Jumping into Fall

"We should even have a few fall leaves hanging on when you get here," Bill Rosner told me a couple weeks ago in reference to a trip I am taking next week. Rosner is a fishing guide on Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota, and I'm headed that way on Monday for a few days of muskie, pike and walleye fishing.

I'm looking forward to casting for big muskies at Lake Vermilion -- a huge Northcountry lake that's dotted with more than 350 islands. In fact, I'm staying at Ludlow's Island Resort, which, as the name says, is located on island! I'm also looking forward to the cool weather as I jump into late fall (lows in the 30s, highs in the 50s, according to the 10-day).

By the time I get home we'll be a week into October, which means a bit more of the season's colors will be revealing themselves in the Georgia mountains. Things are just getting started here. Just yesterday, Asher brought in a beautiful, bright red leaf that he had found in the yard.

North Georgia Trophy Trout

I spend a lot of time with fishermen in other parts of the country, and it always seems to cause them to pause when I mention Georgia and trout in the same sentence. When most folks think of Georgia, they picture Plains and peanuts, Fried Green Tomatoes or the Okefenokee Swamp, not the high hills in my part of the state.

If you don't associate Georgia with trout, check out this cool video about Unicoi Outfitters, which is located about 20 minutes from me on the Chattahoochee River in Helen, Georgia.

Big Cat Quest

I could try to describe what happens when you put the top anglers from the Big Cat Quest tour on the fertile waters of Wheeler Lake, but a handful of photos from the weigh-ins (and there are lots more like them) probably do a better job of telling the story. Outstanding catfish anglers and an truly amazing fishery! I'm glad I got to witness it.

The Real Story

Sometimes I probably miss the boat with stuff I post, failing to tell the most important stories. Landed fish are fun to look at and even more fun to show off, but they rarely are the highlights of fishing days.

Yesterday offers a perfect example. Nathaniel and I caught close to 50 fish in an afternoon float, and I have photos of some fine fish, including a big one smashed Alan Clemons' Zell Pop. As Glenn Wheeler put it, though, the fish are just the icing on the cake when you fish the Buffalo River.

Even very good fishing was easily trumped by time in the canoe with Nathaniel and in the stream with three friends, enjoying amazing scenery, cool wading, plenty of laughs, hearty sandwiches and even missed fish. Of course, I'm not complaining about the ones we did catch, either!

Big Cats Aplenty in Wheeler Lake

Jeff Williams of Team Catfish gave Nathaniel and I a preview of what to expect from the Bass Pro Shops Big Cat Quest Championship on Wheeler Lake when he took us out on the lake on Thursday. Fishing only a few hours, we (actually Nathaniel) caught a 20, 25- and 60-pound blue catfish. To learn more about Nathaniel's big catfish (and the smallmouth he caught today), visit his blog.

A big fertile impoundment of the Tennessee River, Wheeler supports a tremendous population of channels, flatheads and blues, but the blue cats will make the majority of the largest fish that will be brought to the scales during the three-day event. Today's weigh-in featured several 50-pound-plus fish, with the largest weighing 78 pounds and being caught by the father-son team of Bill and Cody Mullennix. A Texas guide and top tournament angler, Cody is best known in the catfish world for having caught a former world-record blue catfish from Lake Texoma.

It will fun to see just how many big fish come to the scales tomorrow and Sunday and just how big the biggest ones are!

The tournament is being held out of Joe Wheeler State Park, which has outstanding facilities for anglers.

Long Road Trip

Nathaniel and I hit the road for more than a week tomorrow. The trip involves three photo/story material-gathering stops in three different states (Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri), but the final destination is the Walnut Valley Festival - a giant music festival in southeastern Kansas, where Nathaniel will be competing in the National Mountain Dulcimer Championship.

First stop in our journey is a very different sort of championship. We'll spend this weekend at Joe Wheeler State Park in North Alabama, where the Big Cat Quest Championship Classic will be taking place. Teams of top catfishermen from all over the country will compete on the fertile waters of the Tennessee River and bring giant catfish to the scales for three days.

Other stops include a float down Arkansas' Buffalo River and a visit to a media event put on by Tracker Marine at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

Watch for updates here and on Nathaniel's outdoors blog and his dulcimer blog.