Fishing for Freedom

It has been hot in Western North Carolina the last few weeks. Not egg on a sidewalk hot, but definitely I don’t want to eat your dry fly right now hot. I haven’t fished much lately, except for a lightning filled après work excursion that was a disaster with forgotten boots and sopping wet clothes. There’s no report because I threw probably 10 casts, with 4 being in the trees.

A new stream in the park

So with the 4th of July weekend, my father in law was in town and we decided to fish a stream I have never tried in the Great Smoky Mountains. I told him it wouldn’t be as exciting as us almost getting killed in Maine (see previous posts), but it could still be better than shopping.

We were up early and on the stream by 7:30. With the Holiday, there were already cars there and a couple of folks geared up and walking in. Luckily, this stream has a path that follows it for a few miles.

We started low and started getting hits right away. I was still using yellow and fish were moving. We worked our way upstream and I caught a nice little brown. Moved up and saw the FIL putting back a nice 10″ rainbow. He showed me a spot where he wasn’t having any luck, and said “I know there has to be a fish in there, give it a shot”. One cast and I had a nice rainbow to hand.

First fish of the day

Moved up a few pools and I watched a very skittish fish dart and refuse my fly. Cast again and two fish did the same. On the third cast a good ‘bow slammed my fly hard. I guess he was sick of watching the other fish be indecisive. Had him in my hand and lost him before I could snap a pic.

As the water heated up the fish got spookier and spookier. They really were anxious and would dart around the pool. There was a nice run with fish rising and I managed to put every one of them down. Pretty embarrassing.

The F.I.L getting into fish

It was a nice day, even as it got very warm. This is a nice stream that I will hit again in the fall and I think there may be some big browns in there somewhere too.

Thanks for reading!