Exams, stress and not much fishing

Haven't been able to post in a while due to all the work for school that my professors decide to cram into the last week of classes and exams!  I've done only a little fishing lately.  I fished once during the week with Justin at a little wild creek about 20 minutes from campus and we caught a few wild browns but for whatever reason, not as many as we usually manage to fool.  Most of mine came on the dropper copper john and Justin managed a few on a sulphur pattern dry fly. 

I went to the Elk river down in Banner Elk on Saturday and fished it way up higher than I ever have with my buddy Garret.  He wanted to try a spot through town where it was apparent that nobody fishes and we did quite well.  We fished that section for an hour or so and then moved back down to the section just above the lake at Lees McRae.  We also did well there.  There were fish rising all the way through the section we fished and we threw our stimulators at them and they ate em up. 

Then I fished twice in one day on Sunday.  I fished for some brooks with my buddy Clay in the early afternoon and came back to town and Justin called me wanting to fish for a couple hours close to school so we went to the Middle Fork of the New River.  The brook trout weren't "on" but we did catch quite a few.  Of course all were on dries.  When I fished with Justin at Middle Fork, we fished the gorge section and caught some fish pretty consistently for two hours or so and then turned around when the creek chubs decided to come out in force.  We caught a few wild browns and rainbows in the gorge section.  I wish one of those browns would grow big enough to start eating those stupid chubs....

As for the future, I am looking forward to getting done with exams and I am trailering my boat down to my cottage at Harkers Island and going fishing for cobia this weekend.  Who knows, I may get a chance to chuck a "flash tail whistler" fly I bought from Bay Street Outfitters at a free swimming cobe with my new 12wt Sage!  Needless to say, I've been thinking more about cobia than my exams lately....

I only have two pictures from recent adventures

-Will

The Importance of the Dropper

This tailwater bow took the size 20 midge as a dropper.

     The Dropper.......It's what you need to focus on.  When I am fishing wild brook streams, I don't worry about it too much.  They tend to do fine with just the dry, anything big like a caddis or stimulator.  If I am fishing for wild browns on small streams, I will always put a small nymph as a dropper about 2 feet below my dry.  You will deal with more tangles, but it does pay off and you will pick up more fish.  Just simply use your dry as an indicator, and you will easily see when a fish has taken your dropper.
      When fishing tailwaters, your dropper will probably be your more productive fly when nymphing.  Don't be scared to put something slightly flashy, or of bigger size as your lead fly.  This will get the fish moving towards your fly to check things out, and then usually when they take a fly, it will be your more productive tiny midge which is following.
     Make sure to only use two flies when laws apply.  When regulations do allow for two flies, then be sure to take the advantage.  Pay attention to what is in the water, change flies when necessary, and it will pay off.  

Get the kids out.

Helped him catch this big rainbow at a lake in Montana, on a dry fly.

Teaching kids is the future to our sport.  If it wasnt for me being taught to fly-fish as a kid, then I wouldnt have discovered this amazing sport that I live to pursue.  Brent and I had the chance to go to Montana last summer to work at a Trout Unlimited camp.  It was a great experience being counselors to those kids, and teaching them the skills that they will be able to use on their own.  Teaching kids is a domino effect.  If you teach one person, then they will teach another, and so on.  Make sure you do it the right way.  Teach them the regulations.  Make sure they practice catch and release.  Fill them in on the little things such as wetting your hand before you touch a fish, and the correct ways to revive a fish.  The specifics, such as casting and tying knots, will come natural in time.  Be a good role model, and make them remember you for being the one who taught them to fly-fish.

-Take care,

Justin

Weird Weather and Weird Fishing

Hello to anybody out there!

We've had some really weird weather over the past week and it's made the fishing weird too.  I've fished wild brook trout streams, tailwaters and various other freestone streams since I posted last and the fishing was tougher than usual.

After class one day last week, I headed out with a new fishing buddy and we hit some brook trout water.  We were very excited because the sun was out and it was warm on campus.  Dreaming about aggressive brook trout taking royal wulffs on every cast, we sped to the headwaters of a local creek.  By the time we got to the mountain and climbed up into the higher elevation, we were met with heavy cloud cover and colder temperatures than we'd hoped for.  Needless to say the fishing was slower than last week, when I couldn't keep em off my flies but we stuck to it catching a couple browns at the first stretch of the stream and had a slow couple hours until we got to the top of the first section of falls.  Then the fishing turned on as the sun started to barely peek through the clouds and we ended up with a bunch of brook trout coming to hand. We even got to sight fish to a few!  Persistence pays off.

On Sunday, I went to fish the South Holston and the weather was crappy, rainy and cold again.  We started off catching a few fish but not the action we are used to (partly because of being spoiled).  I was catching them on scuds and my buddy was catching them on blue wing olive nymphs.  Then we moved to a section we have never fished before and I had an hour or so where I was catching them back to back on a scud again.  As I moved from run to run, the fishing got a little slower but we managed a few more fish and I caught one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen, but as I attempted to drag it over to Joe to get a picture, the fly popped out of his mouth.  Then it started to get really cold and windy when a front moved in and we left and went to the Watauga and caught a few more fish on blue wing olive nymphs and called it a day when we couldn't fell our hands anymore.  We had plenty of freezing cold days over there during the winter, but we simply weren't prepared for the cold this time.  It's April! It's not supposed to be this cold!

Yesterday, I went out to the Elk river with my buddy Garret, who I fished with last week for the first time.  It was cold as crap again and there was snow all over the mountain tops on the way there.  I was scared we weren't going to catch anything, but we tied on black streamers and fished the deep pools through the first section of river and caught a good amount of fish.  Then we switched to tight line double nymphing and picked up a few more fish in the smaller water on the last stretch of river.  I was using a big soft hackle hare's ear as my point fly and a size 16 bead head pheasant tail as my back fly and caught them on both.  It ended up being a pretty good day and Garret got to use his new Simms waders and boots he just bought and loved them!

These three pics were the only ones I took.  They were from the headwaters trip last week after class.


Tight lines to everyone,

-Will

Salmon River, NY

       Yes....The salmon river has mixed opinions.  It has been known to be responsible for snagging, hatchery fish, and crowds that drive you crazy.  This can be true, but I would like to give a little insight to the people who talk about it without actually trying it.

       Brent and I had a chance to go steelheading a while back with a friend of ours.  He said it was a very affordable trip, and we could do it during one of our breaks from work/school.  We jumped on this opportunity and went.  This was a different world for a couple of brook trout junkies from Western North Carolina.  It was big water, and big fish.  Our first trip was like real Steelheading.  We were there for 4 days, and landed 3 steelhead, and one brown between us.  We were for sure humbled, but still were eager to get back.  Throughout our next several trips we caught many more steelhead, figuring them out a little.  Each trip we each landed at least 7, and could easily feel a little better about our trips.
      To talk about the stereotypes that surround the salmon river I will get started with the crowds.  During the salmon season yes, the crowds are bad.  Brent and I did this once, and we do recommend to do this at least one time.  It is a great opportunity to land the biggest freshwater fish you will ever land on a fly rod.  You can suck it up and deal with the crowds for one time.
       There are snaggers around.  You do see them.  They try to hide it, but their jerks at the end of their drift show they are actual idiots.  It is a disgrace to see people snaggging, but it just happens.  Thats what the game wardens are for.  They do their job and catch the illegal fisherman.  Thats just something you have to deal with, dont watch the snagging, and just focus on catching your own fish the right way.
      The whole hatchery fish debate is something I don't really want to get into.  Supposedly some steelhead are stocked as fingerlings and are not truly born in the rivers.  Even if there are fingerlings put into the river, how do you suppose they get to the size they are?  They turn wild.  They do make trips back to the lake, and then come back to the river to spawn.  Also how do you know you are not catching naturally reproduced fish instead of fingerling stocked fish?  You dont know.
       Yes I do dream of going to British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest to go steelheading.  That is something that I'm sure will change my life and add to my flyfishing experiences  For now  I will fish the salmon river.  It is a great chance to go steelheading, use the spey rod, and catch large fish.  It's a change of pace.  It's also affordable, and for a college kid....that means a  lot.

-Justin

The stream is my church. The trout, my preacher. The rod, my bible. The cast, my prayers.

- Matthew Sessions

This blog is new, so I wanted to catch everyone up to speed and post some of the pics from our trips this past year.  It shows some nice fish caught in TN, NC, and NY.