Saturday fishing (1/13)

[AL trout bum]

Fished Bradley Fork and a small brook trout stream Saturday (1/13). No fish were caught, unfortunately. Anyone else have a rough day Saturday? It's almost like the streams were void of fish.







This is a bat I knocked out with my fly rod as he was flying right for me....


However, there was good food and god drink:


Deer backstrap with bell pepper and onion wrapped in bacon....


Quail with cream cheese wrapped in bacon...


I had a little better luck on the Tuckasegee...

[buzzmcmanus]

What's up with all the bats out during the middle of the day? I fished WPLR on Saturday and had bats flying all around me in the early afternoon.

I caught 4 fish, not bats, in about an hour. Missed several rises. The storms from 2012 had a lot of trees and debris in the stream and it just wasn't fun, so I packed it up earlier than intended.

[fcfly]

Fished LeConte Cr. on Saturday and got buzzed by
several small bats. Fishing slooooow...spent a lotta time
looking up for little bombers.

[BlueRaiderFan]

I got a few rises and one on...that was it. I fished the middle and west prongs. I was only using a dry though. I thought about Bradley Fork but opted for closer water.

[jeffnles1]

Unfortunately, bats being out during the day in the winter is a very very bad thing.

A fungus called White Nose Syndrome is killing bats across the country. Some estimates say many species of bats will be extinct within the next decade.

It is a fungus not unlike athletes foot that infects the soft membrane of the bat's nose. The fungus itself is not necessarily fatal, but it irritates them and wakes them up during hibernation. There are not enough bugs out in the winter to sustain their lives and they die of starvation.

The bat was probably hungry and trying to eat anything that remotely resembled food (i.e. your fly).

This is sad indeed. I had heard it has been spotted in the Smokeys. This may be confirmation.

Jeff

[NDuncan]

I had the same thing happen on Sunday with Bats. I have sent an email to the parks biologists reporting this and sent them a link to this thread in case this information helps them. I understand white nose syndrome was confirmed back in march.