John&Joan: March 2012

Cotton Hill COE, Ft Gaines (March 25-April 1)

The campground is near Ft. Gaines, Ga. We have no I-phone service, but have Verizon Air Card access. We have a nice site a little ways from the water. This is spring break for Georgia kids, so sites are not easy to get. We got set up and had dinner, then fished awhile until dark. Joan caught a nice bass from shore, but John lost a nice bass. It was a gorgeous evening.
Monday - We had pancakes for breakfast (John cooks these), then worked the shoreline starting over at the Pine Island Loop. The beach is in this area, which attracts a louder crowd, but there are sites we could easily do. We found out that we get AT&T reception over there, so we may try it next time. It is really a pretty loop with a great view. John caught the only fish, a nice bream, but the hike and scenery were great. We had delicious pork chops on the grill for dinner. Our loop was nearly empty after folks left this morning, but got nearly full by sunset.
Tuesday - Walmart run. Gas was $3.63 there in Eufala, Al.
Wednesday - We launched the kayaks a few sites down from us and paddled past Pine Island beach to another couple of islands. We started off slow, but Joan started the action between the islands, by a drop off. She caught a nice bream, then soon another. John caught one, then hooked a keeper sized bass that fought hard, then shook the hook when it jumped. Drat! We each caught a few more bream and were getting ready to quit, when John said he was going to make one last cast. He hooked something really big, that he soon suspected was a large channel catfish, because it never came to the surface like a bass or bream would do. It took several minutes and really pulled on the 4wt fly rod and light tippet, but finally succumbed. We put her in our new mesh bag and brought her home for dinner. She provided two very nice fillets, which John cooked in cast iron over a charcoal fire. We were both using micro-Clouser Minnow flies that John tied. It was another beautiful day on the water.
Thursday - We launched again and headed over to the marina at the state park on the other side of the bay. We fished from here along the shoreline, but came up empty. We saw a very large male alligator who was in full mating mode and doing his vibration in the water which attracts any females in the area. This time of year gators get very territorial, so we gave him a wide berth. We fished the channel near the campground and John managed one nice bream. This was all for the day and checking with other fisherman yielded similar results.
Friday - We drove over to East Bank COE day use area and fished from shore. We were having no success, until we went over to a dock and Joan hooked a very large bass (about 3lbs). She got it to the dock, but we had no way to lift it up onto the dock without breaking her light tippet, so we lost it. We went out to dinner with folks we met here in the campground. We vowed we would not return to Bagby State Park for their seafood buffet, since we got a terrible meal there three years ago, but were assured by our friends that they have been and the food was very good. They were right. Also, John found out that Daniel had actually attended the basic electronics class John taught at Lowry AFB near Denver in the 60s. Small world.
Saturday - Storms came through in the night and all morning. It is very wet here.

Torreya SP (Mar 22-24)

We left Rainbow Springs about 9AM and arrived here after driving about 240 uneventful miles. The campground is small and at the end of a quite rough dirt road. The road around the campground is also dirt as are the sites, which are close together without a barrier in between. Our new neighbors said they saw two copperheads on the trail, so we will get a chance to try out our snake gators.
Friday - We slept great last night with absolute quiet in the CG. No road noise. Other campers were also considerate. We hope this continues thru the weekend. We went down to the Gregory House in the park Nd took the tour. It used to be the owners home for a cotton plantation on the other side of the river. The CCC took it apart, moved it, and restored it on this side of the river in the 30s. It is furnished with artifacts from the period of the plantation. After that, we donned our snake waders and hiked down to the river to fish a little. John caught a quite large bowfin, which is a good fight, but not much good to eat.
Saturday - Today we hiked the Weeping Ridge Trail, then took a trail to the primitive camp and the river. We didn't bring our rods, but ran into a scout group fishing. They weren't doing much catching. It was a nice hike and a good warmup for hiking in the mountains. This area sure does not feel like Florida. It is very hilly.

View Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/114754015214438395393/TorreyaSPMar2224

Rainbow Springs SP (Mar 19-20)

We closed up the house and are on our way back (slowly) to Trackrock. It is only 80 miles here and was an easy trip. We walked down to the river and met some nice folks.
Wednesday - We got the kayaks out on the water this morning armed with 4wt fly rods. We each caught about a dozen bream, but all were quite small. Fun, anyway, and good practice for trout when we get back to Georgia. It got to the low 80s again, and our site is quite sunny.