Susan and I had a wonderful ride through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee last weekend.

I had a ball last weekend hunting for grouse in the mountains. While we didn’t down any birds, we jumped several and had over a dozen beautiful points by the dogs.

Fishing was slow last weekend for me on Belews Creek Lake. I had hoped to get to Kerr Lake and do some striper and bass fishing, but unplanned work obligations and other distractions prevented me from getting there like I’d planned.

It is with a heavy heart and much sadness that I tell you Susan and I lost our beloved friend and fishing companion this week.

Now I love fishing. There’s nothing like the thrill of that tug on your line when you finally get a strike after casting for a couple of hours without a bite (well at least that how it happens with me).

Six feet in three days! No, that’s not how much snow we got, it’s how much the water has risen at Kerr Lake between Wednesday morning and Saturday morning.

My cousin, Jim Bowen, sent a great report from the Gulf stream off the state coast. He and John Currin of Henderson decided to head 63 miles offshore to look for wahoo last Saturday.

The J.F. Webb and Kerr-Vance varsity boys basketball teams, along with the Southern Vance girls hoops team, were the big winners of the first half of the high school basketball season, which kicks back into full swing this week.

It’s a little embarrassing to report that I came back from the Chesapeake Bay last Saturday empty handed (well, I did bring home a couple of crabcakes and some leftover Oysters Rockefeller).

Things are looking good for my trip out on the Chesapeake Bay this weekend with Dan Whelan and his partners from the Beach Pub restaurant in Virginia Beach.