Wild Fishing Saturday Morning

[mtnman2888]

Hello all, had some spare time to get out and fish with my uncle for a short time this morning so we headed out to a new small stream. After our mandatory stop at sonic (again!), we made it to the river to find temperatures weren't terribly cold, but still a bit chilly. When we first got in the water i measured the temperature at 43 and it only warmed up to 44.5 by the time we left, so it was still pretty chilly. I was expecting it to be warmer than that but oh well. We started off and the fishing was slow. We probably fished for an hour with no activity for either one of us. I then switched to a dark ehc (there were flies coming off the water but they didn't seem to be mayflies) and a yellarhammer as a dropper. On my second cast i hooked a fish of pretty good size, but he came off. Almost immediately after that, i hooked and landed a nice brookie which was a pleasant surprise! Had no idea we would run into brook trout at a relatively low elevation, about 2300 feet. I quickly got another one and i had thought that things were looking up for the day but we hit another dry spell. We fished for a little while longer, maybe 45 minutes, with no activity whatsoever. By this time the air temperature was really warming up and i was pretty confused over why we weren't getting bites, especially with the number of bugs increasingly coming off the water. We moved upstream into a very promising looking hole and i hooked one on my dropper and about the time i got mine to me, my uncle landed one as well on the smbsh! Our first double! It was a pretty neat deal. We fish a pretty good bit together and most of the time it's on small streams where we trade off holes, but this was our first double ever. We then moved up a few holes and i managed to spot a fish sitting on the very bottom in about 4 feet of slow water and clear as could be, somehow i saw the fish and the fish didn't see me. I gently casted my fly close to him expecting him to take my dropper. Much to my surprise, this beautiful brookie came all the way from the very bottom to the top in one quick swipe and i was able to watch it all! I've never seen anything like it, it was truely amazing to say the least! We then had to head out so swipper could get back to his rugrats at the house, but it was a good day on the water, although short. We saw one fish jump and the one that took my ehc, but other than that no surface activity, although the water is still pretty chilly over here. We didn't end up in a whole mess of fish, about 7, but there were lots of good memories made. Hope everyone else had a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Craig

Shawn's fish........if you can see it (sorry, had to do it)
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/mtnman2888/NewberryCreek3-10-07022.jpg

Beautiful Brookie
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/mtnman2888/FishingMarch10006.jpg

Can't really see my fish either now that i look at it!
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/mtnman2888/FishingMarch10007.jpg

Yellarhammer victim
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m229/mtnman2888/NewberryCreek3-10-07014.jpg

[Hugh Hartsell]

Good report Craig. I'm glad that you and Shawn got to hit some wild water today. It's good for the soul! The best part of your reports are the pictures that you are posting. Those are some vivid colors!
I was over at LROs this morning to pick up a few things and I got to fish for a couple of hours in Little River after I left. I saw lots of fish feeding on top on BWOs, but I had to get down deep to get them to hit a fly. The hatches were heavy today and I'm looking forward to hearing what others saw while they were on the stream as well. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Hugh Hartsell---East Tn.

[swipper 74]

You forgot to post the best picture of all! The "fencing" picture! In all seriousness though, it was a beautiful stream and mtnman and myself had a great time climbing rocks (& hills) and seeing some just plain great water. I'm ready to go back and grab some of those brookies again!

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k187/swipper74/FishingMarch10005-1.jpg

[mtnman2888]

Don't be making fun of my "action" shot now! I'll be honest, i really like to bow and arrow cast any time i have the opportunity, and as you can tell with all the overhang above me, i definitely had the opportunity.

We had a great time though and it was a very nice stream. Sounds like the water is a little warmer over in tn right now, but the fishing wasn't bad over here considering the 44 degree water temperature.

Craig

[mtnman2888]

That second picture, upon a second look, almost looks like a brown to me. It has some very muted colors on it for a brook trout, does anyone know why this is? I guess it could be a brown, i don't know, i just kinda figured that it was the northern strain........

Craig

[Hugh Hartsell]

The second picture is a brown trout and it is typical of what you see in many wild N.C. streams where brown trout have had many years to encroach upon the fartherest reaches of a stream. For some unknown reason, this has not happened as much on the Tenn. side. Some good examples of wild streams in N.C, are Deep Creek, East Fork of the Pigeon, Bradley Fork, Straight Fork, and many others. One of the prominent ones in Tenn. is the East Prong of Little River. It's still a beautiful fish and we all know where small browns come from????
Hugh Hartsell---East Tn.

[mtnman2888]

It is weird because out of that same hole we caught a brook trout with the brightest orange colors you ever saw. Didn't think that they could co-exist but i guess in some instances they can. That's pretty interesting......

Craig