Nick Returns! The other side of the story.

Gary was the official photographer of the night.  His shots are much better than mine.

Gary is trying to get some attention by jumping in the middle of this pose.  

Megan is flagging Gary for a personal foul.    

Theresa and her sister Mary, patiently waiting for Nick to arrive.  They are trying to ignore me but I won't let them.

The Clemson, LSU game was on and there wasn't a TV on (or person around) in the airport.  Loyal fans, Meg and Amanda listening to the game on the phone.  Go Clemson!!

WHEN will that plane land??!!!!

This is Nick's girlfriend, Kaitlyn.

Good friends, Mary and Maureen practicing their flag waving and patriotic songs.

Notice two strangers in the background, it's 11:00 PM and they are not amused.

Uncle John, Aunt Mary and kids made it in from Indianapolis just to welcome Nick home.  Great effort!  You guys are awesome!!

Finally!  He's here and Kaitlyn gets the first hug.  .....She's airborne!

Just stay right here.

Retired Lt. Colonel Don Langhorne, aka Grampa, welcomes Nick home.

This pictures doesn't need a caption.

Those are some happy sisters.  ....and Clemson won too!!

Cousin Lauren gets a hug.

Group photo, just before we left the airport.  Thanks to all!

Putting Grampa to work!

 

I started a new project about 2 weeks ago and Grampa helped me complete it.  This is a picture of him and my new table saw.  Some of the lumber was too long for me to handle and Grampa kept it propped up so I could feed the lumber through the saw.  He was VERY helpful!   I love my new DeWalt saw and it will be added to my list of products that I endorse......for whatever that's worth.

This used to be an opening to our back deck.  It looks like a door opening because that's what it was.  At this point I had already framed in the opening and added plywood sides and back panels.  This part of the project was extremely frustrating because my framing job was less than perfect, causing everything else to be less than perfect.  Theresa was VERY NERVOUS.

This shows the first coat of white primer on the plywood.  I had to use drywall mud to smooth out the outside edges of the door frame where I removed the door moulding.  It's always a dusty mess when I mud a wall and then sand it smooth.  I like playing with the mud but I hate the dust!

In this photo we have added a coat of the finish paint and we are fitting  the opening with mounting brackets and shelves. Grampa helped a lot with the painting and cutting of shelves.

 

Here is the finished unit.  We just wraped it up tonight!  We filled it with a few frames and other things just to get a feel for how it will look. I'm sure Theresa will add some Christmas decorations to dress it up.  Grampa and I added moulding to the floor, trimmed out the shelving unit and put a final coat of paint on everything. 

Fist bump!!  Put a fork in this project and call it DONE!!

Thanks Grampa for all of your help.  There's no shortage of new projects on the horizon!

Stripers on Lake Murray

 A nice striper from Lake Murray!  They are very agressive in the fall.  They attack top water baits!

 These two were in the cooler!  Stripers are good to eat if cleaned properly.  I release most of the fish that I catch but felt like I needed some fresh striper for the next fish fry.

 

 He's not as happy as I am.  Although that is my favorite hat and it blew off the other day.  LOST!

 This is the largest one that I caught this fall.  These guys put up a great fight and they are really fun on light tackle as shown in the picture.

 

 Here's another one.  Just showing the length by placing next to my combo.  It's hard to take interesting pictures when you're by yourself.

 In contrast, this is one of the smallest fish from the weekend.  Notice the puzzled look on my face?  Wasn't sure if I was getting both of us in the picture or not.

 

 Setting sun on Lake Murray.

 

 A different night but another beautiful sunset.

And finally, a full moon that came up just and the sunset above was fading away.  Hope you all have enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed catching the fish.

Perfect Fall Fishing on the Broad River

 

Today, September 30th was an excellent fishing day on the Broad River.  I am adding this post mostly so I can document the day and hopefully reproduce the experience in years to come.

We had a full moon last night.  The sky was mostly cloudy with just a slight breeze in the air.  Temps were projected to be in the low 70's for the high.  The water was flowing, but not as fast as I usually experience.  We haven't had much rain over the past couple weeks.  Temps have been generally cool for September compared to normal. 

 This was the second fish of the day.  Caught this one just as I rounded the big island and hit the first set of rapids.  Cought him in the middle of the river, working a top water lure with the current.

 Same fish front view.  This thing attacked my lure fairly close to the kayak.  I thought I was going to lose him in the swift current.  Next time I need to load up with heavier line, just in case.

 Another great view from the front.  Smallmouth bass are as mean as they look!  They were hungry!

 Third fish of the day.  This one also hit a top water lure.  Caught on the top side of the rapids.

 I was fired up.  I have never caught two smallmouth bass this size on the same day. 

 Pulled up to this rock where I normally have a snack and a drink.  I call it "J" rock because it's shaped like a J.  Makes sense doesn't it?

 In total I caught 8 smallmouth bass and about 7 largemouth bass.  Almost all of them were good sized.  It was the best day I ever had fishing for bass.  

 

 Then I started throwing a jerk-bait near and behind fallen timber on the sides of the river.  I landed several large mouth bass.  This was the largest one for sure.  Notice the size of the mouth on this thing?  It's a pretty long fish compared to my shoe but also notice the width.  A nice fat bass!

 This is the slope that I had to pull my boat up to pack up and go home.  It's hard to tell from the picture but it's pretty steep.  Hopefully I have a few more years of being able to do this.  I need to keep working out.........or get wheels for my yak.

 Same largemouth as the previous picture.  Again notice how nice and fat, the white belly and the large mouth compared to the fish in the first picture. I almost lost this fish to an underwater stump.

 Another smallmouth bass.  I love the dark greenish brown color on these fish.

 

Last shot of the yak at J Rock.  I fished from noon until about 5pm.  I never saw another person during the trip.  As far as I am concerned, I like it that way and I hope it stays that way!  This was by far one of the best fishing days of my life.  I probably landed about 15 fish.  But the size and quality of the fish were far better than I had ever caught on this river or any body of water.  All were let go.

Thank God for such a beautiful day and fishing experience! 

 

 

Fishing the Umpqua River in Oregon

 Earlier this week we fished a couple stretches of the Umpqua River in Elkton, Oregon.  We used fishing guides that have fished this river for years and knew how to put us in areas that increased our odds for success.  We stayed at the Big K Ranch in Elkton.  Great place!  Highly recommended!

 We fished for two days.  I caught about 50 fish the first day and about 70 the second day.  This was the biggest fish I caught during the trip.  It weighed somewhere between 2.5 to 3.0 pounds.  It was FUN!

 Another smallmouth bass.  We were using Berkley PowerBait and jigging slowly off the bottom.

Smaller fish on day 1.  Another smallmouth Bass.  They are great fighters!!

 

The morning fog on day 2.  Temps hit 70's during the day.  The water was still warm.

 We only saw a couple bald eagles on day 2. The Osprey were all over the river area.

 This is just to prove that I am an honest angler.  Some of the fish that I caught were shrimps!  I should have fed this little guy to the Osprey but I decided to let him go. 

 This is the boat that we floated in on day 2.  Sits high in the water and is easy to manuever.

This is typical of the scenery that we saw floating down the river.  Lots of Douglas Fir trees, maples, and others.  The wild blackberries were very tastey.

Day 2 smallmouth.  My thumb was torn up from lipping 100+ fish as in the picture above.

Well, that's about enough pictues of me and a fish.  Hope I didn't bore anyone too much.