East Fork of the French Broad NC TROUT!

Brown (Green Woolly Bugger)

 The delayed harvest season has begun, and is off to a hot start. I made the trip up to Rosman, NC which has a nice stretch of stream called the East Fork of the French Broad. Selected North Carolina streams are catch and release only from October 1st until the first Saturday in June. Which is nice since South Carolina and Georgia delayed harvest waters are only open from November 1st until March 1st it makes it more fun for someone who doesn't keep many fish to go after bigger and smarter fish in April and May.

Black & Orange Woolly Bugger

Black Beadhead Woolly Bugger

My first fish of the day was my biggest brookie ever, which isn't saying much. He was about 10 inches, and they kept getting bigger as the morning went on. The second fish that hit was unexpected...a small brown. I knew at this point there was a decent chance at a slam. A Slam in the southeast is catching all three species in a day (Brook, Brown, and Rainbow), since rainbows are the most commonly stocked I got my hopes up. After several more nice brookies, a decent rainbow hit. I landed it, and i could breath a sigh of relief. I ended up catching one more rainbow. I started the day off 5 for 5 without missing a fish, but it went downhill from there. I caught 14 in total, but I think I missed
about same number. I had to leave the stream around 11 to make it back to class in time...but in the last few classes I landed the biggest trout of the day. It was a 14 inch long brookie, which is now my largest brookie to date. Hoping to change that the weekend of the 16 when i head up to the Asheville area to fish some of those DH streams!

Dropper!?!?!

I have been testing a new technique that I read about on the NGTO (North Georgia Trout Online). It is called a dropper rig. There are a couple different ways to use this rig, but I have only tried one of them. I am hoping to tie the other two on this weekend. I have caught a lot of fish on a nymph to nymph dropper. I generally use a bead head Prince Nymph followed by a smaller pheasant tail, scud, or egg pattern. This technique drawn a lot of strikes from bigger fish sitting in pools when the dry fly isn't working, or on sluggish fish during the winter. Another way to utilize the dropper method is tying a small nymph to a larger dry fly such as a stimulator. In this case the dry fly is used as an indicator plus can still attract potential strikes... I plan on trying this out very soon! Then lastly is a technique that came up in the Western parts...the hopper dropper. This consist of tying a nymph off the hook of a hopper or terrestrial fly.

Big Fish on at the East Fork...

What a beauty!

So it wasn't that big, but good size and fun the bring in. She was the biggest rainbow I have seem or had the privilege of viewing in South Carolina. I landed this fish on a # 14 prince nymph with an egg pattern trailing behind it. The fish nailed the nymph and took off downstream. I reeled and walked towards it and was able to net it. Needless to say I was pretty excited! I took a photo, then back in the water it went...I have only seen one fish larger in SC, and that was a Brown in the Chattooga River. I have seen a lot more fish a lot bigger than this in the mountains of Georgia, which is only an hour and a half from me. I would like to head that way during the delay harvest months. I am hoping to get out there sometime in November or December.

North Georgia Trout

 My family went on vacation to the alpine village of Helen, GA this summer. I love this area, and love the trout fishing even more! My total was 4 rainbows and 5 browns. I definitely noticed how much more particular browns are about what they strike are compared to rainbows. All the browns I caught were relatively small, but still fun on the fly. I saw two browns that were over 17 inches and one rainbow over 17 inches in my time exploring the creeks and rivers around the area. I caught three of the browns on different colors of my favorite fly, elk hair caddis. The other ones i caught on a green woolly booger. The most exciting part of fishing was the wildlife I got to see. I was throwing on a brown that was about 18 inches, when I heard the trashcan lid slam. I didn't think anything of it, until it happened again. In the back of my mind I thought bear, but i couldn't see anything so I let it go. Then it happened again and I looked back to see a black bear cub staring at me. I got in the car and cranked it up and it ran off, beautiful creature though.

Chauga....God Bless You??

A couple days ago I woke up and decided I would test out the water under the Cassidy Bridge on the Chauga River. There weren't to many trout to be seen, but i could see a couple stockers. I learned from my trip to New Zealand that nymphing is an important tool to a fly fisherman, so I am determined to learn the technique no matter how much frustration it may cause me. I started the morning using a prince nymph, I had a strike or two but I was trouble with setting the hook to late. I decided to change it up and tie an egg pattern behind my prince nymph, and finally I was able to land a 10 inch rainbow. I finally landed a fish, so it was time to move to a different, more comfortable technique. I moved to one of my favorite pattern #16 elk hair caddis (dry fly). I got a couple small rainbows, then i changed to old faithful, the grizzly woolly bugger. I landed a few more on this. As it started to warm up I decided to call it a day. I ended up catching 8 and releasing them all!

There Fish on the Bottom?

I went offshore one morning in December with my good friend Kenneth in search of some Black Sea Bass. We caught about 20 nice size Sea Bass, but decided to drop down a little larger bait fish. I ended up pulling up this massive Spot Tail Bass. Kenneth was also able to land another one about the same size. Another great day out on the big pond!

New Zealand Nymphing

Bringing in the bow

Prince Nymph

I had the privilege of taking a trip across the world to the north island of New Zealand, where I was able to do a bit of Fly Fishing. My girlfriend and I went out one crisp morning with a guide. We headed out to the crystal blue water around 7:30 am, it was a beautiful morning with frost still on the ground. During the winter fish stop feeding off of flies and move to a more plentiful food source, nymphs. I don't have a lot of experience nymphing, so this was a new technique for me. I missed several fish, which was frustrating, but in the end we landed 3 nice fish one of which was about 3 pounds. I landed the larger Rainbow on a #14 Prince Nymph. This was a great day on the water, but that's not all we were able to do in New Zealand.  I jumped out of a plane and went bungie jumping, two of most exhilarating experiences of my life.