Old School, or going off the gridof theTodAnd
What a beautiful East TN weekend! It is not my preference to deal with the weekend lake crowd. We all have our rights to the lakes, and I choose to exercise my rights on weekdays, if at all possible. That being said, my bride and I set out Saturday morning for the Great Smoky Mountains. Now, my bride has been my bride for the past (almost) 37 years, and the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains is only a 35-40 minute drive from my house. Yes, I consider myself lucky on both situations! We hiked up a beautiful trail that parallels a favorite stream. If you go far enough, you leave the majority of the crowd well behind. Saturday, that was about 3 miles, and we "blazed" our own trail to the creek. Yes, I had packed wading boots and a fly rod, so as she stretched out in the sun, I started searching for the Brookies! I am a fly rod newbie, and my approach was less than desirable, but I learned a lot for next time. And yes, I did fool a couple of the more stupid of the Brookies! A beautiful day, a great time with my wife. When we got back to the truck, the temp read 76. By the time we got home, it read 91! A great escape!
Today, in keeping with the old school theme, we loaded the kayaks (after church, of course) and headed to some skinny water. We each took a Plano box, a PFD, and an ultralight. I left the depth finder at home to complete my old school theme. It was windy, so my plan of attack was to fish visible structure, primarily blowdowns. I would drop my jig until the line went slack to determine the depth. Then I would allow the wind to wedge me in the blowdown, and dip in and around the heavy stuff. Vertical jigging with a 5 1/2' rod! And we caught fish! Nice fat crappie! Crappie that weren't spooked by a trolling motor or a sonar ping. Crappie that I guessed were there! And the amazing thing to me? My catch rate was about as good as it is in the boat, with a motor that allows long runs, a trolling motor to position me, and electronics on the bow and console to show "what lies beneath." Now, this will not be an every trip thing, but it was some kind of fun! Of course, there are no pictures. Old school don't allow no smart phones!!
