I took a few weeks away from Japan to visit family in Kentucky and do a lot of fishing. I'd been itching to fish Kentucky again since I read the KY Dept. of Fish and Wildlife's 2004 booklet with a list of trout streams that are stocked throughout the year.

Alas, I took no pictures of the fish I caught -- and I caught many (well, many for me and my abilities...). My biggest surprise and pleasure were some beautiful brown trout taken at Hatchery Creek near the Wolf Creek Dam (and National Fish Hatchery...) and feeding into the Cumberland River just below the dam. Red spots on the side, strong beautiful fish. Many thanks to Corey who I met there and who generously showed me the good fishing spots.

I also fished at the Red River Gorge at Parched Corn Creek, Chimney Top Creek and the East Fork of Indian Creek. Didn't really have much success, but I hooked a couple of trout at Chimney Top that got off of my barbless hooks, or weren't hooked well enough. And that's fine with me because the fish in those little forest streams need some time to flourish without too much fishing pressure.

Another really nice place I fished was Rock River way down near the Tennessee border, a few miles up a gravel forest road. Gin-clear, cool and with a nice rocky stream bed, it was a wonderful place to fly fish for trout. There were a couple of pools with groups of rainbow trout and I enjoyed evening fishing, then sleeping in the forest in my new tent that can accomodate a 6'3" fly fisher, followed by morning fishing the next day.

My father and I also enjoyed fishing together at our home stream, the Elkhorn Creek. I finally caught one of its famed smallmouth bass on my last day, sighting and stalking a group of fish, coaxing one of them into taking a semi-wet soft hen hackled, green silk fly. It seemed sleepy and didn't fight too much, perhaps because of the cool stream conditions, but it was still a really pretty fish.

All in all, it was a grand vacation and I didn't really want to come back to Japan. Thanks and love to my parents for making me feel at home again after years.

The only pictures I have to offer are a couple of the flies I used over the few weeks to take trout, bass, and bluegill. Mostly, my favorite soft hackles but also a few Elk Hair Caddis and a Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear nymph.