Broadaxe Reba Air Solo Tuning 29Apr16

I mentioned in a prior post that the new Broadaxe was harsh on descent. I was not liking the 120mm Reba Air 29 Solo fork and the only adjustments were air pressure and rebound. Hmmm... to the web I went and others had this same issue... either too stiff (with "correct" pressure) or bottoming out (with lower pressure). SRAM listened and addressed it by offering "bottomless tokens" (see pic) which attach inside the active side of the shock and take up air space. Lower air volume makes the shock behave more non-linearly... softer at the start of the stroke and stiffer deeper into the stroke. I ordered a set of tokens off eBay but when I went to install them my fork was an earlier model without the threading to accept them... grrr. I thought I was screwed but went to the LBC to see if the air chamber cap piece (see pic - this is the non-threaded one) was a part available compatible with my fork but newer so as to have threading for token installation. Woohoo; for $18 bucks I got a replacement part compatible with my fork and I've installed two tokens. I can already feel a big difference in the garage (today not being a great test ride day with 10" of snow).

WNC Brewery Ratings 26Apr16

With blowoff by SoHo River guides I have time to post thoughts on NWC breweries. In few words - numerous, very tasty & frequented. Favs in each town are Wicked Weed/Asheville, Innovation/Sylva and AMB/Boone. Second mentions include Highland, Green Man and Burial in Asheville and Heinzelmancchen in Sylva and Boonshine in Boone. Wicked Weed's Pernicious IPA and Vienna Lager were stellar and Pernicious was the overall IPA in NC for me, Appalachian Mountain Brewery's DIPA was 2nd overall (they had 5 great ciders too) and Innovation's DIPA was 3rd... there may be a theme but I'm a bitter guy. There are more breweries here than in CO per person but fewer exotics and distilleries. I would rate the breweries in WNC every bit as good as ours in Colorado. Further, the food in each of our chosen towns in WNC was outstanding... I really enjoyed Gonza Tacos & Tequilla in Raleigh, Zambra in Asheville and Guadalupe in Sylva.

NWC Fish Day Four - SoHo & Watauga Rivers - Total Bust 26Apr16

Showed up at shop at appointed time for the famous and expensive floats on South Holston & Watauga tailwaters. I'd flown a day from Colorado, driven 4 hours to Asheville, driven 2 hours from Ashville to Boone then 90 minutes again from our cabin to the SoHo fly shop.They'd cancelled my reservation and had no guidance after an hour. I left. No pics.

NWC Fish Day Three - Raven's Fork 24Apr16

After scoring a $35 pass to the Cherokee nation's Raven's Fork River Trophy Section, Chris guided me on 1/2 day wading trip there. I saw ~5 fish and caught a couple of small "wild" volunteers but lost the one "trophy" on a long distance release. Fishing was very slow and I really didn't think there were many big fish in the fairly easily read water. This section is billed as holding transplanted trophy rainbows but there weren't too many I saw over the two miles. It was frustrating and we returned to Sylva and I paid Chris for his guidance. After another Innovation IPA I headed back to the Raven's Fork and retied a rig "Colorado style" from my boxes. I ultimately fooled a big football rainbow ~19" on a Jimi's Axe and fought him for ~10 minutes to net... he saved the day on the Raven's Fk. I also fished a few minutes on the Oconaluftee River just inside the Great Smokey Mtn NP (awaiting Kala's arrival) but didn't catch anything. 

NWC Fish Day Two - Tuckaseegee River 23Apr16

I floated "the Tuck" aboard Chris Manley's new drift boat. Chris is a young effective guide who is taking accounting at Western NC University and working as a guide and has another job. He's multi-generations from the area. Chris's nice girlfriend Emma brought me a cupcake at the end of our float! The Tuckaseegee is a heavily hatchery-supported fishery with some browns, more rainbows and even more brookies. I caught a triple this day, on the first 3 fish, of recent additions to the river and maybe some holdovers; I caught a dozen on the 1/2 day float. The river was wickedly crowded on a Saturday and Chris skirted around many fishermen. Fishing was "meh." We stayed in an awesome cabin in the Great Smokies with a spa and I visited the best of the three breweries in town, Innovation, each day and tried their 5 IPAs. We ate 3 straight days at Guadalupe's because they had awesome food.

NWC Fish Day One - Davidson River 21Apr16

I was on the Davidson River with Jeb Hall (morning guide) on a nice day near Asheville, NC. The water is smaller here in the Smokies than I am used to and there is no snowpack as snow melts after it falls typically. There are also no regular hatches. It was nice though even if a bit crowded. I was upstream and caught a triple of smallish fish (their were very few of larger fish - but I did see a few in a deeper pool)... brook, brown and rainbow. Stranger than truth - I was using just baby blanket fuzz. We were gonna move to a new spot and I asked about private water downstream near the shop and we were having a pretty good time so Jeb asked if I wanted to try it for free - "sure." I caught a big rainbow there on a cream midge - it was a non-spawning plant. I left Jeb for the bike shop with draft beer across the street - very cool; had lunch from a BBQ food truck - very good. Then I hit the Mill River and caught a gob of 4"-6" fish on dries. I returned to Asheville to meet up with my team and hit our 3rd brewery in the area, the excellent Wicked Weed, where I had Pernicious IPA (awesome) and Freak Of Nature DIPA.

Love April On Colorado Tailwaters 14Apr16

I LOVE early April on Colorado's tailwaters - today was epic on the Pueblo Tailwater of the Arkansas. After flows peaked on my last visit at 1,100 cfs, almost drowning me - today the flows were down nicely to ~400 cfs - perfecto and even crossable. I arrived earlier than others and ultimately the weather was 80° and overcast... brilliant production environment for midges and BWOs - and so it was. I caught many many fish - I caught many fish >5 pounds and >20 inches - I even caught my first browns on the PT of the year and a cutthroat - making it not only big fish day but a triple too. It was awesome. Both midges and mayflies worked all day - pattern probably doesn't matter but position does... fish still have not moved out from the weirs and I focused there in the sidewaters. I did have a frustrating failure to pick up some big ones sipping dry midges but it did not matter given my other takes. I fished the Nature Center and Valco - browns were upstream. It wasn't even too crowded - but it started auspiciously as I broke my Sage One on the second cast - fortunately I was not too far from the car and wisely have two 5 weights - the Z-Axis slayed 'em today. There are too many images to post. Watch the flows and go soon!