Pellet Pig

It's been way too long since my last fishing post. I've been fishing here and there I haven't been motivated to write anything. It's been a year or so since I fished for trout and to be honest, I started to wonder if I could even remember how to catch one anymore. I ran out of excuses and checked out a delayed harvest stream to try my luck. 

I couldn't have asked for better weather. I wasn't surprised to see people fishing the usual spots. It was encouraging to see fish swimming around from the bank. I saw a school that was in a peculiar spot and worked my way to them. It didn't take long to catch my first trout of 2024. 

I started to feel more confident after that and the fish kept coming. It's easy to get full of yourself fishing stocked delayed harvest water. If you can get on a school of fish, it's not uncommon to catch 20 fish in 30 minutes. You catch one on almost every cast. I'm not saying it doesn't take skill. You need to know when to set the hook and how to fight the fish, but the fishing is artificial in a way. The longer the fish are in the water after being stocked the more their behavior will change. 

I hit them when they were still in the discovery stage checking things out. There were a few that would act natural and hit the flies on a good drift or when the flies were falling. Then you had the fish for a lack of better words are dumb. They hit the fly after you twitch it or made erratic movements. These types of things would normally scare a fish or turn them off when a fish has been in the stream for a while. 

Even understanding the fishing was easy and that was the main reason for my success I enjoyed myself and even managed to hook an absolute pig. This fish didn't put up an extraordinary fight but it sure was something to look at. 

I didn't bring my net so I worked the fish into shallow water where I could get a hold of it. The fish was so tall I couldn't get my hand around it. 

It's nice to hook one of these monsters once in a while. I'm hoping this trip will motivate me to get out on the water more. The drive and thoughts of a bad fishing day usually make me look for other things to do but this trip reminded me of how much I love being on the water. 

Putting to Work the Allen 6wt

 Allen Fly Fishing has a BOGO deal going on right now. I took the opportunity to get a 6wt Compass and 5wt Heritage Rod. The compass has a very pretty Carolina blue color. 

The 6wt feels stout and it can get away with working as a 7wt if needed. It's perfect for that gap where you want something for fish larger than trout but smaller than carp. 

I tried it out at a local pond and hooked a decent bass that gave me an idea of what the rod can handle. 

I was impressed at how easy it was to keep pressure on the fish. The rod definitely wasn't horsing or overpowering the fish but it kept me in constant control. I like rods where if you lose a fish you can only blame yourself and this is definitely one of those. It will give me confidence in many of the waters I fish where a hit may hook a panfish, bass, or carp. I'm excited to see what else this rod can do it casts like a dream due to the large guides. 

I'll let you know the Heritage 5wt is after I try it. I'm going to the Rockies again this summer and I plan on bringing this rod. 

Trout and Good Luck

Last weekend was my first trout trip of fall. With the high barely reaching 60 it didn't feel like fall. I caught several fish mostly on soft hackles. The Piscifun reel worked great.

While fishing I dropped my camera in the water and didn't pull up my sleeve far enough when I tried to retrieve it. My sleeve was soaked and even after several attempts to squeeze the water out it stayed wet. I tried to block that arm from the wind the best I could but after about an hour I couldn't take it anymore, I was freezing. I got back to the car all I could think about is getting inside and starting the heater and drying off. The reel was hard to unseat with my cold hands. It finally gave way and popped off the rod. As I saw it fall I didn't want it to hit the ground so I put my boot under it. The reel bounced off the boot and slid under the car. It was just out of reach and I figured I would get it after I removed my waders. Nature called once my gear was off and after relieving myself I totally forgot about the reel. I didn't notice the reel was gone until I got home. I sent an email to a friend that lives near the river I fished letting him know about the reel. The odds of him finding it were pretty slim. Then I got this message the next day.

"You must be living right. Went right over after reading your message and found the reel!"

Fun, Friends and Fish

Between family, work obligations and weather mishaps, as I get older I appreciate it when a fishing trip comes together. This last trip started out how most do. There has to be some sort of drama before hand. Usually it's a injury, family illness or the usual rainstorm which blows out all the rivers. The night before we were about to leave we had one of the worst thunderstorms I've seen since living in North Carolina. No matter which direction you looked there were strobes from lightning. We got about 3 inches of rain in 2hrs. I was still going on this trip no matter what. The clouds in the distance on the drive up looked ominous. They slowly subsided as we got closer to the property. The group rented a house with it's own private stretch of trout water. It was hard to know what to expect with the price we paid for the place. The water looked good at first glance.

We wanted to jump in and fish right away but we needed to check out the house first. In my head imagined an older house with wallpaper and decorations that came right out of a 70's Sears Catalog. 

This place was awesome and included all the comforts of home even WiFi. We found ourselves constantly being surprised and yelling to each other "Hey, there's this too!" After all the oohing and ahhing we headed to the river. It was high and muddy from the recent rain. The area hadn't received the same amount that hit my home. We all figured with the fish seeing less pressure they'd be easy to catch. Our assumptions were wrong and the fish hit very subtlety. 

When the fishing was over we ate dinner sat on the balcony and admired the view.

The next day the group decided to try our luck on a close stocked stream. The water had cleared and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I love this river. It has some of the prettiest scenery in the state. If variety is your game this is the place for you. The creek runs the gamut of all types of trout water. Plunge pools, riffley runs, fast and slow water. Then there's post card pools like this.

It's hard to fish with a frown in a place like this. We hit this river two days in a row and this dog managed to find me both days even on different sections of the river.

This dog cracked me up. He wanted to be my fishing buddy more than a canine companion. At first I wan't sure how friendly he was and I kept my distance. Then I noticed he'd follow me to every section of the river and eventually walked a head of me leading me to the next spot. He knew some pretty good ones too.

When the day was over I was more unhappy to leave his company than he was. He just sauntered off like he was eager to find the next fisherman to guide.

The fishing trip was as good as it gets. With long fishing days, good food, campfire stories and adult beverages. I can't wait until the next one.

Soft Hackles and Long Legs

Every year I try to host a couple trips for my local fly fishing club. Usually the trips are to delayed harvest streams. The goal is to get people more familiar with how to fish for trout. The day usually comes down to nymphing. Soft hackles have always been a personal favorite. They just seem to work. It could be confidence in fishing them or they could just be the perfect fly. I tried tying a few before the trip.

I didn't like how long the hackle was on each of the flies. No matter how hard I tried to make a sparse looking fly I felt it had too much hackle and the fibers reached too far beyond the fly.

I trimmed them a little but I really don't like doing that. I feel it can give a really artificial look to the fly. Not like the whole thing isn't artificial enough. When we got to the river. The fish were in there usual places. I looked in my fly box trying to decide what to throw first. A voice in the back of my mind kept nagging me. "You just tied those soft hackles last night use those." I figured the best time to try those would be first thing. Then if they didn't work I could move on to other patterns. On my second cast I saw the indicator twitch. I set the hook but missed the fish. I have spent the whole summer chasing small brook trout that hit your fly like starving bluegill. My nymphing techniques were really rusty. After missing a few other strikes I had a fish on.

It was your typical stocked brookie. Bland and beat up but gives a nice tug. The key to most of this water is the drift. For some reason on certain days these fish do not want a dead drift. They want the fly almost dragging behind the indicator. They'll either hit the fly on the drag or hit it on the swing at the end of the drift.

The weather was unseasonably warm. It was in the mid 80's and you could have almost left the waders at home. It's always interesting to see how the fish learn to survive. When they're first dumped in they clump together and stand out like a sore thumb. You can always tell where fish are stocked because there will be about a 100 fish stacked up in a run. It takes about a week or more for the fish to spread out and start acting like an animal that has predators. Many fish were frolicking in the sun just waiting for a heron or eagle to snatch them up. Some fish were figuring it out early. I found this fish in a plunge pool. It had more color than your average stocked brown. It was also lacking the chunkiness of a pellet fed fish. I wonder if it is wild.

There was one section where if you got your drift just right you could catch fish after fish. I tried to show others but nymphing is something that takes a lot of practice. Your setup can make a huge difference. If one person is using just a foot or two longer leader that can be the difference between catching fish or nothing. I found the easiest way to get someone to learn the drift was to just let them use my rod with my setup.

My soft hackles were the fly of the day. The fish seemed to like the long spindly legs. I tried other flies that were similar with smaller legs or none at all. The fish wanted the long legs.