Day 8 – Fly fishing on the Shenandoah River

Hi there, today was an awesome day. It was one of the events I was most looking forward too, a guided fly fishing trip on the Shenandoah River. We woke up around 630 and prepared to meet our guide, Kevin of South River Fly Shop, at the Elkton McDonalds. After a quick breakfast, we were on the road to the launch. After launching and setting up the boat, Kevin gave us some lessons on fly fishing. I was initially a bit intimidated of fly fishing, the sport is unfairly stereotyped. Casting, catching, and retrieving a fish can be difficult, or I first thought. Kevin’s instructions help put me at ease and I was actually casting a fly in no time. Our rig for the day was a 14 ft modular raft boat. It was pretty cool and held up to both the deep and shallow water of the river.

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Below is a picture of some of the flys we used. It seemed today (overcast) the fish wanted top water poppers..

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Right off of the first bend, we were on to fish. We caught a half dozen or so blue gill. Bream on the fly rod fight pretty hard! Here’s a picture of Aimee with her first fish of the day…

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The float took place over about 3.5 river miles. We actually passed through some Class 2 rapids, this made for a fun ride down river..

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There were points in the river where shallow rock allowed for wading. The water was cool but nothing like the waterfall in Stone Mountain, I’m still shaking from that plunge!

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It was overcast in the morning, but the sun came out as the day progressed and allowed for great sight fishing for small mouth bass and bluegill. Sight fishing was a blast, I could have stayed out there all day! The fishing patterns here are different than anything I’ve fished before, the fish hang out in the slower parts of the river in the rock crevices. From there, the current forms a “bait” conveyer belt and the fish just have to sit and wait..

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The views on the river were awesome. There were a bunch of rock cliffs and wooded areas, we even saw a deer crossing the river…

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All in all, the day was better than I expected. We ended up with about a dozen blue gill and dozen small mouth bass. Aimee took the crown for the largest fish (13″ small mouth) for the day and she earned it. For some reason she usually finishes with the biggest fish, this isn’t the first trip where she beats me. That’s why I enjoy fishing with her, she’s good luck! At the end of the day, you couldn’t have payed me a million dollars to remove the smile off of my face. Until tomorrow…

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Jacob’s Jambalaya

Alright, here’s my quick and easy Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya Recipe. I most often cook this during camping trips because it doesn’t take much cooking time as a typical pork Jambalaya often does. Gotta cook it in a well-seasoned cast iron pot, we love it..

Ingredients
1 – medium Onion
1 – Large Bell pepper
1 – 4 stalks of celery
4 – cloves of garlic
2#’s of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2#’s of smoke pork sausage
10 cups of chicken broth
4 cups of parboiled rice
2 tablespoons of oil
Your favorite cajun seasoning, we like Slap Ya Mama

Cut up vegetables and set aside. Cut chicken thighs into 1″ x 1″ pieces and season well. Heat cast iron pot on medium to high and add oil. Place seasoned chicken thighs into pot and push down so that the chicken thighs are flat against the bottom of the pot. This will ensure you get a good browning of the chicken. When chicken is browning, don’t stir.

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Cut up sausage into 1/4″ slices and place on the side.

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Check out the browning of the chicken, look at a couple pieces, it should be a dark brown. After majority of chicken have browned, flip the chicken by stirring the pot. Don’t scrape the bottom, leave the “gradeau” (burnt stuff) on the bottom, this will make your jambalaya brown in color. Add the sausage to brown as well. This sausage is mostly cooked so it only needs to brown a short amount of time.

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After a good brown on the meat (mind the “gradeau” on the bottom), add the vegetables to the pot.

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Sautee these until the onions are transparent

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Add the 4 cups of parboiled rice. I like using parboiled because it’s more forgiving than regular rice. You can be off a bit on the chicken broth and the rice will still turn out perfect, my little secret. Nobody likes crunchy rice, right?! Now look on the back of the bag of rice, substitue the amount of water you would use to cook the rice with Chicken broth. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect, we’re using parboiled. Add the broth to the pot. Remember that “gradeau” on the bottom, go ahead and stir it up. You should notice your liquid color get darker and darker, that’s the secret to deep brown jambalaya. After stirring up the bottom, raise the temperature to high and wait for it to boil.

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Once the boiling starts, immediately lower the temperature down to low and cover the pot.

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Let the rice cook for 1/2 hour. After time’s up, check the rice, it should be plump and soft and little to no liquid should be left. If not, cover the pot again and cook for 5 more minutes or until liquid is gone. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy, Bon Appetit!

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Day 3 – Lake Guntersville to Cherokee, NC

Hi there..Today we packed up the camper and headed out. We left Lake Guntersville State Park around 9:00 am. We hit the road and it wasn’t that long before our first stop, Camping World in Chattanooga, TN, whopp whoop!! We needed some supplies for the camper…
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We also needed groceries for our week in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so we stocked up at…wally world (Get your dance on Mrs. Denise). We had a nice lunch in the walmart parking lot, then we headed off to complete our journey to Cherokee, NC. The ride was so nice. We first passed through Ocoee National Forest, which consisted of high rock cliffs and beautiful lakes and streams..
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We stopped off at a lookout over a dam where various sports took place during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games..pretty cool!
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We drove through Ocoee National Forest, then arrived in Nantahala National Forest. There were a ton of people kayak and white water rafting, looks like fun!
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We finally made it to North Carolina…
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As we continued on, we passed through Cherokee National Forest. Again, the views were breath taking as we meandered along mountain passes and streams..
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We finally arrived at our campground, Indian Creek Campground in Cherokee, NC. It’s awesome little campground where you can hear mountain streams in the campground, cool!

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We set up shop, with a little help from the camp host (our space was tight to back in). I cooked a Jambalaya for supper tonight (see next post for recipe). We lit a fire as we were waiting for dinner to finish up and we ate by the fire tonight. In fact, I’m writing this post by the fire too, thanks to our Jefa TechWireless Repeater. We can get boost the campgrounds wireless network and the local router creates our own strong wireless network, I love my gadgets! Until tomorrow, Bon Soir!

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