Two trips for Monday, May 30, 2011 and Tuesday, May 31, 2011

We made two different trips on Monday and Tuesday. The first trip was another float down the trophy section of Watauga River and the second one we paddled out to a large island on Watauga Lake.

The Watauga River trip was fairly uneventful. We hit the water by just after 8:00 AM. Caught a few nice trout and had a fun day on the water but nothing to speak of really. We did get to chat with a few more drift boaters and had a couple of rafters come by. One thing I do feel as though I need to bring up is etiquette on the water. Normally I try to be as courtius to others as possible and will give up good stretches of water if others are even near by. My thought is that there is always more spots down river somewhere. I very upset with the way the rafters acted when they came by. Jordan and I were sitting in a calm stretch playing with some trout when the rafters came by yelling, splashing and squirting water everywhere. Even when they got along side of us they were slapping their paddles on the water.

Without a doubt I know they saw us there because several of them even waved at us. I understand that they paid a lot of money to take that trip however a little common courtesy in a hundred yard stretch of water goes a long way with the others you are sharing the river with.

Well that's my rant for the day!

Watauga River Trophy Section

Here is a track of the float down the trophy section of Watauga River.

On Tuesday we headed out a little after 1:00 PM to let the kids play at the lake and to spend some time together as a family. We took all three of our kayaks so that Brianna, my oldest daughter, could try out the kayak some.

Once at Watauga Lake we got the kayaks in the water and started out. I let Brianna get used to the kayak and then took her out to an island not far from the swimming area we were at. The island is kinda small and has several older geese nests on it. Once I felt she was ready we decided to kayak down the lake to a large island we are planning a camping trip on. It was a good little paddle to it and all three of us were pretty wore out.

I had planned to paddle back to where we started but decided to call Misty to drive up the lake from where she was with our two youngest ones and pick the three of us up.

Watauga Lake

Here is a track of our trip on Watauga Lake.

All in all we had a great day and a great Memorial day weekend. Jordan and I went kayaking all four days I was off for a total of just over 20 miles of water time. We caught a good bit of trout with several of them being pretty decent. A man can't ask for much better of a time!