Headwater Bushwackin'

With only hours to go before standing in the firing line of my cousin's wedding, I managed to sneak out for a few hours to the headwaters of one of my favorite streams. This section is tough, with super cagey fish and very tight places...but it's worth it. Three of us made the trip up, anxious to sling some dry flies and try some new sections of this stream. The campers and hikers were out in abundance but thankfully we didn't see any other fisherman. It's always a shock to see so many campers and hikers that don't fish, not that I mind or anything...

As you can see in the next picture it would probably help if I read the local news from time to time. I miss the very local goings on...like rock slides. You see, I live in one county but work in another, so I tend to read the paper from the county I work in. But, this dandy little rock slide didn't keep a worn out Ford and a very worn out Toyota from fishing. Heck, I'm sure I coulda locked the hubs and climbed that sucker if I needed to...agree?

The three of us decided to slipt up. I took the top section and the two of them played hopscotch on the lower section. Upon tying on an elk hair caddis and making my first cast I was rewarded with a surprise...a nice 7" brookie. A brook isn't very rare for this creek but fairly rare as mostly browns and rainbows call it home. I was seconds from a picture when he escaped me. As we all know when the first cast is easy and you think, "Man, this is going to be an excellent day", most often it turns out to be a bust. This wasn't exactly true but the fishing was very difficult for my eight foot sage. If I had any brains I would leave my little 6 footer in the truck for such a dance as this one but I'm a dofus and I love my sage. Cheating on her hurts sometimes.

At the end of the day as I worked my way as high as you could possibly fish, numerous trout were landed and my partner in crime pulled a super nice brown from a very unlikely spot just above a well used camping area...with campers in it. We were happily shocked.

I normally never loose but a fly or two but this stream, I should say, this stream's laurel took many a fly from me this day. I went monkey on a couple to get them back. For some stupid reason I've taken up tying my own flies, I guess now I can afford to loose a couple...???...

Where I been...

I been hidin. Not really. Been fishing twice since my last post but not much to report. Took the entire family...well, a good bit of them, up to Helton DH for a go 'round with the stockers. But, when we arrived it was HIGH and MUDDDDDDDY. Like pumpin' hot nestle quick without the marshmellows. I do think everyone landed at least one fish. I managed to help my little fragile sis onto a good size brookie. The ONLY place a fish could be found was in the rare and few dead spots on the edges of a run. I slipped up on her while she was still getting the hang of the open face spin rod. I told her, I would bet a couple bucks a fish is waiting for you just behind that big log. That big log slowed the water enough for a fish to hang on in the hydro force mud bath. She couldn't get the cast down so I forced her to get her little toes wet, try mulitple casts and finally it was WHAMMY on a spec. She was pumped. The other highlight was of course watching my son have a blast throwing sticks, rocks, sticks, rocks and rocks in the water. He WILL be an outdoorsman...I'm almost confident.



Most recently, on a whim, Joey and I tried a stream marked as C&R just off the parkway. Dude, what a bust! I'd give the name but I'm gonna save my embarssment cause I'd guess somebody would laugh at us for even trying this hole. I knew quick when we pulled a couple of them stoopid shiners from suspecting holes that the creek was a bust. We high tailed it back out, drove to investigate another stream and then rolled back off the mountain. All I can say is the stream was almost pitiful enough to put me in a fish depression. I almost stopped at the grocery store just to go remind myself what a trout looks like. I can't speak of it anymore or I'll put all my junk on ebay.....kidding!

Hang on for a more decent report this weekend. I got something better up my sleeve.


later

Liquid gold rainbows...

The three day weekend! Ah, the thought of knowing no return for work on the dreaded Monday, 3 days of true un-worked bliss. In this day and age I'm more than grateful to have a job, I live in the one of the hardest hit areas in the US, but I still get the working blues. In my field of work I deal with those businesses struggling to survive and it takes a mental toll on a man. But, back to the issue at hand...no work for 3 days! The idea of a repeat camping/fishing trip like last year's Memorial Day weekend sounded great, but this particular one only held about a 1/3 of that amount of free time.

Early Saturday morning Joey and I headed a little north of our town to smack around some wild rainbows. This stream is his "teeth cutting" ground and he talks of it as if it spew forth liquid gold. But, to an addicted fly fisherman I suppose hungry, wicked-mean bows are liquid gold.

We arrived and finally got the felt wet at around 6:45am and we were very pleased nobody else would give us company. We passed numerous campers in the lower elevations but not at our desired location for the day. We only had about a half day as usual so the stream had to be close and not too much of a walk. Upon initial inspection absolutely no bugs were coming off so we just went with the faithful dry/dropper combo. I rigged up a orange stimiulator with a pheasant tail dropper...a tiny one at that.

My stick of choice today was knocking the dust off the ultralight 3 weight basspro combo..."white river" that call it. I know lots of people, including me, have to start with combos that the big box stores provide due to cost of entry for fly fishing, but this set up is premium in my opinion. It was not a starter rod for me (and not priced as such). I purchased it because it looked and sounded so awesome...and indeed it is. It truely is ULTRALIGHT. I'm not sure but I'd bet it's right at 1 ounce or less and came equipped with a tiny reel that only holds about half of the yardage a normal reel would wrap.

Okay, enough on equipment, hows about the fish!? Well, started out SLOOOOW. Took us about an hour to really get some action. After the sun popped out things picked up quickly. We landed too many to count and a few really good ones. Most all came on the nymph unless we were casting to the more shallow runs or pockets. This stream is a ton of fun and has some excellent pockets and pools. It also has a tremendous population of small trout, which will be great for years to come.

The highlight of the day came while Joey was working one of the largest pools on the creek. The pool had two definite runs, one of each side that spanned probably 40 feet. He just happened to see a nice fish rise and gave him an offering. And WHAM it was on like stink on a donkey. The bow was determined to give his TFO 3 weight a run for the money. I quickly said, "horse that sucker up or you'll be in that laurel." My advise was too late, so in the bush they went, rod dropped and line in hand. He managed him out untangled and realized that boss was crowding 10 inches and had the attitude of a detoxing metal head. A real pig for this tiny stream.

In the end we really did loose count and were surprised and some of the areas we pulled fish from. I even managed one between two blowdowns you couldn't even cast to, I simply eased the fly down, hooked a fish and hoisted him up. I've never had that kinda luck, no matter how big a horseshoe I haul in the back of the 'yota.

Our list of streams to fish continues to grow. I'm thankful for the time and opportunity so close to home.

Thanks for reading, now go catch a fish.

Bluegillin' again...

Ahhh, the weekend again. Nothing beats free time and not having to listen to "The Man" tell you when and where and how. If I ever have to work weekends I better get 3 days off during the week. Don't think I could take it.

This weekend didn't have much time for fishing. Me and my favorite buddy (two year old son "Bubba") spent the better part of Saturday just riding around and scouting some streams. He's still kinda small to be fishing any kind of technical streams...by that I mean streams without a solid, flat bank so he don't fall in over his head. It was wonderful to see most all the high country streams around here flowing good, he loved all the waterfalls.

Late in the day my father-in-law and I took a small jon boat we use from time to time over to a local pond a friend of mine has on his land. We mainly set out just to make sure the boat doesn't leak before we hit a few long float trips in the next couple months. This pond is within 5 minutes of my house which is very awesome. The father-in-law wore me out and didn't mind letting me know. I figure I let him since he let me marry his daughter and all. He was flippin plastic grubs and I was working a popper/dropper combo. I landed a great number of bluegill but the crappies appeared to prefer that little plastic grub as they totally snubbed me. A little rain fell for no more than 2 mintues and the action flat out stopped. I mean, d-e-a-d stopped. So, we packed her up and went home. Not bad for two hours of fishing. Beats answering to "The Man". Did I say that already?

Blown Out Wild Brookies

After a break in the rain we've been getting, the clouds decided to part and give a man a dry hat for a few hours on Saturday. And I must say we had a most excellent day on a wild brook trout stream. We arrived at our "secret" stream at about 6:45am to hear it's normal trickle sound like rushing whitewater. I assumed this stream would have been a good bet for almost normal flows even after all the rain we've gotten over the past two weeks, man did I get surprised! I'm more than thrilled to see the rain after the two years of drought we've had. I told someone 10 inches of rain is a blessing, but all 10 inches don't have to come in 10 minutes. We've had some true frog stranglers lately.

I couldn't help but notice that while at the truck suiting up we were almost dive bombed by what appeared to be some type of morning dun mayfly. I didn't get a good pic but they were very orange in color. So orange I actually didn't have anything in my box that matched it exactly but got pretty darn close with something good enough to bend the rod multiple times.

The only downfall to our day was the flow. Most big holes or runs were flowing so fast with so much hydro they became a waste of time. The Lord did see fit to shine on us though and we landed our fair share of wild brookies. Had the water not been flowing so hard I'm confident that strong hatch of duns woulda proved to be the ticket. I landed nearly all of mine on top with a orange colored stimulator and a few with a tiny bead head, lead wrapped stonefly with a little orange flash. The stoneflies were also coming off strong along with a few yellow sallie type mayflies. Our selection of what to throw was numerous but those duns were coming off by the dozen.

Pushing 11:45am and nearing the end of our alloted time a monster for this creek decided to give us a skipped heartbeat. A very large trout played hide and seek with us for about 20 minutes in a wonderful little pool that held a few nice ones. I had already commited to give my bud this hole since I worked the last one and landed a nice 9 incher. Working the hole in style a smaller fish smacked his dry a few times at the end of the run and shortly after he got all tangled up in a blowdown. "Ah!, what a shame", I said. "No way you can get up there, untangle and not spook that hole." It sounded good and he agreed (it was the truth, seriously). After about two casts the big boy rolled on me but gave me the big DECLINE for what I offered. We both tried and tried (I finally inched up enough to unhook my buddy's fly) for almost 20 minutes but had to hit the road. We'll be back without a doubt and see if he'll hit next time. That fish was nice enough that I would have worked and worked until he hit but we simply didn't have enough time.

I should also note the worst part of the trip was when my partner decided to fall in the stream. I often tell people you always hear about how a man could actually drown in 6 inches of water. Well, apparently that's true (he didn't actually drown thankfully, but I understand better now). He's the only man I know who could get soaked if he was wearing a body suit and standing in a mud puddle. It actually was a very scary fall between two rocks with a quick flow of water and about a 3 foot drop. Good to see he lived, it's hard finding someone who wants to flyfish as much as me and I'd hate to have to go back to solo fishing....just kidding!

And check out this awesome orange salamander. A feller over at the southeastern boards informed me it's a newt of sorts that goes through stages which includes color changes. Go figure! All these years in the woods and on a stream and a first for me.

Well, it was a tremendous day on the water and neither of us forgot mother's day for our baby momma's (wives). Which means we lived to fish another day!

Helton Creek DH

Made it out Saturday with the wife and kid to fish Ashe County's DH at Helton Creek. My wife actually really enjoys to fish and she is very good...I've taught her well. She only spin fishes and has no desire to try the fly rod and I can't blame her a bit. It does seem difficult at first and she's very happy landing fish after fish on the spin rod.

The day was to be an annual outing of about 6 of us family, but due to some sickness just us 3 hit the road. The skies had threatened some rain all day but we only got a very short sprinkle around 1pm. The fishing was pretty good, she landed about 8 or so in less than probably 3 hours of fishing.

Helton, in it's infancy of a DH stream, was awesome. Not to say it still isn't an excellent stocker stream but the line of folks fishing seems endless. The road follows the stream the entire stretch and it's tough to find a good hole or stretch of more than 50 yards to fish to yourself. The first time I fished it I was almost new to trout fishing and new to living in Boone. I went often and learned a ton and caught a ton of fish. Now it seems everyone, along with their brother, knows it exists. I don't really mind at all but it makes it tough to fish when so many folks could care less about giving another man a little room. To lots of people around here that is all they know, stocked streams. The NC Wildlife commission does an excellent job with providing numerous streams to just catch some fish. I commend their efforts.

On the first stop she landed a very nice rainbow on the first cast of the day. I was very thrilled to see this as I figured every trout in the stream had a sore lip by the time we got there, which was about noon. The biggest of the day was about a 14 incher of a very good looking speckled rainbow. And one thing for sure, they sure can grow some big brookies in those tanks.

My son, who is two and a true gift, had a blast just getting completely dirty and tossing rocks, sticks, and whatever else he could pick up into the water. He also loved helping "release" the fish back into the water. A more proper word for him would be "throw" the fish back into the water. We were very careful each one was unharmed. The fly rod got a rest as my hands were full keeping my son from jumping in and taking the fish on my wife's hook. I also was too tied up to take many good pics but I got a few. Each trout was caught on the old faithful "coachdog" rooster tail patter in a 1/8th ounce.

This weekend should find me on a secret wild brookie stream. I hope my SAGE didn't get his feelings hurt too bad just hiding in the back of the truck on this trip...I'll make it up to him with the agressive brookies.

Wild fish in the rain

This past weekend I took by father and bro-in-law into some wilderness in search of the wild trout. I have been the designated guide over the years in the trout world as I'm the one hitting the streams. I grew up in a bass boat with my father, which is much fun in itself, but took up the chase of trout while in college some years back.

I don't know why it is but sometimes it seems when you plan a big trip some kinda weather front will move in to hamper things, and this trip was no exception. But, as an avid outdoorsman constantly chasing things than swim, climb or grunt, I realize it often can increase your chances of success. This particular trip proved the nasty rain front was just what we should have ordered.

So quickly after church we took off to a destination new to my bro-in-law as in the past I normally take him to hatchery streams. However, over the last couple years I've been draggin him to more remote and less worn out water. He just likes to catch fish but I've been trying to come up with new ideas for us as our time to fish together is back to normal since he moved closer back home.

After suiting up at the stream I tied on a #16 para march brown and was quickly awarded with the beauty of a brown pictured above. You can't miss the unmistakable red markings on this brown, a real jewel of a fish. I somehow missed three strikes before finally getting to the top of the run where this much larger fish gave a strike a kid could land. He was just perfect and gave up a great little fight. I thought at this point I wouldn't bother with a dropper but just as that thought ended here came the rain. Never heavy really but very steady. It seemed to end any dry fly action so I quickly went to a #18 BH Prince. This was again my ticket that never needed changing but once...when an overhanging limb stole it...stinkin trees.

We landed numerous fish, probably 15+ total with each an equal #. My bro-in-law took the larger fish, a boss of a brown with his trusty rooster tail. I wasn't undone though and followed him up with another brown of near equal size taken from a very unlikely run in shallower water. Here are the two of them:

I was more than thrilled to simply know a trout of this size was hanging around in this stream but even more thrilled when he landed it. He somehow managed to bring three fish out of this same hole with the larger one being the last to bite.

All in all the day was right on, sometimes you just have to grin and bare weather conditions that just don't feel right at first. Like my dad said on the way up, "the way I see it, the fish are already wet, it'll only bother us." (he's a quick thinker) We had a great time fishing and joking constantly. I'm a dang moron anyhow so all my better friends have an excellent sense of humor.

Oh, I almost forgot. But first! For all you babies who cry when a wild fish dies...you might want to go grab a tissue. Anyhow, my dad layed the SMACK DOWN on a rainbow. Poor little feller didn't know what was coming when he "over-set" the hook. Pulled that booger right out of the water and straight down onto some rocks. That was it for him. It was clearly an accident as these wild fish, no matter their size, can strike like king kong. We had to laugh as we had no other choice. I tried fish CPR for about 10 seconds and woulda brought out the paddles but we left them in the truck. Dad was upset but fish are fish and he didn't intend for it to happen. Wait, I feel like I'm apologizing or something. Now I need a tissue...

Well, until next trip...tight lines and long live the wild trout (unless my dad is fishing and you better learn how to fly)!