Another day at Clearwater

Two days of fishing in the last three?  Wow! Sam and I met at Camp Clearwater today to try for winter-stocked trout (too warm here in the NC piedmont for a natural population). This is such civilized fishing.  Leisurely morning at home, walk the dogs, breakfast with the wife, newspaper, coffee, and then drive less than 15 minutes to get there. Since the gate opens at 9AM and there were only 6 rods scheduled, no need to rush 🙂 .

I met Sam in the parking lot at ~9:20 and compared notes on flies to try. The last time we’d ben out, the key was small midges (#18 or #20) as droppers below a dry as an indicator, primarily. We decided we’d stick with that, and the telemetry from the Lake Master was that this would be effective. It worked, but was slow, technical fishing. Trout were madly jumping all over the lake, sometimes hitting the dry indicator, most times nudging the dropper, but were devilishly hard to hook, especially on long casts, and then hard to keep on the hook. I managed to land several over the course of the day, most hitting a “Sweet Thang” tied by Sam, a tiny #20 bead head with a brown wire-wrapped body. Hell, I can hardly see ’em much less tie ’em!

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Clearwater Rainbow

At one point, Sam and I were casting from a long dock, with another angler between us. We were both catching fish, and he was getting skunked.  Sam passed him a Sweet Thang and he got two in short order. Keeping with the osprey theme from my post last Friday, as we stood on the dock, we watched an osprey grab a trout from lake and head to a nearby tree. It hit the water with a giant splash and I first thought a mondo trout had jumped until I saw the osprey.

I caught a few on my dry indicator, a #16 CDC emerger, but mostly, they’d clobber it but miss the hookup.

It was a nice day, pleasantly warm, in contrast to our recent chilly weather.  Nice fellowship with our fellow fishermen and the Lake Master. A good way to spend the day.

 

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