Skip to main content

A Life Rule: Always Bring a Fishing Rod

We shoved off from the Edenton Marina for a cruise across the sound.  Lunch over at Mackey's.  I had yet to go over there since our move up to Northeastern 'Carolina.  Southward we went, through that tannin-stained water of the "Sea of Roanoke," about eight miles to the mouth of Mackey's Creek.  

It was a calm early-March day, and it was warmer, a welcome thing compared to the usual cold and breeze of winter and early spring.  The "wind machine," had been turned off.  It sure felt good for my skin to soak up that sun for the first time in a while, too long deprived of Vitamin-D.  

It was hard to spot the mouth of the creek, amongst the cypress and their knees and Spanish moss, it's not wide.  But it's deep, deep for a ways, way past the marina.  



We grabbed a fried seafood lunch at the marina grill, along with a cold beverage, and after eating way more than my fill, we continued to cruise up the creek.  

It's hard to describe, sometimes, the feeling of time-standing-stillness that I experience in wild places like this.  There's been logging and fishing and other industry for a long while in the sound country, up creeks like this.  This land was first "developed" long before most of the state, as colonists moved south from Virginia for fresh ground, but has since been "left behind" many other parts of the state economically.  Or, perhaps, saved.  

Winding through the old cypress in a boat or skiff, I'm immersed in this world that hasn't changed much in quite some time.  Besides some logging, it likely isn't much different than it was hundreds of years ago.  It may not see another boat today, and the turtles and ospreys and eagles will keep on living, undisturbed.  There thankfully are still places like this in our state, and hopefully we'll keep them around.  

We got up on a plane to cruise home to Edenton Bay.  On the way, though, we made a pit stop.  We'd brought a few fishing rods along.  A life rule of mine, if practicable.  It was a good decision.  It always is.  




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chunkin' Bait

 If you've ever stumbled across any of my words online, you've probably noticed that I'm more of a fly guy.  I just love that feeling of propelling fly line through the air with the rod, feeling the bend and strength of the rod as it loads and projects the line towards your casting target.  But, occasionally, there's a time to chunk some bait.  The good news was we didn't have to leave Edenton too early.  The bite hadn't started until 9:30 in the morning or so, my buddy said.  So, thankfully, no need to wake up at the crack of dawn to make the hour or so drive to Swan Quarter.   The goal was to catch a few drum, and maybe even invite a few to dinner.  It wasn't "old drum" time of late summer, but there were still some big ones out there.  We launched Johny's Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman, idled down the canal, and jumped on a plane to get over the bar and shoaling right outside the canal.  We ran out, not too far, fishing little cov...

A Little Do-It-Yourself Boat Painting

 "Hard hard can it be?"  After hours of YouTube videos, I thought I had this whole boat painting thing figured out.   My Jones Brothers skiff was looking a bit faded.  The 20+ year old cream/off-white gel coat was in need of some major cutting and buffing, and there were some cracks and gouges and an errant screw hole for a swim ladder only filled in with silicon sealant.  Just the conditioning and buffing would be a major undertaking.  On top of that my ablative bottom paint, that wears off on its own, that I'd done myself, was starting to look rough.   Then, I'd stumbled across a picture on Facebook, of someone who'd painted the same hull as mine with the Alexseal brand topside paint with their "roll" additive, which smooths out the paint after rolling it onto a surface.  I was mesmerized with the pictures online, drawn to doom scrolling online forums like Hull Truth, and others.  It looked too good to be true.  As anyone who...

The Simple Things---the love of a canoe

You don't need much to get out and enjoy the natural world.  Really, you don't need anything at all.  Just take a walk in the woods and breathe in that fresh air.  Having said that, a few items expand your range into nature exponentially.  A simple canoe is one of those things.   Pick one up cheap on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or even Walmart.  You don't need anything fancy.  One person can easily lift a less than 15 footer, especially made of ABS or Royalex or other light materials, and about any vehicle can carry that size boat on the roof.  

GET IN TOUCH

Name

Email *

Message *