Fishing size 19's

I hit a delayed harvest stream and the afternoon started out how it usually does. Fish were stacked in their normal places and they'd hit your fly if the drift was just right.

The fall always provides a challenge of figuring out the difference between an actual fish strike and your line hitting a drowned leaf. I caught almost as many leaves as I did fish today. The water was very cold and the fish strikes were very subtle. What made matters worse was a sizable leak in my waders. People were camping in many of the good holes. There was one that required waders to get to and fish it properly you had to stand in waste deep water. I tried to fight mild hypothermia and worked this spot for quite awhile.

Then about as the last daylight was dying small bugs started to fill the air. They were scattered at first then became a flurry of insects. I could see several heads popping up at the beginning of the pool. Fish started to stack up and there were swirls and rises all over. It's rare you hit a real hatch in NC. I saw one of the bugs on the water and it looked to be a size 19 blue winged olive. I say size 19 because whenever there is a really good hatch it always seems like I don't have anything that matches the exact size of the insect. I decided to try a size 18 dark olive caddis. The sun was starting to set and I couldn't see my fly in the water. I always wondered how people could detect strikes on flies smaller than a size18. My buddy gave me the best advice ever. If you see a fish rise where you think your fly landed set the hook. This is really the only way to fish when you can't see the fly. It ended up working and I hooked a couple nice fish. Then the rises started to become less frequent. There was one fish that lifted it's head half out of the water. You could literally hear the CLOOP as it sucked in bugs. I tried to time the fishes rise. I thought I had the fish at one time but it either missed the fly or I pulled it out of the fishes mouth.

 

The water went dead and I couldn't see any signs of fish rising. After a few minutes a warm breeze came across the river and the bugs started to appear in the air again. The head started to appear CLOOP! CLOOP! I cast ahead of where the fish was rising and said out loud "eat it, eat it eat it" then CLOOP! The fish ate the fly nonchalantly. I set the hook and the fish fought but stayed close to the surface. The short fight didn't match the size of the fish. Sometimes that's the case with stocked fish. The special thing for me about this fish was how it was caught. My fly selection and cast had to be just right to catch this fish and I was rewarded.

It made the day for me.

Wilson Creek

Some friends invited me to go fishing with them on Wilson Creek yesterday. I have heard a lot about this creek but never had a chance to fish it. It was going to be new to all of us. There was high expectations as our group received detailed instructions of specific fishing spots and flies. The weather had warmed up some from how its been recently. There was still reminants of snow on the sides of the road. We drove past the hatchery supported section and decided to try our luck on the delayed harvest water. As we were gearing up it started to rain. The clouds didn't show any signs of it lightening up. We made the best of it and got ready to head down to the creek.
For the amount of rain that was coming down the water was really clear. Usually it becomes murky from run off. The rain made it difficult to see the bottom but when it stopped you could make out ever rock and feature. I couldn't see any fish at first. As I walked around and got my fish vision back I started to see more. There was a lot of fish in this creek. They didn't act dumb like stocked fish, even though they were. I tried different wooly buggers and only got a few follows on a olive one. I worked different areas for awhile then went over to talk to a buddy who was doing pretty well. He showed me the rig he was using and gave me a different kind of indicator. The flies he was using was an egg pattern with a sz16 pheasant tail as a dropper. That set up made all the difference. Literally, five minutes after I set up my line I caught 2 fish. I continued to miss some fish and hook a few here and there. The suprise of the day was hooking up with a big brook. I was pretty far out in the stream and I think he thought I was a rock because he swam towards me a few times while trying to run. I knew if I fought him much longer he might break off so during one of his swim by's I tried to net him. I missed the first time and he took off behind a rock, I was anticipating a snap of the line. Luckily he came back around the rock and swam at me again. I was able to net him up this time. It was a really nice fish, probaly 18inches and near 3lbs. The fish did some barrel rolls in my net which made it really hard to get out. Its mouth was entangled in the net with the flies. I almost thought of just cutting the line. I eventually got him loose and he was released unharmed. I got a pic before letting him go. That made my day and I was feeling great until.........

When fishing you never really worry about things until something unexpected happens, about 5min after catching the brook, I slipped on a rock and took a swim. I din't go all the way under water but I pretty much did a dog paddle and kept my head above the water. When I got my feet back under me, water had gone in my jacket and down my waders. It was in the mid 40's outside and raining. No place really to dry off except back at the car. I've read many stories of hypothermia and I didn't want to be in one of them. I got my friends keys and went back to the car and assessed the situation. I knew my day of fishing might be over. When I got to the car and stripped off my soaked jacked I realized my chest waders had protected most of my core. The water that got in came in through the neck of my jacket. My left arm was pretty wet too. I had decided to wear two shells that day. I think that really helped. I wasn't freezing or really cold. I hung out at the car for awhile then realized I was gonna live. Put my freezing wet jacket back on and soaked gloves. with in 30min I was feeling totally fine and warm.

The fishing slowed down but the rain picked up. It was kind of miserable at times. You couldn't get comfortable. The rain would slow down you'd start to feel warm then it would start pouring. It didn't matter what you were wearing you were gonna get soaked. Even with the gray and rain the river had some awesome scenery.

The rain finally chased us off but not after a good day of fishing. I had a great time with the guys I went with. On the way home we were planning our next trip. I look forward to many other trips and shared stories. Hopefully with less swimming on my part.

This trip was a chance to try my new Olympus WP550 waterproof camera. I was really impressed with how it filmed underwater. The bad part is in the rain you can't clean off the lens properly. Everything I had was soaked so there was nothing to use to wipe away the water drops on the lens. It still took decent pictures and I'm happy with the camera. Below is a movie I took of releasing a little rainbow.