe we can call it madness since that seems to be one of the things we are lacking during this current state of being, happens. For me and my neck of the woods, it all comes together on a small shallow creek in my hometown. Every March, more specifically, the middle of March, a golden ..read more