I wasn't sure what to expect. When I saw the water I was amazed at how clear it was. It looked like a stream in the mtns. My friend and I jumped in the water and started working nymphs through any run that might hold a fish. When the sun came out the weather was really pleasant but once it went behind a cloud and a breeze hit it was tough. The water was very wadable with the exception of the dead moss on the rocks. It made some places more slippery than in the summer when algae is everywhere.
I kept going upstream to a pool where there usually is big fish. I tried various nymphs and clousers. I didn't get even a nibble.
I think it was just too cold and the recent snow put the fish down. The water wasn't that cold but the melting snow had to make the water temp drop pretty rapidly. After an hour I decided to call it a day. It was nice to get out and at least I tried.
A friend who knows the Neuse like no other invited me to go fishing this weekend. The weather looked to be great and after warming ourselves with some coffee we hit the water. The conditions were my kind of fishing. The sun had warmed up the air the water was low and clear. Perfect for wading.
My friend had talked about using a new retrieve for bass. When he showed it to me I realized the way I fish for largemouth might be totally wrong. I had been using his so called new retrieve all year for bass. It was hit or miss. It was the same type of retrieve I use for striped bass.
The weather was warmer than anyone expected and the trees were showing off their fall colors in their last attempt before winter. No one really knew where to go so we started to search for birds. There were some seagulls hovering here and there but we were looking for frantic action. Birds diving, water disturbed with fins and flying minnows.
The fish indicator marked fish at various depths. We all worked water and hoped for the best. In the main channel there was always a nice brisk wind. Once you tucked in a cove the atmosphere was calm. The water had a murky brown color to it. After having no luck my friend John and I moved to a different part of the lake. The water cleared considerably but there was no birds or sign of life. There also wasn't any other boats, on top of that the fish indicator was silent.
I dropped my line in anyways. You can't catch'm if your line isn't in the water. Our efforts were fruitless and after awhile lunch started to really sound good.
Chicken and biscuits hit the spot! We headed back to where we started to see if the others have had any luck. When we found the cove there they were fishing we saw small shad jumping every where about 30ft off shore. There didn't seem to be any fish pushing them to the surface. It was hard to tell why they were so active and jumping out of the water. We figured big fish have to come and eat these sometime so we hung out and cast different flies among the shad. In the meantime we watched bald eagles and other birds. 
Asking each other questions like what kind of flies were working or how many fish did you get? Hoping they caught some but not more than you. It was a fun day of fishing not catching and I'm ready to come back and do it all over again.
I kind of like this mottled version too. I really like the chartreuse doll hair in the fly I just wonder how well it will work in the water.
I liked the material so much I decided to try a gatorade clouser type fly and a deceiver type.
You'd think I'd dress up the flies some and just take pictures of the good ones. I really hate tying and these are about as good as it's gonna get. The black thread in one of the flies I figured could work as a lateral line. I might just cut it out. Depends if it works.
I think I have a good batch to get started.
It's really hard to get the colors of the trees. I forgot to bring my better camera that has a polarized lens. I think that is the only way to capture the true colors of how beautiful the trees are. You can see the difference if you wear polarized glasses and take them on and off. The trees look kind of dull without them. Since the weather was so nice the family decided to take a few hikes and take in the scenery.
My daughter loves hiking and spending time with her cousins. I tried to get a shot of some of the leaves behind her and my wife.
My daughter can only ride in the stroller for so long. Eventually she gets restless and has to hike on her own. Near the top of the mountain we were able to find wooly worms. There is a superstition about their coloring.
The more black they have in the front determines how bad of a winter we're going to have. According to this guy we're gonna have a cold start to winter then a nice stretch and a cold ending.
Eventually, I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to hit some trout water. First, I went to one of my favorite stretches. The water was really low. I looked for signs of fish in the water. In certain places that were usually a few feet deep it was now just inches of water. Even with most of my concentration on fishing I kept getting distracted by the trees.
I tied on an egg pattern first and worked the deep pools I could find. I'd see a flash every once in awhile but nothing seemed to stick. I changed up to a softhackle dropped off a thingamabobber. On my next two casts I saw the indicator twitch and finally go under. The fish on the other end couldn't have been more than 4inches. As I brought it to hand I noticed it was a creek chub. These fish are everywhere in the New River. They will hit dries and nymphs and can become a nuisance. I started to move fast and work as much water as quickly as I could. Almost every decent spot I fished yielded a chub. Many of them were larger than any I had caught previously. I still wanted a trout. The features of the river had totally changed. The last time I visited this stretch was in August. In just a couple months the water had dropped a couple feet and a lot of structure was just gone. It was tough fishing. The water was so low my profile was high above the water. I didn't feel like stealth fishing and crouching down. I spooked a few browns but it didn't bother me that much. Mainly because there seemed to be only one fish in a general area. My favorite stretch had now become a chub factory. I covered a ton of water and around every turn I was more discouraged with the conditions. I decided to leave and try a Delayed Harvest Section.
The Watauga has always been good to me. This river sees a ton of pressure. It had been a few weeks since the last stocking. That usually meant clever and spooky fish. The river is very scenic and fallen leaves outlined the banks. I was losing daylight and fished quickly. First I started with a white wooly bugger. I had some follows and slashes at the fly but I couldn't hook fish. I kept moving and figured I'd get to a certain point then head back and fish a nymph under a indicator. The nymph worked and I was able to hook a rainbow in a riffle that curved around a rock. The fish hit the nymph so hard there really wasn't any technique to catching it.
The next fish took a little more finesse. There were a ton of leaves falling and many times you'd have to clear your line from drifting leaves. My indicator would stop on them all the time. I was in a calm section with hardly any flow and right near a leaf the indicator stopped. I pulled up on it and instead of the indicator coming towards me, it went under water. Now here's where experience comes into play. That's not right, if you lift up your line your indicator should come towards you up out of the water. What happens many times in the rhythm of fishing two things will happen simultaneously and your next decision will decide whether or not you catch a fish. If I sat there and just figured my eyes were playing tricks on me I would have missed the next little bob of my indicator. Knowing better I held the line firm and when I saw the indicator give the slightest bob the second time I set the hook. It went under and like most stocked DH fish it didn't fight hard at first. Then as it got closer it decided to make a run for it. Of course I didn't have my net and this guy was just a little big to just grab.
I recently bought an Albright 10wt and today was my first test run of how the rod would cast and fight fish. The rod doesn't cast as well as I'd like but with a price tag of $30, I can't complain. John kept working the surface with poppers and a gurgler minnow. I tried various clousers, poppers even the pole dancer. The fish just didn't want to cooperate. Even with the slow fishing the atmosphere on the lake was more than peaceful. The leaves are starting to change on the trees and we seemed to be the only boat on the water.
We kept fishing until Sunset. Even as the last glimmers of light shined above the trees we didn't see much surface activity. I'm starting to wonder if all these stories I've heard about aggressive fall bass is just a fisherman's rumor. I'm still waiting for my experience but until then I'll just have to enjoy boat rides on glass calm lakes and sunsets like this.
Sore Lips from Justin Ide on Vimeo.
Fly Fishing is a Joke from Henry Harrison on Vimeo.
The pools looked like perfect places for bass to lurk. I tried to be as stealthy as possible when approaching pools. With the light of the morning I couldn't quite see in the water. I cast into a calm pool expecting a huge explosion any second. There was a little nibble but not the explosive take I was hoping for. The next pool had to hold a bass. Unfortunately it was the same scenario. Pool after pool seemed to hold plenty of sunfish but no bass. The water looked great but I guess wasn't great habitat for bass.
It got a little frustrating but it was hard to be annoyed with the weather being perfect. I saw my first Haw River bald eagle and plenty of osprey. Even though the bass weren't too active the sunfish sure were. I tried to use big flies but that didn't deter the sunfish.
I'm going to come back this fall and see if I can get some pictures of the birds diving into the water for fish. The day was pretty ho-hum fishing wise. I did get into a tussle with two bass but after a few seconds they came off. With fall quickly approaching and the leaves starting to change color the days on the Haw are only going to get better.
The fish looked really healthy.
There are some catfish that cruise the pond and hang out near the surface. I dropped the ant maybe a foot in front of the fish's nose. It hit the fly but spit it right away. It would be pretty cool to catch a catfish on a surface fly. All the players were out today. I saw a huge carp while working the banks on the other side. I think my lunch's are going to be well spent.
The great thing about the Triangle Fly Fishers club is there are plenty of people to fish with. Recently I was contacted about fishing the Eno with a member who hadn't done well there. We talked the night before and I informed him that he is definitely going to catch sunfish. It's almost impossible not too. I could tell there was some doubt in his voice. It's amazing how much the river has changed in just a couple months. The brush is so high and thick the river and trails are hidden. It just started to rain literally as I was parking the car. We gathered are gear and scrambled down a steep bank into the river. It's not hard to find fish on the Eno. Cast towards any structure along the bank and you're sure to get some action.
That was pretty much my only advice. It took longer than I thought but with in five min Greg had his first Eno sunfish on.
The both of us continued to catch panfish while there was a light rain. When the rain stopped the fish became less aggressive. I noticed most of my casts had to be right against cover. If the fly didn't land with in 6inches of structure usually I didn't get a hit. Submerged roots and trees are common along the banks. These locations are full of fish. It was in one of these places where I caught a fish that looked a little strange to me. I've been trying to catch a Roanoke ever since I started fishing the Eno. The coloring of this fish didn't match a Roanokes but the body was stockier and a little different then the average bluegill and sunfish. I think this fish is a warmouth which would be the first one I've ever caught on the Eno. In one section I caught 3 of them. I didn't catch another one the rest of the day.
I'm not a huge fan of low pocket water fishing. You have to be very stealthy and you really only get one or two casts at a pool. That's if you don't spook the fish first. Many pools were too shallow to hold any fish at all. This made the fishing even more difficult. Russ and I were almost racing to pools. What ended up happening is we would take turns at some of the better ones. There were some surprises. I found one pool that was right out of a dream. I've been hearing a lot about pink flies working in wild water. I decided to try a fly called Eggi Wan Kenobi.
There was a rock in front of me that looked like a good spot to hold a fish. I cast over the rock and saw what looked to be a 15inch trout. That trout would be decent on any water but in this creek that was a monster. It moseyed over and sucked in the fly. I set the hook saw a few flashes and the fish breached and just snapped the fly off. It was my fault. After seeing the low water I tied a horrible knot figuring most of the fish I'd catch would be six inches at most. I quickly tied on another Eggi and cast into the pool again. There was no action and Russ was closing in. I cast at the far side of the pool where I was sure there was a fish. My line jerked and I set the hook. A short fight later I was landing my first wild trout in this creek.
It was decent size considering the creek we were fishing.
The day went on pretty much the same. Skip any water that wasn't eight inches deep and cautiously fish pools. There were some pools that made you just enjoy how perfect they were. The way the moss covered rocks were laid out. The water slowly falling from the head of the pool then flowing through the rocks but slow enough to mirror the surroundings.
It's beauty like this that makes you happy to just be there. Fishing is secondary.
Even with pools like this the fishing was slow. I spooked a lot more fish than I caught. It was nice to know about this creek. I'll be coming back again. The water levels can only get better. Some sections were one log jam or moved rock from having the flow of water stopped. 
My daughter seemed to dig the go cart ride. At Tweetsie we have to ride the carousel. It's one of my wife's faves as well as my daughter.
I can't wait until my baby is old enough to go fishing with me. She loves the outdoors and it's only a matter of time. 
It was a great weekend. There was some quality time with the family spent cooking together and having fun at Tweetsie. Then there was time for fishing and Russ was able to get out with me. The fishing was definitely quality over quantity.
