blue ridge passion play

having tired of reeling in the legions of alosa mediocritus (hickory
shad for the unwashed) in the flatland rivers, i decided i should head
to the mountains for proper devotionals and resurrection of the spirit -
"the passion of the grist".

left home around 3:30 am on friday morning, arrived in morganton at
wally's shop around 8 am, then off to the campground. settled in, drove
up to opie's creek, and the play began.

in two days, other than my joint venture with walt, i never crossed the
path of another fisherman. spent the 2 days in national forest lands on
the south side of the grandfather mountain watershed area. weather was
great, and the trout were gregarious. (i posted a brief pictorial on
abpf... photos are 800x600 - nothing fancy, other than i finally figured
out how to resize for posting.) caught lots of fish, all on dries. ol'
arbie m's sermon was heard clearly, despite the blue ridge setting...

it was good to end the fishing venture, exhausted from the
rock-clambering required for stalking wiley ol mr. nctrout, sitting on
the tailgate of my truck parked on a gravel pisgah nat'l forest road,
above the whispered poetry of one of my favorite blue ridge streams,
drinking chilly beer, yammering and laughing with wally about nothing
important, as the night nibbled into the moment. ...

jeff (southern hayseed, reborn yet once again)