AAAARRRRRRRRHHHGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

I tend to get real quiet when I'm fishing - really great way to relax. I also get really still - crane still. So I thought I was being really stealthy while this turtle came wandering along. It got really close - so I picked it up and brought it over to the catch bucket. When I took a closer look, it wasn't my stealth or lightning reflexes - the dude is blind in one eye. We tried feeding it one of the minnows we caught, but it really just wanted to get back to the water. We said "ARRRRGGGHHHHH" to the one-eyed turtle and let it go on it's merry way.

Rolling Down the River

We hit Kephart Park again today and we met up with some old friends - the Thorntons! Mike and a blast catching crayfish with Noe, Melda and La 'rafted' down the creek which drew the kids to walk upstream launch and bounce along the creek several times over and over, Michael, Isaac and Zion fished almost as long as I did. We spent five hours fishing and rafting - and the time flew by.

Goose Creek Fishing

We went fishing today at Kephart Bridge Landing park (also known as Goose Creek). The friendly folks at Orvis Tysons Corner told me about this place a couple of weeks ago - we scouted it out yesterday and came back this morning around 1000. We all had a blast! The kids caught some of these catfish (blues???) with the dip net. The sunfish were more than happy to hit the flies we chucked at them, and La even had a good time sight fishing (she exclaimed "I'm coming back!" and even took her own fish off the hook). If you have been intimidated by flyfishing, go to www.tenkarabum.com and pick up a starter kit from Chris - tenkara style fishing has become my preferred method of angling here on the lakes and waterways of Northern Virginia - you will not regret opening up a new way of fishing that oh by the way helps you immensely with then casting conventional fly fishing gear. Since the tenkara rods I brought were all spoken for (we all had lines in the water - unbelievable!!!) I strung up my Helios 5wt - I had sunfish up the wazoo, but notably caught one large mouth and two small mouth bass - but more on that in the next post. Marlon got his first crappie to hand!!! What a wonderful Sunday!