River Day 09/26/2011

Just Jay and I at the river this week - everyone else was either working or out of town. We had a nice quiet evening (not because the others weren't there) and spent most of the evening fishing. The fish were still biting this week, but not as aggressively as last week.

The weather was mostly good again this week with temps near 80. The skies did get darker later in the evening and we could hear thunder toward the north. We never did get any rain at the river, but there were some areas that had rain for a good part of the evening.

We did have a small fire this week, nothing as outstanding as last week's, but that one will be hard to beat.

All-in-all, just a relaxing evening.

River Day 09/19/2011

Another great pre-fall evening at the river this week - mostly sunny skies, mild temps (around 70), and a light wind. You can feel fall getting a little closer each week. Tim, Jay, Ted and I all made it down for this week's River Day.

The river level was good this evening for fishing. Tim stopped at the packette at the top of the hill and actually found helgramites; we all thought the season for them was long past, but they had some and he picked up a dozen. We divvied them up and Jay, Tim and I each caught something. I guess I was in the right spot and caught 11; 10 on the helgies and one on an artificial lure. It was a little surprising that they were biting at all with the way the summer has been of late, but I guess a bass just can't resist a little helgie apeteaser.

The real highlight of the evening had to be the fire. Did I say fire? Okay, inferno. Tim brought down an old roulette type wheel and stand that had been in storage for a few years for disposal. (Please note the posts this year that had an "out of the ordinary" project - who's idea do they all seem to be? I'm starting to see a pattern.) The obvious disposal method was to burn it. We started with a small fire that slowly got moved into the base of the wheel. The result is shown in the pictures. I'm really glad no one called the fire department on this one. Truly spectacular.

We also got into a few games of washer toss this week where the Harper boys soundly beat Ted and I.

All in all, this was a great night at the river.

River Day 09/12/2011

After the dry, hot summer we've had, you can definitely see and feel fall on the way. We haven't been down to the river for a few weeks because of the holiday last week, and in that two week period even the feel of the river is different; cooler temps, leaves changing, water level up (and cooler). Celebrating River Day this week were Jay, Tim and I (Mark).

You can see in the photos that there are already leaves on the ground, not just changing, and the temperature this week was in the upper 70's to near 80. Everything was quiet around the camp; guess all the summer hoopla is over for the season. Freddie was the only one of the locals we saw this week.

We spent the first part of the evening fishing, or trying to anyway. Since the river is up compared to the last few River Days, we had to fish closer to the bank. Tim was the only one that had any luck. I trudged out through the grass and water and tried fly fishing for a while but never had a bite.

After the fishing we got into a few games of washer toss, otherwise known as "hillbilly horseshoes". I'm pretty sure Tim came out on top of that little competition.

Since it was still warm, we didn't have a huge fire this week, but it was probably still the best one on the river (not pictured this week).