This past weekend was perfect, well mostly. I went to Seneca Creek in West Virginia with my older brother to camp, but most importantly to fly-fish. We hiked in and set up camp on Friday evening. It didn't take us long to get our fishing gear out and pick a fly that would work.
After looking up information for hours upon hours, I finally decided that I could take on making my own landing net. It looked fairly simple, the idea at least, and I knew I could acquire the tools easily. Part of my inspiration came from browsing the Tenkara USA blog and forums. Daniel Galhardo tracked his progress while making a net of his own. He took branches from different trees and branches and bent them to shape. His adventure can be seen here: http://www.tenkarausa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=704. My next net will be more Tenkara style, but I have a while before that happens. Maybe a gift for my brother sometime? I would for sure get a better net bag, probably from Tenakra USA, for the betterment of the fish.
LOTS to update y'all on, but I'll do it one post at a time. This is the summer of projects. Earlier this year I crafted a packable alcohol stove out of a beer can. It works, but isn't very sturdy and I could easily crush it accidentally. I scoured the internet for different ideas utilizing an aluminum bottle instead. They have a heavier gauge metal and make much better stoves. I decided to attempt two different designs. One only involved two pieces while the other was much more complicated. I got the idea for the more complicated one on a thread I came across a while ago, but didn't have the tools necessary until I was home from college. It is said to be able to stay ignited when a cold pot is used with it which is a big bonus. Honestly, I was afraid that when I was finally finished, that all of my hard work and all the time it took would have been for nothing. I was expecting the thing to not even work. Here's what happened when it was lit and eventually primed (pictured above). I'm not sure how it will do with the wind, but I made a wind shield a while back so I'll be set! Any ideas for cool camping recipes? Note that I pack very light.
After visiting family in South Carolina, my dad and I traveled down to Boca Grande, FL in hopes to hook up with some mammoth tarpon. We met Captain Mark Bennett (http://www.tarponsnook.com) at the dock around 5:30 to head out for the rolling pods of tarpon. Immediately we were surrounded by 30 boats doing the same thing, except Capt. Mark was different.
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