www.roanoke.com

Just before I left on vacation I took the last couple trips for the Tucked-Away Treasures series photographer Sam Dean and I did this summer. Sam was out of town for the ninth trip, so I hauled my daughters along to Holliday Lake near Appomattox.

The lake, part of Holliday Lake State Park, is a pretty good haul -- about a 90-minute drive -- from Roanoke. But the place is beautiful and the fishing was pretty good, especially for Jerry Hughes, pictured here with his impressive fly rod catch of hand-sized sunfish.

Admittedly, I probably won't return to a few of the places we visited on our adventure. This isn't one of them. I'm really looking forward to getting back there next spring when the big bluegills are on their spawning beds.

Late last night I got a tip that Sportsman's Warehouse in Roanoke would be closing. The news was just confirmed by the company's corporate headquarters.

The Roanoke store is one of 23 locations Sportsman's Warehouse plans to liquidate.

The store opened in the fall of 2007, and was welcomed by the region's sportmen, who had been clamoring for large outdoor retailer.

Timing was difficult, however. Not only did the store open at the front end of what has become a nasty economic downturn, but just a few months later a large Gander Mountain store opened just a few miles away.

Sportsman's Warehouse had plenty of fans in the region. Many sportsmen were grateful for the company's support of local outdoors conservation groups and efforts. For example, they were key supporters for this past fall's Hunters for the Hungry fundraising banquet.

Stay tuned to this blog and to The Roanoke Times Business section for more on this developing story. 

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the news.

Here's a shot of my friend Dan Genest of Richmond with a pretty brown trout from the Jackson River tailwater. He caught this and a couple other nice browns on big streamers.

My column about our trip, which ran in Sunday's paper, prompted a call from a reader who said he was also on the river Thursday. Using streamers, he caught a brown that dwarfed ours. He said it was 22 inches long. He didn't have a camera and the only witness was his black lab. But there's no reason to not believe him because those fish are in there.

During a recent trip out West I hooked four steelhead while fly fishing the North Umpqua River in Oregon. I also hooked my nose, burying an egg fly into my beak during a particularly ugly backcast. It was a good reminder of why you should always wear sunglasses or clear glasses when fly fishing. Even a small fly is bad news when it hits an eyeball.

I had to laugh when I got this e-mail from friend Scott Martin, who lived in Idaho before taking an economic development job in Franklin County a few years ago.

"Posting the steelhead pictures was uncalled for.

I remember in Boise they used to release the excess salmon in the Boise River for a “false” season. It was a short time deal, but it was a trip to see guys out with huge rods and reels chasing 30 lb salmon in the center of town.

Think we could do that for the Roanoke River in town?"

Here's a shot of my 26-inch-long North Umpqua River summer steelhead.

I was using two-fly rig, with a tiny pink egg trailing behind a big weighted stonefly nymph. I was able to use the weighted fly because we were fishing below the river's fly-fishing only stretch, where weighted flies are not allowed. The fish hit the egg.

I just got back from a nine-day vacation to my parents' home in my native Oregon, a trip that included two trips to the famous North Umpqua River to flyfish for summer steelhead.

My brother, Greg, and his friend Will Hope had scouted the river -- fished it, in other words -- a couple of times before I got there and found some steelhead stacked in a certain hole.

Greg wanted to go my first morning there saying I would probably never have a better chance of catching my first steelhead. After a long day of travel I wasn't too enthusiastic but I relented.

Sure enough the fish were still there, and they were happy.

The first morning I hooked three, including two bruisers pushing 10 pounds. I managed to lose them all. Our dad hooked one and their friend Will hooked two. They lost them all, too.

Things went better -- at least in terms of landing fish -- on our next trip, on Aug. 22. About 15 minutes after we got there I hooked up, and managed to land a wild 6-pounder. The fish wasn't very big, but even on an 8-weight rod (a Scott STS) the fight was amazing. Now I know why Greg and Dad are obsessed with these fish.

Will also hooked one, a hatchery buck of about 6 pounds that popped off right at the bank.

But it was Greg who had the fish of the day, and probably the season.

The fish didn't jump, but had some blistering runs. It took Greg about 10 minutes to land the chrome-bright 31-incher pictured above. He was using a 7-weight rod (a Sage RPLX, if you care). We estimated the fish's weight at 11 pounds.

I got most of the fight on video. When we watched it back later you can see the fish quivering in Greg's hands when he posed for pictures. But it wasn't the fish that was shaking, it was Greg. He had every right to get "shook."

Summer steelhead don't come much better than this one.