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!