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. 

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.