Tale of Two Rivers

It was the worst of times and it was the best of times. Let me tell you the tale of the Black Canyon.
I arrived at 11 ish, the song from my car speakers blasted the aptly named song by the Cars,"hello, hello again". One car in the parking lot (found out later those yokels were shooting rock chucks) so I had the river to myself, a first. I quickly headed upstream a bit.. tied on a royal wulff and started casting. It was therapeutic to just enjoy the act of casting a dry on a large river.. haven’t done that for a while.
After a half hour of no rises, I added a dropper, and in a bit had landed a little rainbow. Added another in short order. That was it for 3 hours. I switched up flies many times, dry only, different droppers, nothing. As fatigue weighed in and concentration waned, I decided to switch up one more time. I put on a massive stimulator (stimulator?, I hardly know her) and tied on a bead head prince nymph (party like its 1999!) That’s when the action began. After one cast, I was fighting a jumpy bow… and so it went for a half hour. I landed 9 or 10, all decent size. I had started using different techiques, ie.. stripping that nymph, swinging it, and a little jiggle, teasing those fish into striking. The Gov'na would have been proud.

I was having a grand ole time, just like Black Canyon used to be. Things I forgot though. How hard it is to wade in that river, how you need a wading staff, need a net, need more nymphs, and how strong those rainbows are. I'm making this note to self.. bring those things next time! And bring a sinking tip line, with streamers! (n.t.s.)



that last trout was a dandy.... He flashed at my fly twice before taking it, right along the bank. He took off downstream, into that fast water.. I was holding on for dear life.. trying to keep from breaking off, and trying like mad to get downriver, after him. Those of you who've been to that river know how treacherous it is to "run" downriver after a fish...after 15 min & a hundred yards, I finally coaxed him into shallow water where I was able to "corral" him with my boots (I need new boots). Enough said, what an ending... all told 71 miles from my door (1 1/2 hours, n.t.s.) I must go back, soon.

Solitude

What a day. No one in sight, clear water, many fish. Hiked into LHF, felt like walking into the arms of a familiar lover. The 411: landed 8 or 9 fish, nothing under 11. I missed several others, had a very nice brown on (twice) momentarily, and lost several flies to a wayward tree limb. The most memorable was losing that brown. I had come to a very deep run, had taken a trout from the back end, but then saw another swirl a little farther up. You know how you can see the back of the fish break the water, then the tail rotate over... you can tell its of good size.. I flicked a great cast right up into the overhanging tree, had to break off. Tied on another fly, lost that one too. finally put the fly right in the sweet spot.. gulp!.. I stung him and popped it out of his mouth! Tried again, nothing. Tried a new fly, smaller, gulp again! this time I had him on for about 8 secs.. that's right, I rode that bull for the allotted time, then he popped off... Drat! Fun nonetheless.. what a day!

I'm amazed by how many fish, and good size fish are in this stream. They were starting to stage for spawning, and I spooked out many fish in the riffles.. some quite nice, say, 16" or so.. and for this size stream the number per run or hole is incredible...

The Carolina Quartet

How do you describe that feeling when it's a weekday and you've got trout on you schedule? I did stay focused through the morning and then about lunch time headed for my meeting with Jacob Fork. Cloudy and cool. I scoped out the upper section and one angler was up there. I decided to hit my favorite haunt. Water was very heavy from all the rain recently, it was a little off in color, and really amazing how the runs change when there is so much water. Couldn't sight fish with the volume and dark sky so resorted to "strip searching". Wasn't long before I took my first brookie on a black beadhead woolly bugger I'd tied as a dropper to the egg pattern, really using
the egg as an indicator, these trout can take it so gently you gotta try and see your fly under water, in fact I missed two fish before I took number one. Took a little brown on a dead drift in the gorge, watched a big fish flash around it, and then ended up taking the small mouth in the cut of the big rock (fished from the right hand side- if moving up stream) I was standing on. Fished all the way up to Christian's hole (took three brookies there) and then decided to keep going. It had been quite awhile since I've fished that section. With the water so heavy there were great runs in areas that wouldn't typically hold fish and I had a ball taking trout in fairlyshallow water swinging the woolly bugger down current. There are also two really nice deep runs up in this section, one of which yielded three trout on three casts. Fished all the way up to the campground, it really wasn't that far. Skipped some of the shallower water and then fished right there at the parking lot, taking the big brown. He hit the fly as soon as it hit the water and I missed him and on the next cast he hit again really hard and put up a good fight. The next section up I caught the little rainbow. The section just above the parking lot is really cool, couple of deep plunge pools and a gorge type section. I need to check this section out more thoroughly next time. Didn't catch anything in these pools, did miss a fish and saw another flash at the fly. By now it was getting dark and I was terribly dehydrated, so weak I could hardly walk. I had forgotten to bring water and although surrounded by clear cold water, I didn't want to chance giardia. With out the strength to walk the 2 miles back to my car, I had to rely on my British special forces training.

GEAR REVIEW:

Love the slimline chest pack. I picked out my flies ahead of time and put them on Velcro backed pads which fit perfectly in the vest. Loved being able to open my "fly box" by unzipping the pack's main compartment. Very light, don't even notice it and perfect for scampering under bushes and over rocks- excellent and cheap, I only paid $14 for it.

Didn't try the foot warmers. Its too warm here to try them out now. One of you snow bound boys gonna have to test them out.

Gear List- update as needed

Group
Tent- 4 or 6 man
Sleeping bags
Pillows?
Thermarests

Matches/lighters
Firstarter
Fire logs
Tarp ?
Rope
Cargo nets
Firearms
Ammo
Bear spray 3 or 4
Brick of firecrackers 4
Rain slickers
TP
First aid kit
SAT phone or SPOT (Hans)
Small shovel / axe
Binoculars
Zip lock bags
Remote detonator (Hans)
Net (Hans)

Kitchen
Table
Stove
Fuel
2 pots
Frying pan
Paper plates
Utensils
Fillet knife
Mugs
Chairs 3
Dish soap
Scrubby
Paper towels
Storage box for kitchen items
Milk jugs with frozen water

Crying in my Rocky Road / Pablo's "Man Room"

First Day out and skunked, but that's not what it's all about right?

So, after a very pensive day, I took to the hills to get out of my head. It was a gorgeous day, mid 70s if you can believe that. New equipment begged me to break it in. Although the weather was "perfect", there was no fish to be caught by the Mule today. My years of not being skunked on the water have come to an end. But... who cares, fishing isn't just about the fish. It also has to do with communion with nature and drawing closer to our almighty creator.

So here it is BOYZ... my first day out in 2009 (somewhere near SLC, UT)

If This is Monday, Who Needs the Weekend!

Got the water about 9am. Decided to hike to the top of the upper section and started where the two smaller streams flow together to form the Jacob's Fork. Above the confluence is wild trout water. I looked it over, lots of plunge pools, very steep on one side and cascading, who knows, maybe when delayed harvest ends I'll take a walk up one of those and see what it's about. I had missed a big brown in the first big hole my last time out... (Hey, I don't think I posted one of my outings...gotta check that out- ok, I checked, I haven't missed one, I didn't go last week- no wonder I had to get out today).

Anyway, I stumbled and fell down before I even made a cast, did one of those nice sit down falls where water runs down your back- that's always a fun way to start the day. I had hits on the first two casts and hooked numbero uno on the third cast. That is such a great way to start- gets you focused real quick. It's hard to go the first hour with out any action.

Spent a lot of time working down the upper section, up until noon or so, and only caught 3 or 4 fish. The whole time I was using a bead head black woolly bugger. Caught two stripping and one on the dead drift after he missed it on the first pass. I think that area has really been picked over. So as it started warming up and as I was getting close to the parking lot I decided to go check out the middle section at the rangers house.

Soon as I put in at the trampoline there were brookies stacked up in the runs. The egg pattern worked as usual, and it's amazing how you can take fish one right after the other from a small run and the ones left will scatter for a bit and then reconvene and you can just pick them off one at a time. By now it had warmed up nicely and I lost the fleece and a thick mayfly hatch started coming off. Trout (smaller ones, but still...) where rising at the top of the pool and I frantically put on a size 18 adams - but they were having none of it, rising around it but ignoring it. So I switched up to a tiny (24??) little adams looking fly and flicked it out there 5 or 6 times, same results. Thought it might be the color, both had light bodies, put on a black body fly 24 or 26- teeny, hard to thread the tippet. Even so, on that flat water it was very distinguishable. Alas, same result. By now the hatch had slackened so I tied back on the egg to drown my sorrows. I still hadn't taken any of the bigger fish and on the first cast a big dog flashed from nowhere (under the ledge of the long overhanging rock I was standing on) and hammered the fly. Ok, here's my great photo op, so as I'm playing the trout and trying to take out the camera to get some live footage, he runs up stream and pops me off!!!! Drat.

I took a couple more smaller trout with my last egg pattern and then decided to see what was cooking in the upper pools. Caught a couple in some pocket water as I made my way up and at the gorge caught 3 decent fish, but couldn't get the bigger ones interested. Slick rock was looking good with 8 or 9 nice brookies on the far bank. I skirted it, saving it for last and went up to Christian's pool. This big pool had 10 or 12 nice size fish in it and I cast my egg to them a couple of times but didn't do anything. I'd kind of gotten tired of catching them on the egg and really wanted to see if I could get a take on one of the minute dries at slick rock, so I headed back down there.

Trout were rising, but seemed to only be juvies and I made one cast with the egg (one last cast before I switch up) and bang, nail an average size fish and again as I'm wresting the camera out, pop, he breaks me off. So I sat down in my favorite lounge chair and chilled out for a while. Tried to take pictures putting my glasses over the camera lens to see it cut the glare and I think it did, see the attached photo where you can make out the brookies of slick rock lined up like a U-Boat armada.

So I decided that was that. I was tired, had caught 15-20 trout, and need to be back to take Morgan to vball practice. But instead of bushwhacking straight up hill to the road, I ambled down stream, doing the accompanying walk n talk- that's pretty cool. When I got back down to the trampoline hole I noticed a large trout at the bottom of the pool with an egg stuck in it's top tip.

Try as I might, I could not get it interested in another egg (whatever happened to two eggs over easy), or a couple of woolly's, so I caught one last consolation fish and broke down and headed home.

Luckily, when I got home I had the polypro gloves from Pablo waiting for me and he had graciously included a bunch of easter eggs in the packet- good on ya mate.

On the gear front, didn't have anything new for this outing. The low profile chest pack I ordered last week hasn't arrived, so that'll be the test for next week (already got that one on the calendar, Thursday, put it down). Lost my dang clippers- DOH! Hate it when that happens.... The video never does the stream justice. This is absolutely beautiful water, but I have to admit, there were times today when I felt a little stale with this water. Need to mix it up a little. I've heard the stream that flows around Mt. Mitchell golf course is loaded with trout and the other day, a nice old gentleman who I helped with a city issue invited me to play golf at Mt. Mitchell because his son runs it... don't care about hitting a golf ball out there, but maybe flicking a fly. Gonna call him back tomorrow.