Time to start Meandering..

Jay searching for another shed

 Better late than never so here is the post I've been wanting to do since last weekend. As Luck had it this past Sunday was a beautiful day here in West Virginia, most of the snow had melted off by now and the temps were in the low to mid 40s at midday. Since Jay is preparing to leave for Florida till mid-April for work we decided with nice weather still, before the brunt of winter hits us, we should make a trip around our hunting ground one more time. This is always great time to do some late season scouting, inspect the safety of your tree stand or to tear them down, and if you're lucky (in our case) or practiced at shed hunting, you might even find a few. As luck had it, I was setting up my trail camera over looking my food plot and mineral lick when all of a sudden I heard Jay yell, "Holy Shit, come here and look at it," well with my back to him and Jay being a pretty excitable guy, I wasn't sure if I should both acknowledging him. Haha. Not more than 30 seconds before his screaming excitement, we had been talking about trying to start shed hunting. Neither of us were experience at this nor had we ever found a shed by ourselves. Boy was I glad I decided to pay attention to him this time, because as I turned around he was bending down to pick up his very first shed. It wasn't the biggest shed, but his first one is something special for one, and two we also have had pictures of this deer all year. It may just be me, but I always find it interesting to be able to watch a deer full cycle and the shed only makes it that much more of an entertaining process.

After finding that first shed, we were primed and ready to walk anywhere and everywhere to find more. It was a good mind set to be in considering we were planning to walk over to Jay's tree stand and food plot as well as head back towards the top of the property and find out how the deer entered the property from the fields. After we got to Jay's food plot we went over that area with a fine tooth comb in hopes of finding another shed, but no luck there though. Normally, this is where Jay would set up his camera, but with him heading out to FL for the next few months, he decided not to bring it up. Most of the deer had worked their way in behind Jay's stand in season and we wanted to do more investigating than we got to in rifle season. We started up a deer trail towards the top of the property. Close to the line we examined a Pine tree to hang a double-stand in next year so we could video each other hunt next year, not to mention it looks like a four intersections of deer trails. We decided after looking at the tree and the trails to head to the field to get some great pictures and do a little more scouting before we left. We didn't find much more that day that we hadn't known, but we did manage to find a decent sized, fresh buck trace on the walk back out. Now to leave you with a beautiful view that is simply described as why I refer to West Virginia as West "By God".

West "By God" Virginia

And it has begun...

Well it actually started back on the 3rd of January, but who's counting. No, it's not the start of my New Years diet, even though I need to start thinking about that, dang no beer and wings tonight I guess. Anyways back to the point of all this, with everything going on recently in regards to joining the OBN, officially getting accepted into their "Everything Outdoors" section, and participating in their newest writing prompt, I haven't had a lot to say about what's going on outside of this blog. So time to catch you up on everything now, actually, not much has happened it's been a boring work week, but I hope to have a new blog up in the next day or two about my scouting and shed hunting adventure last weekend with Jay. Now that all that house keeping issues are dealt with (I know Cassie and my mother are laughing at the thought of myself and house keeping being the same sentence), I can continue onto today's post.

It's a New Year, with a lot of great new beginnings to look forward to, and one thing that my fishing buddies and I know is that come the first Monday in January, the state of West Virginia starts stocking trout in selected areas. There has been more than a few random trips, taking off at 4:00AM to find a stream that we had not fished before and all we knew was that it had been stocked yesterday and we had all day to find it and how to fish it. Those are some great, albeit cold memories (yes, I may have slip in, while not wearing waders, on my first trip with those guys). This isn't a trip down memory lane though, this is actually a post to say how thankful and how well of a job the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources does about stocking the streams and rivers of WV.

Here is an excerpt from the WV DNR page on stocking about trout, but they also stock maybe other types of game fish, please follow the link I provided for more information on this:

"Stocking appropriate sport fish is an important part of West Virginia’s fisheries management program that is used to achieve a variety of goals. The traditional seasonal trout stocking of more than 150 waters has expanded to provide trout fishing opportunities throughout the year."

"West Virginia’s hatchery facilities play an important role in the state’s fisheries management efforts. The DNR operates seven hatcheries and two warmwater hatcheries for fish production. The newest hatchery at Apple Grove in Mason County represents a major improvement in warmwater fish production. In conjunction with the existing Palestine Hatchery, the DNR’s ability to provide sport fish and fish for restoration and management efforts is greatly enhanced." 

From my personal experience they normally stock come hell or high water, and trust me I was wading that high water the next morning. Haha. There has only been a few times they have missed stockings due to snow storms and they then extended the stock period as well as the quantities they stock per stream.

For anyone wanting to fish in West Virginia for trout or any other species of fish for that later, you need to check out the fishing section of the WVDNR website. If you are from West Virginia (and you're fishing for trout) here are some quick links to a few of my favorite features on their website:

• Buy a License - This is the most important and first step you need to take if you haven't yet. Here are the 2011 Fishing Regulations (will open into a PDF file).
• Trout Stocking Schedule - This gives you every stream, the country it's in, and the frequency in which they stock those streams. For those who would like the schedule for lakes and ponds click here.
• Trout Stocking Map - It's an interactive map, it can take a minute or two to comprehend everything, but a very nice tool and provides you with everything from the regulation types to the stocking frequency when it is in identify mode.
• Daily Stocking Report - It is updated every weekday at 4:00PM with the streams that were stock that day. There is a hotline that will give you the same information, the number is (304) -558-3399.

Where is Foggy Mountain? - Writing Prompt

Since I recently joined the OBN, they post writing prompts every week or so. Since the current writing prompt is something I've contemplated blogging about before, where did my blog name come from, I figured I should make a good showing and do this one.

Some of the stories I've already read are far more entertaining or have more meaning behind them than mine, but here it goes anyways.

Original copy of the picture that my banner was made from.

I've spent all most (I forgot those college years, but don't we all) of my life growing up in a small river valley in West Virginia. Naturally this leads to a great deal of my mornings being consumed with fog, it is something you become accustom to. Not until others, not from this area, come in and comment, do you realize that it is always foggy here. Proof of this is the picture I used for my banner, it is a trail cam picture of a normal foggy morning that randomly tripped the sensor. That explains the foggy part of Foggy Mountain Meanderings.

Now on the the Mountain part. It's pretty plan and simple. I'm from "The Mountain State", everything I do involves them, some times are more fun that others when they're involved, like dragging a deer from the bottom to top, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Nothing to exciting about that part, but now you have the explanation of the mountain part.

Lastly is Meanderings, this one I'll have to admit, I had to ask my parents and friends if it sounded OK before I "officially" deemed my blog this, but there is actual thought behind this one I promise, no more obvious ones. Haha. This one is more of me trying to explain how I wanted my readers to feel while reading this blog, just like I did as I sent most of my youth. I was either meandering through the woods with my grandfather, splashing up and down the river banks with my parents, or spending the night huddled around the campfire with my friends and family. It was just a hope that I could translate half of the meaning and love for the outdoors, that was given to me, on to anyone meandering through my blog. Nothing to special, pretty simple now that I look back at it, but hey it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Well, it's only 4 days into the new year..

.. and I'm already checking an item off of my Goal List for 2011. No, I haven't managed to already catch four types of trout, with all of them being WV Citation size as well. I finally got up the nerve to submit my blog to the Outdoor Blogger Network. Now it's just a waiting game till I see if it gets accepted, if you guys from the OBN are reading this sorry about the mess up in URLs, but from what I've read about you two from your site, you're a pretty smart duo, so I'm sure you were able to figure everything out, Thanks again. Haha. But anyways it now looks like I've take my blog public and will start introducing my friends and family to this site, god help them. Haha, but I am hoping by doing this it will also hold me more accountable for posting on a regular schedule. For anyone reading this that has a love for the outdoors as well, and hasn't poked around the OBN website, you need to, NOW! It's a great site, with a lot of wonderful blogs and active bloggers.

Happy New Year!!

Normally I would post a picture to celebrate the holiday, but considering I was out half the night last night, not to mention yesterday was also my 24th birthday, I'm sure you can imagine I'm exhausted. So today I wish you all a Happy New Year!! Now go enjoy the day doing whatever you choose. As for myself the couch is begging me to keep it company and watch some football with it. Hopefully I'll make it into the woods this weekend, actually I know I will, I already got the phone call and meeting time for tomorrow. So expect an update in the next few days and hopefully, if we're lucky, we'll find a shed or two along the way. But as couch is starting to beckon to me louder, I leave you with this quote to remember as we move forward into the new year.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,

 and let each new year find you a better man.  

~Benjamin Franklin