Some recent published work that came out this month. The first two are published in this months issue of Men’s Journal. The other two are portraits of an insurance executive for Insurance and Technology magazine.

The Men’s Journal photos were taken last year as part of an assignment and a kayak trip I took with my friend and excellent writer, Tris Korten, along the ‘Forgotten Coast’ of Florida. It was an excellent trip we paddled for 4 days and saw a ton of wildlife from eagle rays, bald eagles, dolphins and ospreys. It was a great gig, I had not seen Tris in a few years and we had a blast catching up and seeing a beautiful part of the country. Tris wrote a great story, talking about how I had just come off hiking on the AT and how we had not seen each other in a while. The story floated around for a while, editors changed and the story was dropped. It has been shopped around a little and will hopefully be published somewhere this winter. Men’s Journal finally decided to use part of it in a round up of things to do in the cold weather. The fishing photo was used almost full page on the table of contents, while the kayaking photo was used 1/4 page to accompany the small story. 

The other photos were for a story about Insurance and Technology’s top executives for the year. I shot one person with the direction of shooting them in a 40’s Hollywood glamour style. The pix were converted to B/W for the magazine I have not seen it in print yet, but it is online, here.

I finally got a chance to head down to the Savannah River for a little fishing today. I’ve fished it 2-3 times before, but never very seriously, just kinda prospecting. There is a canal that runs alongside the river and to be honest, I’ve been looking foreword to getting in there and floating it, it just looks so ‘fishy’. When I get the new yak I should be able to get in there. But, back to today. Bella and I ran down to the river to catch the last of the sunlight. Got there around 5 or so and fished until it was too dark, of course, making it difficult to walk back along the slippery shoals. The river has sunnies and shoal bass and some small mouth bass. The fisheries folks say there aren’t any small mouth in the Savannah, but they are there and they’ve started to create some kind of hybrid with the shoalies. Bella has a blast swimming around and she loves crawling all over the rocks. She stands near me and doesn’t splash the pools. A good dog. The light was great, the water warm, and the little fishes biting. I got 5 sunnies and 5 shoalies to my hand, and broke off two big bass. All the fish came on a small gurgler tied esp. for the Savannah. I had fished a regular sized gurlger before and the fish loved it and hit it like crazy but it was too big so i tied a few on smaller hooks and today was the first chance I had to test them out. They worked! 

Here are a few pix from today.

pretty shoalie.

Pretty little sunnie, but so little. Bella is thinking ’snack?’

Which way is the rock?

Those white toes really stand out. She couldn’t keep from tangling in the fly line.

Her own little island.

The river here is really nice.

‘You catching anything?’

competition.

The light was just awesome!

Well the weather is starting to cool off some and that means it is back to trout fishing. Last weekend was spent fishing with a group of great guys, many of whom are becoming fast friends, from the South East Fly Fishing Forum . ( Just a quick word about the forum. It is a great place to meet new people, many people hook up there to go fishing, a great place to learn how to tie flies, many tutorials, and a great place just to look around and read and post about anything that has to do with fly fishing. It is a very low key place and very few idiots on the forum, unlike many public forums. If you have any interest in fly fishing in the southeast or just wanted to learn some more about fly fishing, check out this forum. )

This is my 3d organized trip with this group and they just keep getting better. This trip was set up so that we were camping on a slice of heaven. A few members of the forum live right near there and knew about this campsite that is not a campsite. It is a farmers field that is zoned agricultural and not for business. but it runs along apx 600 yards of the river in not more and no one has access to the river from his land other than people he lets in. It was kinda like fishing private waters. I got in on Thursday nite after stopping for dinner with Scott in Asheville. I was able to find two tress to hang the hammock and was very happy. and warm and comfy! Spent some time around a fire that was anchored by a 3-4 foot log that was 7 foot long! burned the whole weekend. got up on friday and decided to hit the river right in front of the camp site. well actually a bit up stream. Some one else had gone out in front of the campsite and spent an hour getting heckled by the gallery! So I headed upstream, tied on a compardun and size 18 split case and started fishing. I ended up with 5 fish that morning 3 rainbows and 3 browns. A good time. Of course back at camp others told of 40 fish days. I have never had anything close to a day like that. But these guys have been at it much longer than I have. Another nite of lies around the fire, beer and shine. Up Saturday am after sleeping in a warm cocoon (it went down to under 40 at night along the river and we were fogged in every morning) and headed to a place where I had fished before. I pulled out my 4wt and set up a two nymph system with a size 18 split case on top and a size 22 midge behind. I ended up catching 3 fish that morning but spent most of my time untying wind knots and trying to fix tailing loops and re-tying flies. It was just awful. Then of course I stepped into a hole that was over the top of my waders, which quickly filled up with 42 degree water! I guess that is when I decided it was time to get some lunch. Luckily I had dry clothes with me. after hanging everything up to dry and sitting in the hammock and watching the river for an hour in the warm sun, I head out again to another spot about .5 miles downstream. Well it was an awesome spot and I caught 12 more fish in 2 hours! I was very happy. Sat. total was 12 rainbow and 3 brown trout. Saturday night was a subdued group mostly worn out from fishing I think, and the fire was large as were the tales. A good time was had by all. Sunday morning I woke up ready to hit the road, but after sitting by the fire for a few minutes I decided I would fish right in front of the camp for a bit, I mean, I was here to fish right? So I pulled on the waders and walked on out only then to remember that I was going to be fishing right in front of the whole group! Awesome. Too late to turn around, so off I go and I start fishing. Well it turned out to be a great morning I caught 6 fish in under 90 minutes to the cheers and heckles of all the guys ( and gals). Glad I didn’t get skunked or I would be hearing about it for a while. 5 brown and 1 rainbow trout.

All in all it was a great trip. we were all invited to come and camp when ever we wanted by the owner and you can bet I will be heading back. Here are some pix. Oh, almost forgot! I got a new point and shoot after I filled the other one with saltwater at the beach. Cameras don’t like saltwater. I picked up the new Pentax optio W60. It is waterproof to 13 feet and i used it for many of the pix below.

Pretty brown trout

Gary getting it done.

The side of a Rainbow trout in the sunlight.

The camp site shot from the river.

Another pretty brown trout.

What a stripe on this rainbow.

Look, it is yet another pretty brown trout.

The light was just amazing in this little valley.

Sunset looking down river from the campsite.

Looking upriver from the middle of the river.

Brown trout glistening in the light.

Let me fishes go!

Bob teaching us how to cast.

What are they rising to?

Maybe these little guys?

A couple of Fridays ago on Sept 19th I went to my last NY Yankee home game at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles that night 3-2. It is always a great game when the O’s get beat. But it was a bittersweet game for me. I love Yankee Stadium. I’ve been to dozen’s of games there, opening days, play offs, World Series and many regular season games. I’ve sat in the best and the worst seats there. Once I was so far up and so far back in right field that I was ABOVE the top of the foul pole and couldn’t see Kirby Puckett playing right field ( yes that kinda dates that game doesn’t it!), another time we were in box seats one box off the field right next to the Yankee on deck circle. Oddly enough, the four of us who went to that game, John, Sue, Ron and I, are the same foursome who went to the game on the 19th. I’ve taken the subway there, driven there myself, and been driven there in limo’s. It never mattered how I got there, it was always magical to see the stadium or the big bat or Stan’s. Speaking of Stan’s, I was worried about them with the new stadium, but they are so close and the train will still stop right in front of the bar so they should be fine. Stan’s. Best Yankee bar in the world. Right under the train, open only on home game’s, always over crowded and slightly over priced. But it is a great place to grab a pre game beer with 100’s of other Yankee fans. Don’t wear your Red Sox or O’s jersey in there, you might not get out with it!

The new stadium will be a beautiful place I’m sure. From the looks of it, it is well on it’s way to being the best stadium in the league next year when it opens. But as Bob Marley sang “cause none of them can stop the time”. Things change, still, the new stadium will always be known as the new stadium to most everyone I know and millions of others. But I will be a bit nostalgic for the old one. It is one of those places that has always been there. Never changed. Same seats. Same sections. I always knew what to expect and where to go. I could tell if a seat was good just by looking at the section number. I’m hoping to score some tix to opening day at the new stadium, so if you got any, let me know.

Here are some pix from my last Yankee game of the season.

This is Stan’s. note the train coming in just to the right of the sign.

Stan’s goes way back.

Always crowded on game day.

Ron with a round!

John, Sue and me.

Walking thru the construction you can see both stadiums.

Beer here!

Next stop Yankee Stadium.

Our last real stadium dogs.

Go Yankees!

Yankees win! Yankees win! Of course Rivera gets the save, 37 for the year, and the last out at the Stadium.

Last time in these seats. They should go up for sale sometime soon.