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.

Club Trout Trip

Today I attended a TFF trip to a trout stream.  I've visited this stream before and had great success.

The day had everything. Fish rising to dries and readily taking nymphs. There were big fish.

and little fish.

The best was people catching their first trout ever.

I wish all the trips could be like this. Everyone was hooking up.

The weather cooperated.

Good times were had.

TFF Smallie Trip 2010

Whenever I see the New River I get a little excited. The river is not that wide but it has a lot of features and looks like it could hold trophy fish around every bend.After checking out the campsite and cabins I made haste to get in the water. I'd felt warm water before but the river was like bath water. I didn't have a temperature gauge but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 80 degrees. The wading was pleasant but there was a lot of moss. This made fishing a little annoying. Moss that was dislodged up stream from other people swimming or playing in the water filled the surface and if it got on you line you had to stop and clean it off. You'd only get about two casts in before you were cleaning green sludge off your fly. People complain about didymo but this moss is horrible. I didn't catch any fish the first day.

The next morning some friends and I recovered from the night before and headed out for a day float. We put in a few miles up stream and there wasn't the same moss that plagued the campground section. The flow of the river was low but decent. We were off in search of a lunker. My friend let me use his kayak and I was really lucky. With the low water I was still able to flow over the faster class 1 type sections. Others in the group had a float tube and I could only imagine how frustrating it would be to stand up walk with your tube then plop down back in the water. You would have to do that about 100 times on this float.The fishing seemed to be best near the banks. I picked up my first smallmouth dead drifting a sneaky pete right under over hanging brush. The fishing was slow but we all caught fish or had action every 20 min or so. The sneaky pete was definitely the fly of the trip. In just this one float I caught, rock bass, blue gill, smallmouth and even a river chub.The flow was just fast enough to where I couldn't just sit in the kayak and fish. If I tried to do that I'd drift quickly by where I wanted to cast. I ended up jumping out of the kayak far enough away from where I wanted to cast. The water was low enough to wade in most places. There were some section that allowed me to stay in the kayak and slowly drift. This was my favorite fishing by far. I would drift at a perfect speed near the bank and I could give about 3 good casts before moving on to the next section. This was very productive. I picked off bass or had a hit in every location that looked to hold a fish. There was one scenario that makes me love fishing in general. Sometimes you imagine a situation in your head and it works out exactly like that on the water. I was drifting by a rock cliff and I thought to myself this has to be where a bass is at. I cast where I wanted and almost knew exactly when the fish was going to his. With in 3 seconds the fish was on.I didn't get too many pictures of fish. My camera was in a dry bag and it was a pain getting it in and out.

The dry bag paid for itself. After several close calls I managed to keep the boat and everything in it dry. There was a calm section and I saw my friend reach back in his kayak and get a drink. I had a cooler in the back of mine and it wasn't strapped down. I though hmm a drink sounds great, I reached back and the boat shifted the cooler. I reached back even further and the boat went at about a 45degree angle at first I thought there was no way I was going to cap size but then I saw my bag with the camera fall in the WATER! I went in soon after and the boat did in fact capsize. My friend chased my cooler and other belongs having a hard time because he was laughing so hard. I came up refreshed but had a bruised ego. Luckily the cooler floated, the camera stayed dry I got pretty much everything I had but the anchor for the boat. We looked for it for about 5min but couldn't find it. The day light was fading fast another buddy had a leaking pontoon and we had to get to the take out.

The take out ended up being a lot further than I expected. Even though I was thoroughly exhausted and hating the river by the time I got to the take out I had a great time. I did a short wade the next day. It wasn't very fruitful. The only fish caught were rock bass. The trip definitely had it's ups and downs. This is what makes trips great. You create memories and stories you can share forever. I look forward to the next one.

TFF South Holston Trip 2010

The weather in Raleigh has been unseasonably warm. It was a nice escape to go fish on a river for a few days even if the air temperature wasn't that much lower. This was going to be my first experience on the South Holston and I really had no expectations of how the fishing would be. My friend Brian and I were the first to arrive at the Castaways Redbrick House late at night. It was more than adequate accommodations and the river was with in 100yds of our back door.

I woke up early the next morning eager to fish and get on the river. Brian is pretty much an expert about ways to fish the Holston and he quickly gathered his gear and we were off to the stream. As we walked down through a pasture you could hear the river but it was hidden under a layer of fog. We walked through some brush and I had my first glimpse of the South Holston.I was a little nervous about fishing at first. I guess because I have heard so many stories about the Holston. They were a little intimidating. Most of the fish are stream raised and the fishing information I had been given was that the river takes pretty technical fishing. Drag free drifts and almost perfect presentation. After some guidance on where good spots were I tied on an emerger pattern and my go to trout fly a beadhead softhackle. I cast into the mist and watched my indicator with feverish intensity. Nothing happened after about 10 casts then the indicator jerked hard under the water. I lifted the rod felt pressure and saw the flash from my first hooked fish.The power of the fish was impressive. It peeled off a foot of line at different intervals. I could tell the fish was good size but it was fighting far harder than I thought it would. As I worked it to calmer water the fish shook it's head releasing the fly. I was worried I may have lost my one and only chance at catching a fish. I moved to a different location and fished some other spots. I tried to watch Brian to see if maybe there's something new I could learn.

He seemed to catch fish regularly. After about an hour we decided to try another spot. I was a little hesitant seeing that he had caught 6 fish in an hour which usually would be a good day for me. Little did I know by Holston estimates when the time is right, six fish can be caught in six minutes. We ended up at another part of the river hoping to beat the generation for a few hours before it got there. At first it seemed like there wasn't anything going on. We saw a few sulphurs here and there but nothing amazing. The fishing was slow and even though we caught a few fish the fishing seemed pretty difficult. As we worked down stream we started to see more sulphurs. Within 10min of seeing the first ten or so you could see them all over. The run we were literally standing next too went from a riffle to a bubbling fury of trout feeding. I have never seen anything like that in all my years of fishing. Brian frantically tied on his best sulphur pattern and I tied on what I thought would work. I desperately fished at rising fish but that led to another problem. I started to get a little over whelmed, I just started throwing my fly in areas where I saw rises. Fish ignored my fly like it was just a hunk of feathers on a hook. I didn't even get a refusal. Brian hooked up and that made me even more eager to catch something. After his third fish he had me come over and he gave me what he was using. It didn't look much different than the fly I was using but it had a different wing. That made all the difference in the world. I went from fish ignoring my fly to trout coming up and either refusing or nudging it. I knew it was a matter of time before I was going to catch some fish. I manicured the fly and made sure it was dry. Focused on a nice consistent rise among the other fifty, made a cast and had an enormous strike. The fish was 17 inches long and cart wheeled twice out of the water. It peeled yards of line several times. That experience alone would make me come back to the Holston. I finally landed the fish and it was the beginning of one of the best fishing days of my life. Cast after cast, I either had a fish on or fought one for a minute or two then it shook the fly off. The fight and power of the fish was amazing. A fish 12 inches an take line and no fish ever just gave up and came over to me. I had every fight you can imagine, fish sending me in circles, running up stream and downstream, jumping tons of times. The only thing stopping us was the rise of the water from the recent generation. I didn't get pictures of many of the fish, I was too busy fishing, but I did love the color of this Brown. The picture doesn't even get close to how pretty the red dots were.

Back at the Brickhouse we rested and set up the strategy for the spinner fall. I have only read about spinner falls in books. I have never fished one. This is the time when the spent mayflies fall dead on the water and the trout go crazy. We came to the river late in the evening but still light enough to see fish rising here and there. The fishing was phenomenal and the mist from the cool water with the hot air temperature created views right out of a dream.The mist was so great at times we couldn't see the other TFF members we were fishing with. Then a voice came from the dense fog. "I see a few spinners." I started to look every where but I couldn't see anything. Just like the hatch earlier I saw a few bugs then within minutes there were hundreds. The water again started to churn with fins and feeding trout. The water literally looked like it was boiling with the mist. Again the fish avoided my flies until I tried a spinner pattern that was recommended by the South Holston River Fly Shop. I caught fish after fish and kept going until I could no longer see where I was standing. The fish didn't seem to care about presentation. I was even able to catch fish letting my line belly or giving the line short strips. As darkness fell I'd cast into the mist watching my fly and line disappear. I'd slowly follow the line I could see with the tip of my rod, then the line would slash across the water and go tight into the fog. The fly rod would pulse and bend from the weight of the fish. The fish usually could only be heard but not seen until it was with in ten feet. It was a day to remember.

The next morning I woke up early and everyone was sleeping. I decided to try the section of river next to the house again. I was rewarded with a fish about the same size as the one I had lost the morning before. The days went on the same as the one before. The hatches were thicker every day. The spinner fall wasn't as good as the first night but the sulphur hatch was so thick at times that when I opened my chest pack to get a fly a couple bugs would fly out. There were times you couldn't tell what fly was yours and what was natural. I saw the craziest things like fish refusing real flies, catching fish with two flies in their mouth and seeing fish that would take a 10wt to catch. There were times I was so tired from fishing I had to just sit and rest even with tons of rising fish in front of me. The whole experience was unbeleivable.

It was a great trip and I had great experiences with all parts of the trip. The house was great. The South Holston fly shop was really good. The owner Rod Champion, really appreciates his customers. They honestly care about your experience on the Holston and not about how much you buy from their shop. The fishing was like nothing I had ever experience before. I really owe the most thanks to Brian. With out his knowledge of the river and generosity with certain flies and locations I definitely would not have caught the amount of fish I had. I look forward to when I can come back.

TFF South Holston Trip June 2010 from Kevin Frank on Vimeo.

TFF Striper Trip 2010

Today was the TFF Striper trip and I was hoping for a day as good or better than the one I had a couple days prior. A buddy and I arrived at the boat ramp at 8am and were quickly in the water. The parking lot was full and the boat traffic was pretty thick. I was trying a new set up that I wasn't sure was going to work. I took my sinking 5wt line and put it on my 8wt rod with a T14 25ft. A pink and white clouser was the hot fly for me last time, so I tied one on and through it over board and let some line out. I stripped in getting ready to make a real cast and a fish hammered the line. While bringing the fish in I was excited to see it was bigger than any striper I have caught.Catching a fish on your first cast can be a blessing or a curse. It usually means the day is going to be outrageously good or horrible. Unfortunately for us it was the latter. It was nice being the water and enjoying each others company but the fishing was tough. We tried places all over the river with little success. There were people using bait that seemed to be catching fish some what consistent. Even when we tried fishing the same seem they were using we couldn't hook up. The place we began ended up being the only spot that was productive. The day ended with a couple fish for the both of us. I had fun but it was a pretty forgettable day otherwise. Brian was good company as always and I think we do a good job of keeping the mood light. It was fun seeing other club members on the water. Many of them were having the same kinda day. I'm thankful there were no mishaps or injuries. A few more fish wouldn't have hurt.

TU New River Trip 08

Arriving at the Campground
This was my first fishing trip with the Trout Unlimited group, also known as Triangle Fly Fishers. The campground we stayed at was just outside of Galax, VA. The excitement on Friday to get to the river and start fishing was ridiculous. Its been a long time since I have been camping. I also have not really went on a trip targeting a specific fish. I was eager to see how my flies would perform. I carpooled up with some friends and we had a guide lesson that afternoon. We came to the campsite and were greeted with this view.The scenery was beautiful and the water looked really clear and very fishy. We started setting up camp as fast as we could. While setting up camp we talked to some people who had come the day before. They said they caught 8 fish each. This made us scramble even faster to set up camp and get out on the water. There wasn't much structure in the water except for on the banks.I worked my way downstream, casting towards rocks and other places I thought a fish would be. The wading was interesting to say the least. The current wasn't strong but there was a lot of silt. When you stepped in it, sometimes you would sink, and it was a spooky feeling. I realized within the first 5min of wading that I should have brought my chest waders. I had issues getting to the banks because there was a deep section that had to be crossed to get there.

My buddy Preston caught a fish after his first few minutes of fishing. I figured it was only a matter of time before I hooked up. I tried many different flies but was unsuccessful catching anything. The guide lesson was starting soon and I figured I would catch something then. After the guide told us the basics he sent us out on the water and instructed us on places that might hold fish. No one was catching anything. The fish really seemed to be inactive. There weren't any rises except for the occasional fish splash. You could see small mayflies maybe a size 20 or 18 flying off the surface. Fish weren't even hitting those. It was a strange day. The water and weather looked so good but the fish weren't cooperating. The guide said the weather temperature had dropped considerably that week, and the fish might be put off. It was nearly 20 degrees cooler than just the weekend before. We ended the day a little disappointed but were glad we had a couple more days to fish.

The Ledges
The next morning I was eager to catch something. There was a place nicknamed the ledges we heard about that was supposed to have great fishing. We gathered our things and headed there. The view was spectacular when we arrived. If there were fish anywhere in the river it had to be here.We all split up and headed different directions. I headed towards some weed beds that had to have bass in them. I decided to go with a black bunny fly I tied. On the third cast, I was pulling in my slack line, when I had a bend in the rod and a fish on. I was surprised at first that a fish was there, and I had a lot of line out. Then I did something that is a problem I seem to have. I always seem to want to play fish on the reel. You rarely have to do this. So what happened is I had the slack line in taught in my right hand, I released it to start reeling it in with the reel. When I had all the slack line reeled in the fish was off. Most likely when I released the slack line with my hand it popped the hook. I was mad at myself but excited at the same time. I had caught a fish, and did it on a fly I tied. The day was looking up. I worked my way around the weed beds and always had to pause for a minute or so to enjoy the view.I continued to work the weed beds, I could see fish swimming here and there, but I was unable to hook up with any. Preston started to have some success on a popper he was fishing. I tried several different flies including a popper. I didn't catch a thing. I worked my way to the other side of the river. I came to a sandy pool that was about 100ft across. There were huge carp circling in the pool. I figured if I wanted to catch a carp, this would be my best chance. I tied on a small crayfish patter and threw toward the back end of the pool towards a weed bed. I worked my fly to where I thought a carp would pass, then my line went taught and I had a fish on. I was confused because I didn't see any fish in the vicinity. I reeled the fish in closer, and it looked like a bass, but not a smallmouth. To my surprise, it was a largemouth. I've never heard of people catching them in the New. I was happy to finally get the skunk off for the day. The fishing improved some. I decided to work towards a rocky section.There were lots of pools that had fish but none were eager to hit any flies. One of the people we were fishing with had success on minnow patterns. I tied on a white bugger and saw some small fish chasing and nipping at it but nothing was killing it. I started to work runs in between pools and around rocks. I finally hooked up with a smallie big enough to bend my rod. It was no monster by any means, but it at least gave me a fight for about a minute.It ended up being the biggest smallie of the trip for me. I caught a nice bluegill later in the day but that was it. It was a fun day of fishing, but everyone had hoped for bigger fish and more activity.

Growling.....
On the way back to the car Preston and I were walking up a trail from the river and as we got near his SUV, we heard growling. It slowly got louder the closer we got to his car. The growling sounded menacing and didn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. I walked around the left side of the car and a dog came out from under it, suprising me but it seemed to not be intimidated. It wagged it's tail twice then went right back under the car. We then heard the growling again. I figured maybe the dog was hurt or possibly was having puppies and was using the car as a layer or den. Preston walked closer to the car and yelled, trying to scare the dogs out from under the car. The growling grew louder and it sounded like it was coming from another part of the car. I looked under the vehicle and saw two dogs. I kept calling them trying to get them to come out but all they kept doing was growling and not moving. Preston and I kind of looked at each other and were trying to figure out what to do. Neither of us wanted to get bit, and we were in the middle of no where. Rabies is a real thing and it does cross your mind when you find an animal acting weird. Preston decided to grab a stick off a tree, and I was like "what are you gonna do with that?" He said "I'm going to scare them out." I told him instantly that the last thing you want to do is poke a pissed off dog with a stick. We were in a predicament though, we had to leave, we could get some other people to help us, but what could they really do? We were out of cell phone service so if one of us got bit we couldn't even call for help, so do we take the chance and try to get attacked? Plus if they attack one of us, can the other person, get the dogs off? Even if they didn't attack us, neither of us, wanted to get bit. I devised a plan, which wasn't my favorite, but I thought it was our best course of action. I told Preston to take the stick and walk around the car, keep it between him and the bottom of the car, open the door, and get in. Give me 5min to walk down the trail, I don't want the dogs running out from under the car then chase me. He agreed that was probably the best idea and made his way towards the car. The growling and barking became really intense. Preston worked his way around the wheel well, then went to open his door, it seemed like it took an eternity for him to get in the car. I watched and prayed as he made his way threw the door. He slid in the drivers seat and closed the door. I was relieved, UNTIL... I hear a loud honk and his engine start. I kind of nervously laughed and started running towards the river. I wasn't going to wait until the dogs came out and ran towards me. While I was running, I kept thinking, I said "WAIT 5MIN!!!" I made it to the river, luckily with no dogs chasing me. I listened to hear for Preston's car. Through the forest you heard a loud screeching sounding like a dog being hurt. I figured the dogs didn't move and he started to go forward and now one was pinned under the car. Then the screeching stopped. I wanted to walk back up the trail and look, but I was afraid dogs would be waiting for me, and if they weren't hurt before, now they probably were. Then I heard screeching again, I figured he must have run them over this time. I waited about a minute then heard a car coming down the trail. I ran up to the window and said "did you run them over?" Preston said he didn't but there were 3 dogs, not just 2. I got in the car, and as we made our way back, we saw 4! dogs in the road waiting for us. We had left some stuff on the ground while trying to figure out what we were going to do to get in the car. The dogs had knocked it all around. One carried Preston's hat down the road. Preston yelled at the dogs, and it dropped his hat, they finally ran off as we drove out. Preston and I looked at each other, and just thought, how strange was that? We talked about how when we told the story, no one would ever believe how scary or intense it was. When we got back to camp, we were right, when we told the story, everyone just looked at us like, that wouldn't have been that bad. I guess it is one of those you had to be there stories. I would never want to be there again.

Lost Kayaker
That night we were told there was a kayaker who never checked into a boat landing. He was two hours late. The kayaker was a older man and they were worried about him, since it was getting dark, and pretty cold. The air temp was dropper rapidly with the sun. It was getting into the 50's and on the river it would be pitch black and cold. A perfect situation for hypothermia. While sitting around the campfire we saw police cars scanning the river with spotlights, we had a fire truck drive into our campsite, and blast a spotlight across the river. The rescue teams were hoping the man got out of the river and just went home. No one remembered seeing anyone go by. That night you could hear people searching and yelling in the forest. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic for that mans family. I couldn't understand why the search vehicles stayed around our campsite so much. I figured if the guy was late, he would have been long gone past our section of the river.

Next Morning
The next morning we woke up and were kind of in a funky mood. The fishing hadn't been that great and we had to leave in the afternoon. We heard some bad news about the lost kayaker, he was found about a 5min walk up stream of our campground. This really bothered me, I couldn't help but wonder if I walked up the stream last night, would I have seen the guy, and maybe he would have been still alive. The man was not wearing a life jacket and was found at a place where they dredge silt out of the water. I couldn't help but think about how freaky it would be to be in the dark freezing and wet on the river.

I tried to get the whole thing off my mind and focus on fishing. There was a damn that supposedly had good fishing, we headed that way not expecting much. The fishing area near the dam, had a lot of rocks and structure. It definitely looked like smallmouth habitat.I saw some rocks with logs around and made a bee line to it. I fished pools on the way. I decided to go with a firetiger popper. There was a nice section with a run of water and a ledge of rocks on each side. The wading was a little treacherous. The rocks were sharp and not as slippery as other places, but I was tired of trying to keep my balance. I came to a decent casting spot and launched my fly into the run. I finally saw what I had been waiting for the whole trip. A shadow came up from the depths and hammered the fly. I was so surprised I set the hook way too late. My adrenaline definitely rose and now I was really excited about how this day was going to turn out. I cast a few more times into the run, and again a shadow came up, this time, followed the fly a few feet then sucked it in. I missed the fish some how, I'm not sure if it was slack in my line, or if I reacted a little too fast and pulled the fly out of its mouth. After that, the fishing slowed down. No one was catching much, I waded over to a shady section. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked there was a otter cruising passed me. It must not have seen me right away because it was only about 10ft away. That kind of made my day. I love seeing wildlife, and an otter is rare for me. A few minutes later I had my first fish. It came on a helgramite pattern that I had as a dropper off of my popper. The fish was only about 6inches. I didn't get anything else for the rest of the day. The other flies I heard that worked ok were a black cheynobal ant, and a Murray's helgramite. We left the river, reminiscing about the trip and not looking forward to the drive home. All in all it was a great trip.This was one of the few times I had more fun outside of the water talking to people around the campfire than I did fishing. I look forward to more TU trips and more smallie fishing. I have an idea of what flies work and I really want to see if that was just a fluke my bunny fly worked or if it is a great bass fly. The weather is turning into trout weather so I'm not sure I'll find out until next year.