For a week long road trip that included a college graduation, some family, some friends, and five days fishing, we took some clothes–way too many clothes. For fishing, I also took:
- Raingear. Rain pants and a rain jacket. You don’t need rain pants when you’re fishing in waders, but we weren’t in waders on The Chesapeake. I bought Andy a new pair, and discovered my pair had a ripped seat. It’s probably good I wasn’t sitting down. Kris couldn’t find her rain pants. It rained and it was cold and there was nothing good about that.
- Waders, boots, wading staffs. Kris always preferred an old pair of Orvis canvass boots from 20-odd years ago, but they were constantly delaminating and I suggested she buy a new pair for the trip. Not that we trout fished in Maryland, but because of disease felt is no longer allowed there, nor in Alaska, Missouri, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and South Dakota. For the two days on boats I had a new pair of Keen sandals because the old pair were constantly delaminating. Maybe it’s us.
- Rods. More than we needed. Two 9’ 5 weights for trout, two 9’ 6 weights for bass, and a 10’ 4 weight because after suffering rod fever in February I didn’t suffer long. We used the 6 weights for the Shenandoah, and the smaller rods for West Virginia. We used the guide’s 9 weights for the Chesapeake—I don’t own a 9 weight and will have to contemplate that. We also borrowed the guide’s short 8’ 3 weights for the tiny bookies—I don’t own any 3 weights and will have to contemplate that. Fly fishing is a very contemplative sport.
- Reels. Some reels. Floating lines. The guide on the Shenandoah River said he’d toss in a sink tip, but I don’t know if he did and we wouldn’t have used it. We used the guide’s rods on the Chesapeake because I didn’t own heavy sinking lines. I started to buy them, but wasn’t sure what I needed. Now I know. I’ll have to contemplate that.
- Flies. I took no saltwater flies. I thought about it, mostly because I was curious about whether any of my redfish flies would work, but the flies we used in saltwater were much longer and heavier than anything I own. They were big 6” flies with big lead eyes. For the Shenandoah, the guide brought Shenk’s white streamers on which we caught fish, and some olives that I never fished. I had tied a bunch of dragon tails before we left, mostly because I was getting skunked at home on larger black bass. On the Shenandoah I caught some fish, but I also got lots of slappy short takes. The flies were just too long. I’ve ordered some mini-dragon tails hoping they’re shorter, and long size 4 hooks, but suspect they may just be the same tail as the regular with 1-1/2” cut off the fat end. I also took all my trout flies–and I have a lot–but mostly we fished the guide’s flies. I think all of the rainbows and the one brown I caught were on various colors of squirmy worms, and two of the bookies on big stimulaters and the third on a bead-head pheasant tail nymph.
- Leaders. Some nylon tippet. Some Fluorocarbon tippet. I never used the Flourocarbon. For the stripers we used a four foot piece of straight 20 pound. It fit nicely around my neck. For the smallmouth we used 9’ 2X. Approximately 9’ anyway, I’d tied in bits and pieces of stuff, and I sort of guess at lengths. For the trout, 9’ 5X with foam strike indicators for the squirmy worms. The morning I fished on my own I switched to some Orvis strike putty that had been floating around my vest for 15 or 20 years. It worked fine. It always works fine. I don’t know why I ever use anything else.
- Sunglasses. Amber and low light polarized Smiths. Everyone loves low light sunglasses. I love low light sunglasses. I lost mine in West Virginia that time I fell down in the pond.
- Fishing vest. Complete with all the usual junk that accumulates in fishing vests. Some split shot (which I used), some nippers, hemostats, various kinds of indicators, and nets. West Virginia apparently prohibits cloth nets on catch and release water. I don’t get the sense that there’s lots of enforcement.
- Sling pack. I meant to pack a waterproof sling pack for the boats but forgot it. I didn’t need it.
- Sunscreen. I meant to pack a buff and sun gloves but they were in the sling pack. I need lots of sunscreen.
- A water proof Nikon and a GoPro. I bought a Nikon CoolPix waterproof camera that I wore around my neck while fishing. It was easier than the GoPro and took better pictures, kept me from draining my phone battery, and kept my phone out of the river. I loved it, but you can’t see the view screen in high sun. Kris took her birding camera and lenses but never used it.
- My Corpus Christi Hooks baseball cap, which T.C. Campbell admired. It’s a good looking cap, and because it’s fitted I can wear the GoPro on the back.
For general life I took my travel guitar (I’m re-memorizing Tárrega’s Capricho árabe so I can forget it again). On the plane I read The Chesapeake in Focus by Tom Pelton, who worked for the Baltimore Sun and hosts The Environment in Focus for NPR. We listened to a lot of Tom Rosenbauer’s Orvis podcasts when we were driving. At Harper’s Ferry I bought a copy of Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign by Jonathan A. Noyalas and read that.
When we were driving around we listened to the playlists on my phone:
Maryland
Songs about Baltimore are mostly sad and gritty. There’s just something about Baltimore that makes it perfect for a dismal song.
- Raining in Baltimore, Counting Crows
- Baltimore, Lyle Lovett
- Baltimore, with versions by Nina Simone and Randy Newman
- Streets of Baltimore, with versions by Bobby Bare and Gram Parsons.
- Baltimore Oriole, with versions Hoagy Charmichael and George Harrison. George Harrison?
- Hungry Heart, Bruce Springsteen
- Feets Don’t Fail Me Now, Little Feat
- The Sad Death of Hattie McDaniel, Bob Dylan
- The Lady Came from Baltimore, Tim Hardin
- Tryin’ to Get to Heaven, Lucinda Williams
Plus, lots by Billie Holiday, Eubie Blake, Frank Zappa, and Phillip Glass. I listened to Glass’s Low Synphony three times on the flight. It sounded just like the Chesapeake should sound. I tried to listen to it in the car in Maryland and Kris made me move on. She doesn’t like Glass.
All of us would be better listening more to Billie Holiday.
Virginia
- Alexandria, Virginia, Bill Jennings
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Band. I never thought of this song as tied to a particular place other than the Generic South, but it mentions Virginia and Tennessee.
- Virginia Girl, Deer Tick.
- Carry Me Back to Virginia, Old Crow Medicine Show. Oddly, I couldn’t find a copy of Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny, which was retired as the Virginia state song because of racial content. There are lots of versions though, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine, and Louis Armstrong.
- Virginia Moon, Foo Fighters.
- East Virginia Blues, by Robert Earl Keen. There’s the classic version by Ralph Stanley, so I had them both.
- Shenandoah, by Bill Frisell. Frisell is a jazz guitarist, and this for many years has been a favorite recording. Shenandoah is apparently the interim state song of Virginia. It’s apparently not the official state song because the only state it mentions is Missouri.
- Sweet Virginia, The Rolling Stones. I’m Not a Stones fan much. Typical Stones. Kinda self-absorbed.
- Yorktown, from Hamilton. Not much Virginia, but I saw Hamilton last week, and Kris liked it.
- James River by Checker and James River by Jan Smith. Different songs I think. Haven’t noticed them enough to decide.
Plus Some Old Crow Medicine Show, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ralph Stanley. I ended up humming Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s Cheek to Cheek all through Virginia and West Virginia. And Jason Mraz. Not much good to be said about Jason Mraz, but no harm either.
West Virginia
- My Home Among the Hills, The Carter Family
- Grandma’s Hands, Willie Nelson
- Coal Miner’s Daughter, Loretta Lynn. OK, technically that’s Kentucky, but close enough
- Country Roads, Take Me Home, John Denver. I had to buy two versions of this. The first I downloaded had been remastered with strings. It was awful. I have immensely fond memories of this song from driving out to feed the horse when I was 14.
- West Virginia My Home, with versions by Hazel Dickens and The Hillbilly Gypsies.
- Green Rolling Hills, Emmylou Harris
- Need You, Tim McGraw
- Linda Lou, Bill Monroe
- I Wanna Go Back to West Virginia, Spike Jones
- West Virginia Wildflower, Stacy Grubb
- A Country Boy Can Survive, Hank Williams Jr. I’m not a fan.
Plus some Kathy Mattea. I also put Copland’s Appalachian Spring and O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz on the list. They seem to fit, even though O’Connor is from Seattle and Copeland from Brooklyn. We were listening to Appalachian Spring crossing from Virginia to West Virginia, and expected every mountain turn to open into a vista. Mostly they didn’t, but it sure kept me awake.