[-G-]

I appreciates the canned goods. My favorite is kippers and sharp white cheddar on a cracker. Clearly I need To start adding cholula.

[woolly bugger]

3-18-2020 #11

The SlimyHookeer text me asking if I was going to fish again, I wasn’t planning on it, he was talking about the upper river and the great flow, a rare opportunity. He said he was going, and I somewhat reluctantly said I’d bring a frying pan and we could cook up some punes.

Before long a text came in that he was bailing half-way to the river he stopped for gas and realized his wallet was at home. Since I had just loaded up the car, I left for the river anyway. ‘’

About 5 min later I reached for my coffee, damnitall I left it and my camera back at the house.

When I arrived at the parking lot there were four cars already there and one guy was gearing up.

I opened the hatch and popped the top on a beer and sliced up some cheese while I was deciding what to do, fish here or move on. Then this dude, in his spiffy new waders, boots, and vest, from Mt. Airy started to come over and he asked me if I fished here much before.

"This is my fifth day in a row," I grumbled at him with a lie as I hadn't fished this spot in a while.

"Wow, I fished here last November when the water was really low and I didn't catch anything, what's the secret out here" he replied.

"They are a pain in the ass," I said speaking of the fish. My comment took him aback, and I had to repeat and clarify my statement, "The fish are a pain in the ass!"

They dude got within 15 feet, and then thought better of it and stopped in his tracks.

#socialdistancing



He walked in and I finished my beer and drove on!



I headed to a spot I thought would be devoid of people and fished from a different direction.

Even at this lower flow some of my spots were difficult to get to and then I saw that the flooding had eroded the bank and a tree had fallen and block an old favorite. As I moved up I looked at a spot I had only fished once or twice before and after some back and forth negations with myself I climbed down the bank and gave it look over. Nope, can’t cast there, hmm, this looks good, and I peeled some line off the real and cast out into the deep run, strip strip strip. Then just as the fly approached the end of it’s run, a fish came up and went after the fly, it missed and I just stood there for a minute in awe, it looked huge. I cast again, hoping and watching intensely as I stripped the fly. A fish hit it a little further out, was it the same fish, or another one, I’ll never know. The fish put up quite a fight as I struggled to keep it out of underwater snags.





Celebration beer!



Bugs





I moved on up to Fred’s pool and worked it. Fish on! Fish off. I thought it must have spit the hook but I soon realized that it had broken off on the 10 lb tippet right below the top knot. Must have nicked it, damnitallanyhow. Lost my last Rusty Trombone too.

Then I went up to the top run, a useless trip. Then I went back and covered the other side of the river, I caught nothing.





Then I moved on down to the lower reaches of the river.

DSFK



Strange things left by the flood.



A shot for mudwall.



Damn it, time for new boots? Or will SIMMS warranty cover these?



#Gofundme

[woolly bugger]

3-21-2020 #12

The carp are active in the pond and I was out there yesterday and caught a mirror and would have stayed and fished longer but my daughter called and needed a hand with a sun shield that was blowing in the gusty winds. I was planning on going back this morning but it was way cloudy in the early morning and when the sun broke out I drove on over only to find a couple of other fishermen on the pond.





So I headed up to the local river and hit the lower reach on the falling water after generation. Streamers and stoneflies didn’t produce anything and I headed back to the car for a bite to eat before heading to the upper section.



While I was eating the dude that I met before and his fiancé came walking out. He had arrived after me and he reported no love today, this was his first skunk on the river and he may be giving it second thoughts. They had closed down their Montessori preschool do to the corona virus despite the state encouraging them to stay open. He also mentioned that another fisherman was in the upper section as well.

He came out and we talked for a bit from about 25 feet away. He’s from out of town and caught a couple of browns along with a few chubs.

Normally I wouldn’t want to fish this section after a pair of anglers but what the heck, maybe they didn’t know all the spots.



On the falling water I was able to get into a few spots one of which yielded a nice trout.





After that, I moved on up to Fred’s pool and threw a streamer without any response. Then I went all the way to the top hole and fished that with the streamer and stoneflies again without any response.



I was time to head on out and I stopped at Fred’s and tossed the stonefly into the run. Bam, fish on this little brown was feisty and even attempted to run jump up the falls before I could coax it into the net.



Two fish day.

As I told the guy from out of town, a two-fish day on this river can be a good day!

[woolly bugger]

032920 #14

The water would be falling in the lower section in the afternoon and I planned an arrival at noon. There were a few cars at the parking lot but I could see that a lot of traffic had been there over the last several days as the trash bin was overflowing. I appears that all the people in the area are treating this as a holiday and social distancing doesn’t apply to me.
I was getting ready and this dude walk over and starts asking questions about the fishing and before I knew it he was leaning on the back of my car, and I turned to him and told him to, “Stay away!” Fucking idiot. I geared up quickly and heading to the lower reach with a heave streamer on a floating line. I thought the reel with the sink tip was stashed in the back of my vest, I was to find out later that I was not.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was probably pushing 80 degrees, and I pondered the wisdom on wearing waders. But the first run required a deep wade to get into position and with cool water felt good while I was submerged. Nothing happening here, tried the screamer and crayfish and stones. The one fish that likes this run was out to lunch.

Then some kayakers pounding their way down the river. I drank a beer.









Fucking humans

Moved on down and hit all the usual spots without any success at all. Water was still pushing a bit too much for my liking or my ability to find the fish.



Down towards the end of fishable water another couple of kayakers came through, well one passed on down but the other one was stuck above me. I watched and was thinking that I was going to have to help them. I thought it was an old man the father of the younger women who had passed down and was now paddling back upstream. Maybe she would get out and make her way up to help her stuck companion.



I fished for a bit and then checked on the kayaker again, still stuck, and appeared to lack the ability to scoot, or push off, or get out and walk. So I fished and watched, this went on for ten minutes or longer and I finally violated social distancing and waded back up the rapid and pulled and pushed the woman as it turned out to be the mother of the younger woman, and got her down through the rapid and on their way. She shouldn’t have been on the river in the first place.

I got down to the final run and brank another beer and reached for the reel with the sinking line only to discover it wasn’t there after all, I drank my third and final beer, wanting to rest the final run as much as possible. I attacked it with streamers and stones to no avail.

I walked out with the intention of having some lunch and then hitting the upper reach. Along the way I ran into people on the trail and a group of six young people who asked if I wanted the remainder of the worms that they hadn’t used. I declined and hiked on trying to stay as far away as possible.

When I arrived at the parking lot it was overflowing and I feared more people would be up river, so I bailed.

Getting a good dose of Vitamin D was the only upside!

[woolly bugger]

3-24-2020 #13

Got up and hit the falling water after they stopped generation at 11 for the day. BWOs started to hatch in good numbers and I got a few fish to take an olive puff daddy. It was fun and games until the otters show up! Actually around 3:30 things slowed down a bit and the fish didn't come to hand for a while. I finally got a decent one to harvest and called it quits after that. The rain started when I got back to the car anyway.

The old yellow dog is showing some age and I don't think she'll make another winter.

Don't know who the huge fisherman is in the van with va tags, but he showed up after me.

Saw and heard two pairs of what I think were pileated woodpeckers.

[woolly bugger]

032920 #14

Quit visit to the carp pond, it’s now posted, bur people are going in to fish like these two kids, who have a better sense of balance than I do.





Anyway the next day I hit the upper smith on Saturday morning before the 1 pm generation, there were only two cars in the lot and I headed on down to Sally’s pool, which I’ve renamed effin otter run!

Stepped into the river and thought I had that section to myself only to realize that I high holed two anglers. I moved up a bit and then realized they were moving down stream. I fished a puff daddy and got a fish to rise but struggled to get a hook up. So I drank a beer.

There were some caddis coming off and a few bwos, but not enough to get the fish excited.















So pretty much I was fishing over water that the other angles had beaten and I caught nothing.

Waiting for sulfurs…



Bar Harbor Kippers and beer for lunch!

[woolly bugger]

4/4/20 #15

With no daytime generation on the river for weekend I ventured out of quarantine and hit the road.
The lot was empty when I arrived but a dude from NC pulled up as I was gearing up. We exchanged distant pleasantries and I packed my vest with a couple of beers and set out across the field to the otter run.

Bluebird skies







Caddis were coming off in the riffles and there were a few fish interested it chasing down a puff daddy.
Bad trout photos.. I don’t know what the cause of that was, may be the Heavy Seas Tropic Cannon? 7.5 ABV and robust citric flavors might make this one of my favorite IPAs winning out over New Belgian’s Criticdellic







DSFK



Took a break for lunch, Bar Harbor Smoked Sardines, not too shabby.

Back on the water I continued to catch fish on the surface and take bad photos.



I even saw one sulfur! Things will be looking up before to long.

[woolly bugger]

4/5/20 #16

Two days in a row escaping from NC and staying away from everybody.

The lot was empty again, but as I geared up a truck with a couple of guys drove up and a dude gets out to ask about access at this point, “do you walk down the track”? as he walked closer to me and I was getting ready to back up but he stopped 6 feet away, which I considered too close under the conditions.

#Staythefuckaway



Caddis were present but not in the numbers of yesterday, few fish rose and I targeted them. I missed more than I caught but that was alright.





After a while I sat down for a break and a beer.



Midges



And stones





I sat there and watch the river, listening to the birds and looking for risers.

After a while I set the camera down and recorded 18 minutes…

lots of bird and a number of fish rising.







The day was getting long and I was getting hungry.



Not a bad way to spend the day in isolation.

I didn’t see anybody of the river but I did hear some voices moving on down the trail.

saw otters, kingfishers, woodpeckers, osprey, muskrat

Be Safe / Sane and #staythefuckaway

[woolly bugger]

4/8/20 #17

18:49 that’s a strange amount of time, I thought that the video I shot the other day should have been longer but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Today I shot another streamside video and I sat and watched the fish rise eventually I couldn’t stand it any longer and I waded toward the head of the pool and caught a fish on the first cast, great I thought it’ll be on the video. After releasing the fish I prepped the puff daddy with my three step process, 1 squeeze the fly dry, 2, shake ‘n bake, 3, brush out the fibers. Satisfied that it was in tip top shape I cast again. Boom, another fish on, and I’m thinking that all of this was captured on video. Troutrus was sitting on the bank watching. We chatted for a bit and I went to retrieve my camera before resuming fishing.

When I got back home and uploaded the video to the computer to scroll through and watch the catches, I noticed that the length of the video was 18:49 the exact time of the last streamside video, and that I had not captured my back to back trout catching. Awe crap! I don’t know if there is a way to override this default, I’m recording 1080p @ 60 fps, maybe it’ll go longer at 30 fps. Will be running some test on that today. First world problems.

I was the first car in the lot and it wasn’t all that early. I had thought about walking down the tracks for variety but in the end went back to the otter hole. I spied a few risers right away and after rigging up a new leader with 6.5x tippet I went after the closest one. The wind wasn’t playing any favorites and I had trouble getting the drift I wanted, put that fish down. Waded up to the next run as another fishermen came down the bank a little ways up from me. I cast and the fish rose and I hooked it, I heard the other guy holler out, “Nice!” The little brown went to the bottom and under a submerged limb and got off.

After retrieving the fly, the angler asked where I was from and how far down was I planning to fish and he asked if it was ok to wade on down. He said he was From Greensboro and fishes this section often. He went on down to the big pool below my run and worked it for a long long time as I moved up and hit some favorite spots. A tree had fallen into the river and choked off the tail of one little pool where I’ve caught many in the past.

I caught about 6 before taking a beer break and making a streamside video.

Here is what the day looked like

Listened to John Prine on the drive up. Laughed and Cried.

Greensboro guy





Troutrus







The damn dam was set to open up at one and I figured the water would be coming up about 2:15 and the fishing slowed down a bit and I was hungry so I was the first back to the cars, followed shortly by Trouts and then the Greensboro guy. I was going to sticker them but forgot. Greensboro left and Trouts and I talked and drank our beers, Miller Lite for him and citradelic for me.

Till next time…

[woolly bugger]

4/11/20 #18

Thought it might get crowed so I went early, but not too early because I didn’t think the fish / bugs would be all that active. Hit the parking lot at 9, two vehicles already there. Went to the same ole spot, Dusted off the SP, hadn’t fished it in a while. Sure is sweet and a pleasure to cast. It was still rigged up with a sulfur comparadun and I gave that a try, but it didn’t interest anybody, not that they were showing themselves. The caddis weren’t as steady as a couple of day ago. Put on a puff daddy and caught the firs fish of the day. It was a little slow going and after catching three, I had my breakfast of boiled eggs and Lagunitas IPA, then I took photos for a while…















More caddis bugs started to some off with the midges and a few stones and a sulfur or two.







Caught some fish and then had a beer break – buff for sun not covid-19



















Some more fishing and catching.







Then I hiked back to the parking lot for my lunch and to resupply and then I headed on down the tracks to the Trestle Pool, I
hadn’t seen any other anglers all morning and now there were five vehicles besides mine in the lot. I stickered them.
These two (father /son?) were just above the pool. The fish were rising to the caddis and I switched to an elk hair and caught a few.













I went downstream and ran into another fly guy, he was nymping and reported that it was almost too easy. I told him that I only dry fly fish on this river and he said he should make that effort in the future.

I broke off a couple of better fish on a peppery hook set easily snapping the 6.5x

I made my way back up to the bottom of the field at around 7 and things were starting to get exciting as there were lots of bugs and fish rising and in the next thirty minutes I caught almost as many as I had caught all day.





This was probably the best fish of the day.







Back at the lot at 8:15 I was the only one left!

Miles driven 146
Gas per gallon $1.48
Boiled Eggs 2
Cliff Bars 2
Cheese and Summer Sausage
Beer Lagunitas IPA / New Belgian Citradellic

[woolly bugger]

May 18, 2020 #19

Had visions of sulfurs hatching, tried to go Saturday, that was a bust, then on Sunday I was almost at the river when I got phone call that dad had fallen -- by the time I got back, he was in hospital and x-rays confirmed a broken hip. Well damn.

Surgery went well last night and they are starting therapy today.

Driver was up on sunday and he said to "get up there if you can" So I left the house at 6 and was on the water just before 8, as I rigged up the rod I noticed fish rising and saw the little yaller bugs coming off the water.

It took a bit to get into them. Had to change flies and add some tippet to get them interested. Several better fish were caught and it was a lot of fun from 8 - 10, before things began to slow down a bit




























Some of you may observe that there is a new line on the 3 wt.

the usual mix of punes but a good number of beefier trouts were caught too, One hit hard and the CFO drag screamed for a bit It was a good morning and well worth the trip. The rain started falling as I was packing up to leave.

A pair of palliated woodpeckers chipped and joined me along the river high up in a tree before flying off on their daily business.

Later in the morning, around 10:30 or so, the sky brightened a bit and I heard the drone of cicada above the roar of the river. On the walkout I could clearly hear them in the wood up on the hill.

[Kfoxwyo]

Always a pleasure to read, thank you-