Campfire Music & Streams of Bronze

Truck still lacks instruments and a few travel essentials, but
the fishing gear is in place.

Truck is mostly loaded and will pull out five hours or so from now for my first trip of fall. I know: Early September is a serious stretch of the term fall in this part of the world. Still, this is the first of a string of trips that will carry me well into fall, so to me it seems like a fall trip. College football games also have started, so that makes it fall in my mind.

Nathaniel and I actually are not going far on the first leg of the trip. We're going to see Merle Haggard in concert tonight at the Smoky Mountain Center in Franklin, North Carolina. From there we'll head north to Carter Caves State Park in northern Kentucky, where an informal music festival is taking place. We're going there to camp and so that Nathaniel can spend time jamming with friends. However, rumor has it that a smallmouth stream cuts pretty little gorge right through the park. I might have to do some exploration while Nathaniel is picking out tunes. Watch here and on my facebook fishing page for reports.

The final stop is in West Virginia, where we get to raft the Gauley River and then spend a day smallmouth fishing from a raft on the New River. I've fished the New several times over the years, and it seems to always deliver excellent fishing action. September normally offers very low water and outstanding topwater fishing. I suspect it will be a moderate level this year because of the enormous amount of rain that has fallen throughout Southern Appalachia this summer. My hope is that a little higher water will make the big fish extra aggressive.

We'll find out soon enough!