[John Pavoncello]

Drifter, I’ve lugged by 80-200 AFS 2.8 on the body for years (it’s about 2x the weight of the 70-200VR), it won’t hurt the mount but if you really want to be sure, look to one of the zoom packs by Tamrac, Tenba or others. These packs are padded and hold your camera with lens attached. They make them big enough for the 70-200. For larger lenses, 300-400mm 2.8’s I’ve always used a dedicated strap on the lens, but it’s not worth getting all tangled up for a little zoom

[John Pavoncello]

http://www.photoshelter.com/user/pavoncello
http://www.pavoncello.wordpress.com

That’s it for me so far, I really need to get a real web page

[John Pavoncello]

Zach,
I can see your point but I thought the same thing when digital was first introduce just 10 years ago. No way would we ever give up film.
I also never expected to see the end of printed newspapers in my lifetime, but a ton of small ones are gone and some of the larger circ. papers are moving over to the web exclusively. Our newspaper is at the point were the printed edition is secondary to the web. We don’t worry about it anymore.
With the advances we have made in digital photography and the web in just the past five years, the current trend for going “green” and the cost associated with printed publications, I truly believe that in maybe 10 years at the most, we will see an end to printed media. I hope it never happens, but it’s the future.

[John Pavoncello]

Looks like you had fun.

I’d like to take this opportunity to make a quick plea about taking pictures of our fish.
I have seen tons of photos, not only on this site but on all the others as well, of fish lying on dirt, snow, rocks, grass etc., etc. Please, unless you’re planning on killing the fish for dinner, don’t lay the fish on the ground. You are increasing the risk of causing injury by damaging the slime coat or picking up foreign matter. Use your landing net as a quick background, over the water, or hold the fish loosely (don’t choke the poor thing) in your wet hand for a quick snap and then return it.
As a group, fly fisherman are very concerned about catch and release, preserving our quarry. We’ll use barbless hooks and buy special nets but we toss the fish on the ground to take a photo.

[John Pavoncello]

If you do find yourself in the traffic jam called Pigeon Forge, take Wears Valley Road about mid way through town over to Townsend.

[John Pavoncello]

“I respectfully totally & completely disagree.
in 1985 a high quality monitor (color VGA) was 640×480.

[John Pavoncello]

Only gonna say one word Zach.

[John Pavoncello]

I’ve stayed in the Elkmont campground and really enjoyed it. If you get the right site, you can wake up in the morning, roll out of you sleeping bag and step into the creek to fish.
I was down about three weeks ago and the fishing was great. Abrams Creek in Cades Cove was by far the best with march browns, Quill Gordons, caddis and Green Drakes coming off.
None of the high-altitude streams were fishing well at all. We had our best luck at Abrams, then Tremont and on Elkmont. Almost all of our fish were caught on some sort of size 14 or 12 parachute pattern, either a p-Adams or a p-March Brown. I caught a few on a bead head PT nymph also.
There’s been a lot of rain and if you go Saturday, you’re gonna get more.
Check out Little River Outfitters fishing report at
http://littleriveroutfitters.com/pages/fishing/report.htm
There is also a big event going on this weekend. They are opening an unfinished stretch of the Foothills Parkway which is supposed to have some beautiful views and expected to draw 14,000 visitors this weekend.

[John Pavoncello]

Ron – really like the breeching shotgun.

[John Pavoncello]

Check out my site at
http://www.photoshelter.com/user/pavoncello

[John Pavoncello]

I’ve pointed this out before in other posts and will say it again. I use Photoshelter to archive and display my work. There is no way of downloading an image off of their site. The only thing that can be done (and it has been already) is to take screen shots of the thumbnails and manipulate them from there which results in crappy prints. I did have some of my images stolen this way by a college student who used them in a Powerpoint presentation. Thankfully, word got back to me and he was made to cease and desist.

I highly recommend Photoshelter.

[John Pavoncello]

If you decide to part with it, let me know, I’ll buy it from you.

[John Pavoncello]

I don’t know why you don’t just strobe him while he’s getting ready and setting up. Unless the birds are on top of you, they’re not going to see it.
Personally, I’d use at least two if not three SB-800’s (or whatever the Canon Eqv. is), put on the supplied warming gels to get that nice “headlight look” and strobe him. No more 640ISO, no more f1.8.

How are you planning on lighting the hunter inside of his blind? I can tell you, it’s dark inside there, even in the middle of the day. Besides, unless he’s hunting out of the largest DoubleX blind, you’re gonna need a 10-12mm lens on a digital body to get a decent image inside the blind.

[John Pavoncello]

I’d be interested in the Corltand 3wt, do you have an idea of what you’d like for it?

[John Pavoncello]

Me Too! Thanks Zach!

[John Pavoncello]

Got back late last night after a whirlwind week in the Smokies.

My cousin and I fished five days and caught almost 100 rainbows, almost all on dry flies.
For those of you fishing there in the next couple of days, Abrams creek has an amazing Green Drake hatch coming off along with March Browns and what looked like Henricksons. I caught 14 on Friday, all on a size 10 Parachute March Brown. The largest was almost 12 inches which for me is a monster in the Smokies.

Thanks to all that offered suggestions before we left and a BIG thank you to the guys at Little River Outfitters. I have to be honest, we were cheap on our licenses (got the 10 day $10 NC) but between my cousin and I, we dropped over $400 in LRO and another $100 in the park on gifts for the family. A special thanks to Daniel for helping my cousin out with his rod purchase and to Byron for the Tremont suggestion. We got into a bunch of great fish there and the scenery is beautiful. Can’t believe I never stopped there on my first seven trips to the Smokies.

I’ve posted a photo gallery from my trip on my fly-fishing blog at:

http://members.americanangler.com/pavoncello

[John Pavoncello]

I’ll second “Fishing the Dry Fly As A Living Insect”

[John Pavoncello]

I had one of the dryzone bags also, I wouldn’t recommend using anything that is petroleum based on it. You could actually give it a little shot of PAM cooking spray if needed.
John

[John Pavoncello]

Thanks Jeff,

According to the Little River Outfitters website, the hatches are supposed to be coming off pretty good and so is the fishing. I really hope so. My first trip to the Smoky’s in three years.
I’ll take a look at Greenbrier, I’ve never fished that one.

[John Pavoncello]

Hey Rick,
Thanks! I noticed the hum too, it’s something with the air filtration system he has in his workshop. I never noticed it until I started editing the video.
John

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