Subject: NANFA-L-- RE: Ranger Bob's Fish Camp 2
From: Chip Rinehart (crin at glassmaster.com)
Date: Tue Sep 07 2004 - 12:02:17 CDT
This past Friday (Sept.3) I headed up to Tenn/Va for Ranger Bob's Fish Camp
2. Ranger Bob showed me around the park until Casper called and said he and
his son Coby were almost there. After they arrived, we looked around a
little more, then we left and stopped and ate a good meal at a Cheddar's
restaurant. After we all had our bellies full, we headed off and stopped by
Bob's house, then on to the cabin for the night. The cabin was the one that
Bob's great-grandparents lived in. There was a large stream we had to cross
to get to the cabin with a narrow bridge (foot traffic only) that spanned
Possum creek and the only supports were cement columns on either side. Had
to walk slowly. Super cool too!
Saturday morning we got up and looked around the cabin a bit. Lot's of
wildflowers were in bloom. Got to use a real outhouse too! After Ranger
Bob cooked a super breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs and toast, we headed
out and collected and snorkeled (mostly snorkeled) at a few spots along the
Clinch River. This was my first time to snorkel but it certainly won't be
the last!. Saw lots of fish but mostly Tangerine darters and Tennessee
shiners. Both would come right up to you. The coolest thing I found was
one of those mussels that has a lure that looks like a fish that's used to
shoot its parasitic larval stage young into sunfish or other predatory fish.
The Tangerine darters I saw were in groups of up to 5. Usually it was more
like 2 or 3. Really super cool!! Bob cooked homemade burritos on a propane
camp stove for supper. They were really good. Slept pretty good that
night.
Sunday morning, Betsy (Ms. Ranger Bob) made homemade blackberry cobbler and
apple cobbler for breakfast...yummmmm. After we ate, we went to Bays
Mountain Park and went out on a barge (super large pontoon boat) fishing in
the lake there. We were joined by Bob's mom, who is a very nice lady.
Obviously she did something right when raising Ranger Bob. Bob caught the
first bass almost as soon as we started fishing. I had my ultra light
spinning outfit so I had a hard time getting the bass to the boat (couldn't
set the hook well because the rod was so limber and line so light) and most
of them got off before I could get them in. I did catch one, but lost
something like seven of them. Betsy actually caught the most and the
biggest. We ate lunch about noon then I headed on back home to SC.
Thanks a bunch to Ranger Bob for hosting us and Betsy for making us feel so
at home and also for the great cobblers! Also had a great time hanging out
with Casper and Coby!
Chip in SC
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: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 11:27:14 CST