Anticipation

We look forward to autumn in our home, and we do our best to begin enjoying the season early, even if that means pretending a bit. My wife recently baked a homemade apple pie to help usher in autumn, and I couldn't help but notice a hint of orange in a few of our dogwood leaves yesterday. The late summer flowers, like Joe-pye weed and goldenrod, also tell me that fall can't be too far away.

I'm actually cheating a little this year. I need some big-water smallmouth photos, so Nathaniel and I are Lake Erie bound in a couple weeks. Even in northern Pennsylvania, the season won't be in full force in mid-September; however, I'll bet it'll look and feel a lot more like fall than it will in Georgia!

Of course, today's expected high temperature is only 73 degrees, and the 10-day shows average highs right around 80. That may not be a true fall forecast, but it definitely suggests a break from the dog days. Maybe we should make a scarecrow this weekend? My wife did bake fall leaf sugar cookies this morning.

One Seriously Big Flathead

News of a jumbo catfish tends to catch my attention - especially when it comes from this part of the world. This 103-pound flathead came from Georgia's own Ocmulgee River earlier this week and was caught on a jug line by Tom Head. Head used a live bream rigged on a tuna hook to catch his giant catfish. The fish will not become Georgia's new state record flathead, although it outweighs the record fish by more then 20 pounds, because it was caught jug-fishing, not on a rod and reel. The Ocmulgee is a major tributary of the Altamaha River, which is Georgia's most acclaimed river for heavyweight flathead catfish. Photo courtesy of Georgia DNR.

Down to the River

I'd never actually been on the Forest Service Road my truck wound down this morning, but somehow it seemed familiar. It was a nice familiarity, like seeing a friend after several years. Although I'd never been down that particular road, a gravel track that twists and turns several miles as it descends a river gorge, I've been down dozens like it, and they often lead to wonderful places. This one was no exception. The road itself terminated at a simple gravel parking area, but a trail from that parking area led to a remote stretch of the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River, where a friend and I spent a fun day exploring new waters and catching redeye bass. The redeyes don't grow large, but they are feisty and strong from battling currents. The river gorge is beautiful, with abundant lush forested mountainsides on both sides, abundant wildflowers, tumbling rapids and deep green pools.

At Home in the Mountains

This morning I was speaking with an older lady from Eastern Kentucky, and she said something that hit home. She said she had been raised in the plains but that she always knew she belonged in the mountains, and then she shared a vivid recollection of the first time she ever saw the mountains - several decades ago.

I'm much the same way. I was born in Minnesota and grew up in Florida, but I remember my first trips through the Southern Appalachian Mountains on family vacations to Minnesota. The few hours in the mountains were my favorite part of every trip, and it seems I developed a longing for the mountains that wasn't satisfied until my family and I settled in North Georgia in 1996. Every region has its unique appeals, but mountain laurel, native brook trout, mountain dulcimers and tumbling creeks make a place feel like home to me.