NNNNnggggggggttttttt! Yawn, stretch, scratch, repeat- let’s have some coffee!
How was your weekend? Anything exciting happen?
I’m being obtuse of course. Everyone is still talking about the assassination attempt on former president Trump, and will be for the days to come. I have tried to keep Fontinalis Rising a place free from partisan politics- regardless of your political bent I want this to be a place where you can escape all that. Most of us go to nature to experience beauty, restore our balance, find transcendence and peace. I hope all of us can step away from our screens this week, get outdoors, and restore our souls just a touch. But when you are done, bring some of that peace and transcendence back to your family, your friends, your community, your social media. It’s time to turn down the volume a bit.
I managed to do some garden work (I planted southern peas), and lots of horse work including a farrier visit. I would love to interview our farrier some day- he’s a genuine cowboy who has worked and trained horses all his life. Whenever we get a new batch of weanlings we have him out to teach them some social skills. Things like letting you pick up their feet, which is vital to their survival. If you can’t handle their feet, the first time they get sick or injured you won’t be able to handle them and things will end badly.
I got out and fished with my friend Jeremy Ward on Wednesday, after nearly passing out from the heat the previous day. This is funny after writing about how to cope with the heat last week, but it shows how insidious heat illness is. I got myself inside and cooled off. Amazingly the temperature and the humidity dropped for my day off. We didn’t quite find the fish, but I had a delightful day just driving around with Jeremy and his dog Charlie in an area that resembles Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as much as it does the South. We stopped off at the actual cafe and train station where the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed. I had so much fun I wrote a story about it which I hope you’ll click around and read. It’s a bonus piece in addition to the scheduled Thursday post. You can find it here.
I’m supposed to fish with Louis Cahill this week. Smallmouth are on the menu. There is a river out the front door of his church (he hasn’t taken up the cloth, he bought it as a residence) in west North Carolina that is chock full of them. Despite my love of all the native southern bass there are to pursue here, I really miss smallmouth, and can’t wait to spend a day chasing them.
Before that I have to get through the heat, with triple digit temps forecast for today and tomorrow. This summer is shaping up to be the hottest since I moved here. Most summers have maxed out around 95 here with maybe a couple days hitting 98. This summer we’ve already had a bunch of days above 97 with several over 100. Seven weeks to go before this weather breaks. I’d say wish me luck, but you all need it too- it’s hot everywhere. If you’re headed out for trout, take a thermometer and if the water is over 68 maybe skip it and go find some smallmouth, or limit yourself to fishing early mornings before the water warms up. Climate change is here, and we have to adapt.
My Thursday post was about dealing with the Southern heat. I know, a little dull for a fly fishing blog, but honestly practical for everyone right now. If it works down here it will work for you when the going gets hot, especially if you’re not used to being outside in the heat, and you’re heading out fishing. Again I’m not sure what the Thursday post will be this week, but I have a couple things in the works. Maybe some musings from fishing with Louis, but that may take a week to put together. I’m also tying flies like crazy right now and have some thoughts on that.
It feels odd to talk about this in the heat of summer, but deer season opens here in Georgia the second Saturday of September every year, so I really need to start preparing for that. I have all the gear to film my hunts so I may try to do that. I definitely need to get the bow out and get back to practice. I suffer from target panic and taking a break from archery actually helps my accuracy. Years ago I came up with a program to mitigate target panic that works quite well for me. I may publish it here just to get it out there. Target panic is one of the biggest obstacles hunters face in archery hunting. If my technique helps anyone else that would be great. I’ve also ditched my climber for a saddle and made some other changes to streamline my archery hunting. I even went as far as to buy a .270 last fall and may do some rifle hunting. All my hunting the last 15-16 years has been archery only and I’ve managed to keep the freezer full of venison. I bought the rifle for hunting antelope out west (which I also plan to archery hunt).
Well, my coffee is done and it’s time to go to work. I know it sounds trite, but let’s all try to make the world a better, more peaceful place this week.
Let’s get after it.
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 So happy to see this brother!
Here for the archery techniques. After I whiffed on my first archery turkey shot (12 yards, broadside, missed high and gave him a feather haircut, but not much else), my buddy reminded me that the first thing you need to do when shooting an animal is NOT shoot!