---- —
The Ninth Annual Fireside Philosophers event began last weekend with five Pennsylvania outdoors writers congregating at Camp F-Troop for a four-hour evening campfire featuring corn-on-the-cob, venison teriyaki, a taste of Kentucky bourbon and lots of semi-brilliant conversation over the pinewood flames. Late at night, Post-Gazette columnist Ben Moyer demonstrated the laws of Isaac Newton physics by falling near the campfire ring and rolling downhill all the way to the camp back door.
Bedford Gazette columnist Harry Guyer and Game News writer Gregg Rinkus raised their glasses to toast Ben’s achievement, while local writers Brad Isles and I looked on in wonder and admiration.
Saturday morning the five of us mounted two canoes and one kayak on our four-wheel-drives and traveled upstream along the Allegheny all the way to the tailrace of the Kinzua Dam. As camp leader, I selected the west side (or undeveloped non-canoe-launching wilderness area) of the river, where we parked our vehicles and examined the steep 100-foot gravelly drop-off that would constitute our launch point. Slowly and carefully we guided our watercraft and gear down to the water’s edge and experienced only one accident, a runaway cooler that galloped down the hill and spewed ice, lunchmeat and water bottles in every direction. Again it was the great empirical scientist Ben who engineered that demonstration.
We began casting right away and soon Brad caught the first fish of the day, a small rainbow trout taken on a Mepps Comet lure. Soon after, I pulled four rainbows in 10 minutes out of a long stretch of fast riffle, and Gregg and Harry joined the attack by landing several small trout each over the next two hours. From the tailrace seven miles down to the first bridge in Warren, Pa., we caught at least 30 small rainbow trout, finding them numerous and voracious in every fast-water section with rocky bottom cover along the way. We assumed this was due to our aggregate and awesome angling skills, but not long after our weekend ended, we read in Pa. Outdoor News that PF&B hatcheries had recently raised far too many rainbows to manage in the raceways, so they released 50,000 specimens into the Upper Allegheny a week before we arrived. Regardless, I’m still sticking to my angling skills story.
Bass remained elusive, however. We concluded that the coldwater emissions from the bottom of the Kinzua Dam favored trout and not bass for the first few miles downstream. Only Ben had success, catching two good smallmouths and a large rock bass, all of which became components of our fresh-fish shore lunch on a selected island in the mid-afternoon.
The island was decorated with wildflowers like lavender Joe Pye weed, delicate pale blue forget-me-nots and bright scarlet cardinal flowers against a backdrop of tall green grasses. Brad gave his digital camera a workout while Ben prepared bass fillets coated with cornmeal and spices. We relaxed and feasted and talked about our rainbow trout bite and the beauties of the river we had witnessed: dozens of common mergansers with their russet crowns and delicate beige feathering, a doe and two spotted fawns angling uphill among the trees along the shoreline and one lone bald eagle soaring high overhead in the hazy gray and blue August skies.
We took our canoes out at the first bridge in Warren just as a gentle rain began to fall and headed back to camp, where a crockpot feast of venison roast awaited. We spent Saturday evening lingering over dinner and watching the rain from the covered camp front porch. Sleep came easily and early that night.
Trail Notes: The 7th annual Big Bucks Rendezvous and Wildlife Festival will take place on Sept. 11 and 12 at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Lisbon, Ohio. Sponsored by Ohio Valley Outdoors magazine, Ohio Valley Outdoor Times and the OVO pro staff, the event will feature a Big Bucks contest, free scoring of deer racks, a taxidermy competition, a turkey-calling contest, a wild-game cook-off, a Kid’s Day fishing clinic, various seminar speakers and more. Call 330-385-2243 for more information.
Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Website at www.donfeigert.com.
Sports
Related Photos
-
Well-known outdoors writer Ben Moyer with the two smallmouths and one rock bass that became shore lunch for the Fireside Philosophers.
Outdoors: Fireside Philosophers meet again
- Sports
-
-
Roundup: VQ tops KC; Sharpsville edges Greenville in OT
They say home is where the heart is. But for the VisionQuest boys basketball team, home is wherever they hang their hats.
“We feel every place we go into is our home. When you hear us do our chant, ‘Who’s House? Our House!’ that’s because every place we go to is our home,” explained head coach Richard Gordon.
Which explains, at least in part, VisionQuest’s 61-56 District 10 Region 1-A victory at Kennedy Catholic Friday night. -
Reynolds ousted by LeBoeuf in consy quarterfinals
HERSHEY — Someone once said, “The third time is a charm.” Obviously not for the Reynolds High mat team in a series of 2012 matches against Fort LeBoeuf.
LeBoeuf finished off a trifecta against the Raiders this season, beating Reynolds, 33-28, in the PIAA State Class AA Championships consolation quarterfinals Friday evening. The Bison previously defeated Reynolds in the Ultimate Duals (28-27 on criteria after a 27-27 deadlock) and the finals of the District 10 Dual Meet Championships (31-28). -
Roundup: Sharpsville tops Sharon; KC's Wareham hits 1,000 career points
The Duke University Blue Devils men’s basketball team has nothing on its namesake, the Sharpsville High girls.
Duke drained 14 three-point field goals in rallying past Atlantic Coast Conference arch-rival North Carolina Wednesday night, and 24 hours later the Blue (Darlings) Devils did likewise. -
Reynolds drops opener to Boiling Springs in Hershey
HERSHEY — One of the problems with the PIAA State Dual-Meet Championships is that there is no true seeding. That’s why two of the state’s top ranked Class AA teams — Reynolds (3rd) and Boiling Springs (4th) — had to meet in the opening round.
But, of course you throw ranking and seeding out the window anyhow in the 3-day tourney in Hershey. -
HIGH SCHOOL WINTER SPORTS: Lakeview, GC matmen win
Lakeview and Grove City mat teams notched victories Wednesday night over West Middlesex and Sharon respectively.
Mercer bowed to Redbank Valley.
-
Roundup: Sharpsville tops Lakeview in OT; GC rolls over Franklin; Titusville upsets Hickory
While the Sailors were sleeping, Luchey was laying out for the lid.
Tyler Luchey’s court-length layin at the buzzer Tuesday night staked Sharpsville High boys’ basketball team to a 58-56 District 10 Region 2-AA overtime win over Lakeview. -
Roundup: Hickory girls beat Franklin in battle of 5-AAA leaders
Knowing its male counterparts upset Franklin 48 hours earlier, the Hickory High girls basketball team was not to be outdone.
Forcing Franklin into a substandard shooting performance, the Lady Hornets harvested a 53-42 District 10 Region 5-AAA win Monday night. -
SPORTVIEW: Reynolds, Greenville are 2 of state's historic programs
CONGRATULATIONS TO the Reynolds High wrestling program which became the fastest Class AA team in the history of the state to reach 700 wins last weekend.
The program, which began in 1960-61 under coach Dick Sherwood, has set a torrid pace for winning since that 4-4 season.
Ironically, the school’s 700th victory came Saturday in the District 10 Dual Meet Championships against long-time rival Greenville, which went over the 700-win plateau in 2009. Greenville is believed to be the first AA team to reach 700 wins, while Reynolds did it in the shortest time. -
Hickory soccer standouts Free, Richards to Ashland University
Hickory High girls’ soccer coach B.J. Rudge believes the bar has been elevated, and his Lady Hornets have helped hoist it.
“In general, soccer has grown in this area ... and what our girls have accomplished is a reflection of the whole (Shenango) Valley,” Rudge recently observed. -
Ft. LeBoeuf beats Reynolds at D-10 AA Team Duals
EDINBORO — The Reynolds Raiders notched the school’s 700th victory in the semifinals of the District 10 Dual Meet Championships Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately for the Raiders, No. 701 will have to come later.
The Raiders topped long-time rival Greenville, 51-16, in the semis to become the first Class AA school in Pennsylvania history to 700 wins. However, in the D-10 finals at Edinboro University’s McComb Field House, the Raiders fell to familiar foe Fort LeBoeuf, 31-28. - More Sports Headlines
-
