Davidson River Slam

After almost a week of heavy rain I wasn't sure if the Davidson River would be fish-able. I thought my best chance would be to hike to the headwaters of the Davidson where the water levels would be lower and more fish-able. Unfortunately, this proved to be a big waste of time, although I did get some good exercise and nice photos.

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I had a relaxing shore lunch and rested up for the long hike back down the mountain. By this time it was about 2:00 in the afternoon and the water level was steadily falling as the day went on. I decided to give the lower Davidson a shot.

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I went to a big pool just down stream of a popular riffle and just sat and watched other anglers for a while. After a few minutes I saw some fish rising to the swarms of black gnats that the wind pushed in. I tied on a #16 griffiths gnat dry fly, but did not have any luck. Next, I tried a natural color san juan worm imitation that produced the nice rainbow above.

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As the day got later and the water level dropped, the fishing only improved. At one point, I was getting a strike on almost every other cast. The fish were very energetic and fought hard. Several trout lept out of the water shaking their heads like a large mouth bass. One rainbow in particular jumped four times almost 3 feet above the surface making a huge splash when landing. I have never seen trout do this. Maybe it was the highly oxygenated water from the rain?

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I was very surprised to catch this large brook trout (below) in the Davidson. My first on this river.

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I completed the slam with this handsome brown trout.

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I must say, this was probably the best day I have ever had on the Davidson. If you are ever in the Brevard area, it is definitely worth a try.

First Fish of 2009

My very first fishing trip of 2009 did not disappoint. I really missed fishing for the native wild brookies, so I headed up to my secret spot near the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was not sure what to expect because I have never caught a native brookie in the middle of winter. It was a very cold day with a layer of ice on the exposed rocks. I had to move very slowly to keep from falling.

I knew the fish would be feeding deep so I was nymph fishing all of the deeper pockets. I did not have much luck, except for one spot where I always catch fish. A large undercut bolder. I made several casts to the other side of the bolder while standing behind it. Finally the line tightened and I quickly raised the rod tip to set the hook. It was a 7" male brookie still in spawning colors. But from his thin body, it was obvious he was just trying to make it through the winter at this point.

I released the brookie and decided I would leave the little native "speckles" alone until spring. They are under enough pressure as it is. I decided to move to the catch and release section of the Davidson River.

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On the Davidson, I went to the same place where I caught the 16" brown the week before. It was late in the day so many fishermen had already fished this hole. Fortunately a cold winter rain shower chased most of the other anglers away and I had the spot all to myself.

I fished for about an hour with no luck. I could see fish but they were very skittish. Finally I changed to a very fine 7X tippet and tied on a natural color San Juan worm. I allowed the nymph to drift as naturally as I could in the deepest section of the run. I only felt a slight tug that caused me to set the hook. It was a good sized fish. I had to play him very carefully to keep from breaking the fine tippet. Finally I was able to coax him to shore and get a net under him. It was a very plump rainbow measuring 16". I was hoping for something a little bigger to break my previous week's record, but I was happy.

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Monster Davidson River Brown Trout

Last week a very large brown trout was caught on the Davidson River near Brevard, NC by Graham Sturgis. Here is the original write-up by Kevin Howell (Owner - Davidson River Outfitters - Fly Shop).

There have been a lot of people fishing over the holiday period and with the increased water flows and warmer than usual temperatures, we have seen a lot of good fish being caught. However, Graham Sturgis, gets the big fish award. Graham stopped by the shop on Friday morning and we had a conversation about a large trout he had seen the evening before. We discussed the fish and what we thought it might be, I suggested a Foxee Red Minnow. After he left the shop he caught this brown out of the Catch and Release section of the Davidson River on a size 6 Clouser Foxee Red Minnow, on his first cast. After a couple of rough measurements and a couple of quick photo's the massive trout was released unharmed back into the Davidson. We estimate that the fish weighs somewhere in the 13-14 pound range.

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This is truly a fish of a lifetime.

Congratulations Graham!

Davidson River

Yesterday, we had good fishing on the Upper Davidson River. We were catching them mostly on pink egg imitations using high-stick nymphing technique.

Tim caught a beautiful brown.

Dave landing a nice sized rainbow.

This brown is 15+ inches long (I wish I had taken the time to actually measure it). It is the largest trout I have caught in the lower 48.

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Fall Fishing in Brevard

Last week I spent 4 days of fishing with friends from work in Brevard, NC. The weather was great, chilly 45 degree mornings and warm 70 degree afternoons. We caught a lot of fish the first 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) on the North Mills and Little River. The streams we fished were Delayed Harvest catch and release only. Mostly stocked brook trout.

Then Friday and Saturday we fished the Wild section of the Upper Davidson River and caught some beautiful wild rainbows and browns.

Tim's 31 ft RV had all the comforts of home, including satellite TV!

Relaxing after breakfast.

Tim and Eric getting ready for fishing on the North Mills River. Eric caught a ton of fish this day using a streamer and stripping it in.

8" Brook Trout. This was a typical sized fish for the North Mills. They were taking mostly streamers and nymphs. Although I did catch a few on dry fly during the warm afternoon.

12" Brook Trout. Probably a hold-over brookie from the previous year stocking. I'm guessing because he was larger than most of the other fish.

Small wild Brown Trout from Upper Davidson River.

14" Brook Trout. This is the largest trout I have caught so far in America. I saw him tailing a spawning bed near the back of a large pool. I drifted a size 18 nymph by him and he took it on the first pass. He did not fight very hard, which was a good thing because I was using a 7X tippet. I waded out to the middle of the pool to net him to keep from breaking him off.

14" Brook Trout

Tim on the North Mills.

David S. on The Little River.

David S. stalking trout on the Upper Davidson.

10" wild brown caught on Upper Davidson in the Wild section. I made a long cast to a calm deep pool just downstream of a waterfall. I could not see my fly, but I did see a small dimple in the water when he took the fly. I set the hook hard and felt that I had a fish on. He fought hard and tried to go under an undercut rock on the side of the pool. I steered him back to the center of the pool and was able to net him. He had very nice color. There is just no comparison between the wild trout and the stocked trout.

10" wild brown close-up.

Snowbird Brookies

Last Sunday I finally went to a special creek that I have been wanting to fish for a long time, the Big Snowbird Creek near the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina. I knew fishing this creek would be a challenge physically because it is very remote.
I woke up at 3:00 am Sunday morning and drove to the trail head (called the Junction) arriving at 6:45 am. It is called the Junction because of a narrow gage railroad used for logging in the area during the 1920's and 30's. The native brook trout were completely extirpated from Snowbird Creek because of heavy silting from the logging operation. Fortunately, the creek has recovered and is a revitalization success story. It now contains the largest known Brook Trout in the Southern Appalachians!
Artifacts from the logging operation can still be seen along the trail.

From the Junction it is about a 5 mile hike upstream to above Big Falls where the Brookies live. It took about 2 1/2 hours to make this hike. By 9:45 am I was fishing.
At first the fishing was very slow. I caught this pretty little 4 inch brookie first, but I was after his big brother.

Next I caught a nicer 7 inch brookie. I was happy but still hoping for something a little bigger.
Finally a landed an 8 1/2 inch brook trout. My biggest for the day. I talked to another fisherman who said he caught a 12 inch brookie! So I know there are bigger ones in Snowbird.
I caught a total of 5 fish for the day. I only fished for 4 hours before it was time to start the long hike back to the car.
I think next time, I should plan to spend the night if I want to get into the bigger fish further upstream.
But, this was a good scouting trip.

Upper Chattooga

It is finally beginning to feel like fall. The water is cooling down and the fish are becoming more active. So last weekend I decided to try fishing one of the South Carolina trout streams, the Chattooga River in Oconee County. This was my first time to fish the Chattooga, in fact this was the first time I have fished "seriosly" for freshwater trout in my home state of South Carolina. I was pleasantly surprised.

I parked at Burrells Ford Bridge and hiked and fished my way up stream to a point called Ellicott Rock (about 3.5 miles). Ellicott Rock is a stone marker at the point where North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia all intersect.

The Chattooga is a hatchery supported river with the South Carolina State hatchery located on the East Fork of the Chattooga. The Chattooga is known for having very large brown trout, some up to 27 inches!

It is also famous for being the location where the hit movie "Deliverance" was filmed.

I did not catch any large brown trout but I did catch one small brown and a couple of nice 11"-12" rainbows.

I am trying to learn to fish using nymphs. So this day was nymph only day. I caught all the fish using a #20 WD40 nymph.

Here is a nice paw print left in the sand near the waters edge. It is from the black bear which is native to this area.

Upper Davidson

I went to the upper section of the Davidson River yesterday. It is designated "wild- catch and release only". I had a good day, a total of about 25 fish, but I quit counting around 15. The "fish of the day" was this wild 11 inch brown trout. He made a good account for himself on the light #2 weight rod.

I caught 3 other browns, 2 of which were nice size.

I still have not gone back to the "secret" stream. I want to wait to after a nice rain, so the fish will be more active and not so stressed from the low water levels.

Appalachian Slam!

What is the Appalachian Slam? This is what fishermen call it when they catch all 3 species of trout of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in a single day. Yesterday, I fished the wild section of the Davidson River in the morning and caught a small brown trout and a 10" rainbow. Another angler was fishing downstream of me and wanted to pass. Normally, fly fishing etiquette would require that he walk around me and go far upstream. But, because I had already caught two pretty fish and he had been fishing after me, I told him to just go ahead of me.

I decided that I wanted to try for some Brook trout so I left the Davidson and went to a new stream that I had been wanting to try. The stream requires a difficult hike and climbing up 2 waterfalls. But it was well worth the effort. The stream had many small brookies at first. The further upstream I went the larger the fish got. At the back of a large pool there was an undercut rock that looked like a perfect holding area for a brookie. I took my time and tried many different patterns including nymphs. Finally, a large 10" brook trout took a #16 Royal Coachman and gave a nice fight. Unfortunately, I was using a barbless hook and I did not have net. So, he escaped right at my feet! But, I was very happy! I hooked atleast two more large brookies a little upstream and lost both of them. The point is, I have found a new stream with large sized brookies and I think it receives very little fishing pressure. I can't wait to go back with my net. Normally I don't like to use barbed hooks but I usually shallow hook the brookies and they are really good at shaking the fly from their mouth.

I'm afraid I am going to have to keep the location of this new stream a secret. Sorry!

So after fishing the "secret" stream for a few hours, I headed back to the Davidson to fish the evening rise. I found a large, deep pool where the Davidson and Looking Glass creek intersect. Just upstream of the pool is a nice riffle on the Davidson side. I knew this would be a likely spot for the evening rise. I waited until about 5:30 pm until I started seeing trout rising to insects floating on the water. My first cast was about 60 feet to the top of the riffle with a large grasshopper imitation. It drifted naturally for about 10 feet and was sucked under by a very large rainbow. I struggled to keep him from getting into the rocks at the head of the riffle, but I lost him. Usually the largest fish in the area gets first dibs on any food floating by. I'm guessing this one was about 20". The fish continued rising and I caught 5 more medium sized rainbows (10"-12") out of the same riffle and pool.

So, for the day, I had my first Appalachian Slam. Can you identify the three species in the following pictures? Sorry the picture quality is not very good, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.Well? If you're not sure the answers are below.

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1) Rainbow Trout

2) Brown Trout

3) Brook Trout

><> Tight Lines

Jackson Hole Cutthroat

On my return trip from British Columbia, I made a pit stop in Jackson, Wyoming to meet up with some other friends from Japan (Take-san, Ongawa-san and Kawasumi-san). We stayed at the ranch home of Hamano-san located at the base of the Grand Tetons near the National Elk Refuge. It was a beautiful log cabin with amazing views! Here is a view from the back yard.We stayed in the guest cabin. Take-san relaxing before heading back to Flat Creek for more fly fishing. Saturday morning Hamano-san took us to meet one of his neighbors, Yvon Chouinard. Yvon is a famous mountain climber, author, fly fisherman and business man. He is most recognized as the founder of the Patagonia clothing and gear company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard

Take-san and Koichi-san discuss fly tying techniques. We were all a bit star struck. For outdoor enthusiast, meeting Yvon Chouinard is like meeting the Pope.

I had to sidle-up for a picture. (-:

After our brush with celebrity, it was time to head to Flat Creek. Flat Creek is a slow moving spring creek that winds through the Grand Teton valley. The banks have been undercut making perfect hiding places for the skitish cutthroat. We used terrestrials flies such as grasshoppers and ants during times when there was no mayfly hatch.

But around 12:00 noon there was usually a large hatch of grey drake mayflies. This one was nice enough to pose for a picture.

Clouds of mayflies can be seen rising into the sky as they hatch from the water. This drives the trout into a feeding frenzy, a situation every fly fisherman hopes for.

It was during a may fly hatch that I caught my first cutthroat.

Notice the red marking or "cut" under the head from which they are named.

After a few photos we released the cutthroat to fight another day. I caught 4 cutthroat in total for the two days. Not a lot of fish but I was happy.

I owe a special thank you to my new friend Koichi-san, who guided me on Flat Creek.

Koichi-san is a professional fly tyer and expert fly fisherman. I learned a lot during my two days of fishing together. I hope you will visit his blog... http://kwaters.blog92.fc2.com/