What Have I Been Up To

Hey Everyone,

Man Have I been busy. Ive been all over the country from New York to Minnesota tying flies and chasing steelhead,

fishing with old friends from high school,

and attending several events and meeting with vendors.


I have a bunch of new gear to play with. I also currently have the beginnings of a shelter set up in my living room and should have it near completion soon. I am planning to hike the 100 mile Bartram Trail this year for my 30th birthday. Its been a full speed year so far and it doesn't look like its going to slow down any time soon (which is a good thing). I will be at "Trail Days" in a couple weeks as well. I hope you all have had as good a a spring as I have and have found time to get out there.

p.s. I am going to put a new section on the site with great quotes about the outdoors. If you have one you would like to share let me know it and who it was said by and Ill get it up.

See you on the trail,
Lance

No I'm Not Dead!

Hey everyone,

I bet some of you have been wondering where I have been lately. Well, lets just say I've been really busy. Between work, events, and the trip that I am currently in the middle of (NY steelhead!) I havent had a chance to get on and post anything. Not all is lost though. Im shooting new pictures and video everyday and when I get back to NC I'll have some cool stuff to post. For now I just wanted to let you know that I havent abandoned ship and I'll be returning to the blogging world shortly. I hope you all have survived the winter and I hope you have some great trips planned for the spring. For now there is a teaser photo for you!

See you on the trail,
Lance

Fly Fishing for Christmas

Hey Everyone,

I had been given a few days off for the holidays as expected. However, I realised that I only had plans for Christmas eve, which was to see my daughter. I soon came to the conclusion that I had no plans for the other few days. Well, it didn't take more than a second for my mind to wander to the stream. So that's what I did I drove to the river to spend a couple days with a fly rod in my hand. Besides, I knew that I would have the river to myself since I figured everyone else would be home eating turkey and playing with their new toys. It was a great couple of days. I'm not going to say it wasn't cold but the fishing was fantastic! Believe it or not but the trout were actually rising to my dry on the dropper. I took to time to shoot a few short clips and here they are.

I hope you all had as good a Christmas as I did.

See you on the trail,
Lance

Happy Holidays

Hey Everyone,

I apologise for the lack of activity on the blog lately. With the Holidays here, it means long days at work. The weather hasn't helped much either. I was supposed to be up on one of the rivers today, but decided against it because of the freezing rain and ice we are experiencing. I mean I love fly fishing, but I'm not opposed to a nice hot cup of coffee and a movie on the couch. A friend of mine, who is also a fly fishing guide, and I are trying to get up on the water together between Christmas and New Years. As far as hiking goes, I get the feeling that we are going to have quite the winter here in NC, I may get out for a good snowy day hike but I'm pretty sure there will be no backpacking until spring. I am however checking out some new gear and working on a couple of projects. I also may have a really cool announcement to make in the near future.
I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. I hope we all get that cool new piece of gear we wanted. Maybe we can have a blogger show and tell. Happy holidays everyone. Stay warm.

See you on the trail,
Lance

Big Brown

Hey Everyone,

I was up on the river a few days ago and had yet another wonderful day. The weather was actually pretty warm and the sun was out. I didn't expect such a banner day since it wasn't overcast and certainly didn't expect what I was about to catch. I had landed several trout that day and was just moving along the overhangs drifting small nymphs when out of no where a huge brown slammed my fly. This fish was 24 inches and all of five to five and a half pounds. I'm pretty sure I'll be looked at like I'm crazy for even attempting to film this fish but that's what I did. I don't want to take away from the video that I risked so much to shoot so here it is.



Needless to say it was a real caper on what was a great day on the water. I had the strangest thing happen to me as well. I was standing there casting away and all of the sudden something hit my boot. I looked down and to my amazement there was a brook trout just resting between my feet. Now I'm a very still person and sometimes don't move my feet for hours while fishing. So with that said I had a fishing buddy for about forty five minutes which I thought was pretty cool. Check out the photo I took of my good friend. I talked to several guys on the water that day and even handed out a few pointers here and there since I apparently had the magic touch for the day. I cant wait to get back up on the water and try and beat my own record.


See you on the trail,
Lance

Hey Everyone,

I got out for the first day of fall fly fishing yesterday. I cant even tell you how good of a day it was. I was landing a fish every second or third cast all day long. I even managed to catch not one but two browns one of which was a nice fifteen incher. I began moving around the stream to check on other holes and was having the same success in each. I then noticed three ladies fishing up stream of me. When one of them came walking up I waved her over. I asked her how they had been doing and found that they had had limited success. Well at that note, I not only gave up the spot I was at, I told her how to rig, what flies to use, and where in that hole to cast. Her third cast produced a nice rainbow. She then began pulling them in with regularity. I proceeded up stream to her two friends and did the same. One of the women hooked a very large, very pretty, brook trout that I netted for her. I must have spent at least two hours just talking to and watching them fish. It was as much fun watching them as it was landing them myself. The ladies where very thankful for the the advise and time spent with them. It was possibly the best day on the river I have had not only because of my success but because I was able to help others do the same.



See you on the trail,
Lance

Trail Note

Hey Everyone,

I was recently informed of a really cool site that could save your life. I'm not sure about you but I usually hike alone. With hiking solo there are inherit risks that one must accept. I'm a compulsive trip planner, taking up to a year to plan out the details of a hike. However, with all the planning in the world you cannot account for a misstep or accident. What would happen if you fell while in a deep ravine and could not move to get a cell or GPS signal. For those occasions there's Trail Note . A Trail Note is a simple online form that stores your travel details. You name the trip, provide a travel description, give a start time and end time of the trip, and mark your destination on a digital map. You also enter the email or text message address of people you would like to notify in case of you do not return in time. This is a really great free service. If you do any kind of back country exploring like backpacking, fly fishing, or ATVs I suggest you check out an possibly use this site. I plan on registering and using trail note for all of my future back country trips.

See you on the trail,
Lance