River Day 07/16/2012

The four regulars made it down to celebrate River Day this week: Ted, Jay, Tim and I.  The weather was good; still warm and cloudy early on, the clear skies for the rest of the evening.  Temps were in the mid 80's.

We spent most of the evening fishing just downstream from the camp, and for once, we actually had pretty good luck.  That spot is never really "productive", but it's easy to get to, and there's room for all of us to fish.  I think each of us caught at least a few, except for Ted, but he didn't spend much time fishing anyway.  Nothing was biting night-crawlers, so everything we caught was on artificial lures.

When we made our way back up to the camp, we even had a small fire (well, small for us anyway) despite the warm weather.  I'm pretty sure it's always appropriate to build a fire at the river, no matter the temperature.


Monday was also Ron's birthday (he and Judy were at the camp), so here's wishing Ron a Happy Birthday/River Day, from all of us.

Jay and Ted getting ready.

Me reeling in my big catch of the night.

Landed one after a dry spell.

Ted finally getting in on the action.

The Harper boys.

River Day 06/25/2012

The group got to enjoy another great River Day this week, with great weather to boot.  It looked like we were going to get some rain early on, but it never happened.  Instead we ended up with mostly clear skies and pleasant temps (around 80 or so?).

Ted, Tim, Jay and I made it down this week, and all four of us fished for most of the evening.  I think all of us caught at least one, but I think Jay came out on top number-wise.  The water was clear and warm, and we were able to get a couple dozen helgramites at the store at the top of the hill; haven't seen any of those for a month or so.  Anyway, we caught a few small-mouth bass during the evening.

We probably didn't need a fire this week, but we had one anyway, and yes, it was the best on the river.

Unrelated to the River Day celebration, I did get to watch the space station orbiting over Beckley when I got home.  It was visible for about 5 minutes starting at 2146 hrs.  The skies were still clear and the space station was almost directly over-head.  Nice way to cap off an already great Monday evening!

("I hope Leo didn't see that!")

Happy River Day to Rivertarians everywhere!

River Day 06/18/2012

Back to the camp this week for a pretty laid back River Day.  Jay, Tim and I were the only ones able to make it down this week, and most of the evening was spent fishing.  We stayed in the area just below the camp, and each of us caught at least one.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, especially since it poured rain in town earlier in the day.  I know it's hard to believe, but we didn't even build a fire this week.

Not too much going on, not even a lot of conversation.  Nice to be able to just relax with friends (and fish, of course).

River Day 06/11/2012

River Day was celebrated in a different spot this week, the beach above Mill Creek, 4 miles or so upstream from our normal place.  It's a little bit of a hike in, but it's all flat, and mostly sandy.

Jay, Ted, Tim and I were able to make it down to the river.  The weather turned out to be pretty good, even though there was a chance of rain; temps near 80, overcast, and muggy.  About mid-ways through the evening, we even had a couple of patches of blue sky and sunshine.

The river was nice and clear this week, and you'd think with all four of us fishing, we'd have had better luck.  Tim had the only catch of the evening with a nice small-mouth bass.  We never have had much luck with that spot, but it's probably one of the prettiest views on the river.

Other than some road work going on near our parking spot, there was no other activity anywhere near us.  We did see a couple of trains across the river.  I tried to get a short video of one of them, but either me or the camera messed up; personally, I'm guessing it was me.

I don't have any photos of the fire this week, but we did have one, and it was the best one on our part of the river.

Nice evening with friends, and as always, a great way to start out the week.

(Anyone know what kind of tree this is?)

River (Lake?) Day 05/21/2012

The weekly River Day celebration was observed on a lake this week; Flat Top Lake, near Ghent, WV.  Scott invited the group out for an evening of fishing and relaxing on his boat.  Everyone was able to make it out but Ted (Jay, Tim, Pat, Kevin, Scott and me).

For the most part the weather was good, with temps in the upper 70's.  We did have some rain and thunder at one point, but no one got too wet, and it wasn't enough to drive us off the water.

There were a few fish caught, but you couldn't say they were "actively" biting.  Pat caught a nice rainbow trout, and Scott landed a catfish on a lure.  Tim and I each caught a blue-gill.  I don't mean to leave anyone out, but I think that was our total haul for the evening.

We stayed out on the lake until nearly 7:00, then Scott treated us to a little dinner.

Great evening out with friends, and everyone is appreciative of Scott having us out and boating us around for the evening.

For some reason Scott wouldn't let us build a fire, so if there was a "best fire on the river" this week, it certainly wasn't ours!

River Day 05/4/2012

Okay, so I've been slacking a little on posting to the blog for the last several weeks (or maybe a lot).  I've either forgotten my camera, or forgotten to take pictures, so I haven't been over zealous in posting.  Be assured that River Day is still alive and well.

The last several weeks have been nice weather-wise, and fishing has been steady.  This week I'm just going to post a few pictures that were taken on either my phone, or Kevin's (the majority)over the last few weeks..  I'll try to do better.  Enjoy the pics.

River Day 04/30/2012

Debris in piles ready for burning.

Hope no one thought we were giving up on River Day, or the blog.  It's been a few weeks since the last post; no one was able to make it last week and the week before that we did make it down to the river, I was just too lazy to put anything on the blog.

This week Kevin, Ted, Tim, Jay and I were all able to make it down.  We had great weather with temps in the low 80's and just a few clouds.  There was a chance of rain, but we were fortunate and didn't get any at the river.

The end of last week and the weekend brought some heavy rains to the area, and the river was pretty high over the weekend.  It had receded to a normal level by the time Monday rolled around, leaving its typical line of debris across the yard.  Ted cleaned everything (or most everything) up and fed it all to the fire.

Everyone else got to the river before me and had found about 30 helgramites for bait.  When you have that much natural bait around you can be fairly confident that the fish will be biting, and we weren't disappointed.  I'm sure that everyone caught at least a half a dozen or so, several of the nice sized.

Lots of good fishing, and good conversation...until someone turned the lights out!  Thanks to ALL of my friends for helping me out.

P.S., I really couldn't tell you if we had the best fire on the river or not, but I know we had a fire!