Mountaineer Chronicles

For those not familiar, in September of 2009, an invasive, toxic algae bloom occurred that killed 99% of all fish in my local smallmouth and musky creek: Dunkard Creek. The saltwater algae was only able to thrive because of the excessively high conductivity and chlorides being discharged from the Blacksville #2 mine (and possibly other sources). Since then, Consol, the mine operator, was fined heavily by the WVDEP and USEPA, and was also required as part of the settlement to build a multi-million dollar treatment system to ensure future water quality protection.   Its been about 3 years now since the fish kill, and knowing that the toxic conditions were not long-lived, even though they were quite bad, I was expecting that many fish were starting to repopulate naturally from the unaffected tributaries. Evan Fedorko and I had heard reports of the bass and musky fishery returning to Dunkard from other sources, and Evan asked me if I wanted to accompany him on a evening trip. Sinc

Pretty much all deer hunters have heard the old saying "once a spike, always a spike." This phrase was (and is) thrown around by folks who believe that when a buck has small antlers, it will stay like that its entire life, and is mainly attributed to poor genetics. This phrase has been widely disproved in recent years as many studies have shown that the majority of bucks killed are quite young, and that the vast majority of spikes are in their first year of antler growth.  The point of this post is not to start a debate on buck harvest ideologies, but rather to show definitive proof that spikes don't always stay spikes. I posted this picture in my last blog, and its a picture I took from my treestand last year of a small spike (approximately 6-7" high) I saw last year several times.  You can't really tell from this picture, but this guy had a very gimpy back leg.  It looked as though he was hit by a car, which possibly broke his leg and caused it to heal in a

I've been slacking on writing any blog entries for a few months.  My last entry was about WV day, and its now early September, but I've gotten re-inspired to post.  Its mostly due to my cousin who has started a blog herself, and her entries have inspired me to write again.  She writes about running, family, faith, and "frilly dresses." If that interests you check out her blog here . Onto the topic I want to write about....Fall.  It is certainly my favorite season of the year. Fall in Mountaineer territory is a gorgeous site with mountains ablaze with the red, orange, and yellow of the changing leaves. A view of the fall colors on upper Shaver's Fork in WV I know many people love the warm weather of summer, but the crisp temps, lower humidity, and clear blue skies are in my opinion the perfect weather combination - not too cold to be a nuisance, but not so hot to make it unbearable. Along with the change of weather comes many other welcome changes for me.

As of yesterday, West Virginia, the great state I have called my home my entire life, turned 149 years old. I've had the privilege to explore and travel over almost all of this state.  I've explored the history of Harper's Ferry and the secluded wilderness of Monongahela National Forest. I've visited the exhibition coal mine in Beckley and have whitewater rafted the Cheat River. I've attended WVU football games with 65,000 other passionate fans and have had moments alone in the woods where it was just nature, God and me. I've dapped small flies in tiny mountain streams to catch brook trout, and have used large surf rods on our big rivers to tangle with heavy catfish. I feel truly blessed to call myself a native West Virginian and to still call this wonderfully diverse state my home. It really is almost heaven, and there is no place I would rather call home. Happy Birthday West Virginia! Montani semper liberi

For those that may not know, I'm fairly infatuated with weather, and I will likely throw around some weather terms from time to time. My wife calls me a weather geek/nerd, and I proudly accept that title. I've always kept a fairly close eye on the weather, as many of my favorite activities (fishing, hunting, softball, etc) are all done outside and weather is integrally tied to when I'm able to enjoy each different activity. My observations of predicted weather has turned into a "need-to-know" type of inquiry as to why certain weather features produce certain types of weather. Now, I can tell you why we had so much cold, snowy weather two winters ago for example. (That would be a weather phenomena called a Greenland Block - a strong, immovable high pressure system that sets up over Greenland and causes the jet stream to dip dramatically southward over the middle and eastern US, which in turn causes colder temps there and sets up the winds for continued lake-e

This past weekend was my church's annual Men's Camping Trip. It was a good time with a good group of guys. Our basecamp was group site D at Seneca Shadows, and we took advantage of the proximity to some good trout water. We started off the trip Thursday morning by stopping at Chad's camp in Bowden, where both he and I were able to pick off a few stockers that were sporadically taking the mixed bag of mid-morning hatches. After that we headed onto Seneca Shadows and set up camp. After dinner, we headed down the North Fork, where my highlight was a whopper 18" class fallfish. I could see one trout rising, but after switching flies numerous times, never could figure out what he wanted. The next day, we headed to the Smoke Hole section of the South Branch. Chad and I hit the C/R, while some of the others went on downstream to catch fish on worms, etc. Chad immediately had a take on a march brown, so I put one of those on, and headed for the opposite bank. Qui

This will be a blog about different activities I enjoy, and others may find interesting: fishing, hunting, foraging, gardening, cooking and sports, among others. All of these activities are enjoyable to me and could be classified as recreation, but a few have really become a way of life for me, and my passion for them I hope to convey to others. I have a strong commitment to my God, family, church, and country, and as such, those convictions will be conveyed through many of my posts as well. I look forward to sharing some of my favorite things with others through this blog.