Today was my 2nd day of the season to fish for winter trout in Clearwater Lake. Sam and I fished there on December 4th and had a nice day, albeit a bit cold. Well, it was much warmer today, but the forecast all week had been for rain today and that was the case! The old Seattle Sombrero came in handy. Got there about 9:45 am (nice to have a leisurely breakfast and still go trout fishing!). I caught several, almost all on a Tellico dropper under a white bugger. Nice, fat fish like this one.

After lunch, we decided to try our luck on the risers, using tiny black midges (#20) that were coming off regularly. Fish were breaking everywhere, including many large trout completely clearing the water. Sam did very well, landing about 5. I hooked 2 or 3, but not well enough to land…that part of my mojo wasn’t working, but it was great fun casting to the riseforms and watching the fish take the fly.

I decided to leave about 4PM, and just in time. While the rain had been steady through lunch, it had stopped about 1PM and often the wind was not blowing. That’s helpful for fishing tiny dry flies. I noticed the sky getting darker, and packed up the truck. A couple of minutes later I was driving home through pouring rain. A great day, tho!

Looking forward to getting out and catching some hickory shad in a couple weeks. Stay tuned for that.

The local chapter of TU does winter stocking of a pond about 8 miles from my house.  Trout don’t summer over here in the NC piedmont as the water gets too warm (but it was none too warm today!)  My friend Sam and I bought a couple of slots this year (it’s open weekends between November and March) and today was one.  It was cold overnight (in the 20’s) so Sam and I got there about 9:30, and enjoyed spurts of action throughout the day.  Not a lot of trout, but we caught several, and very nice size on some of them.  Did well on dropper flies below streamers, fished slow.  I caught all mine on a Prince nymph below a green/brown bugger. Nice day, good company as well as fish. Also nice for us central NC boys to catch trout 15 minutes from home ;-).  Pictures including a couple of videos here. When I uploaded, the pix ended up in reverse chronological order, sorry! The fish that broke off under the dock (one of the videos) was one we really wanted to see – watch the bend in Sam’s 6wt – but no luck on that.

Another Bassclave has come and gone. This is the third year we’ve gathered at the Greenbrier River Campground, and the 14th Bassclave overall. Great fellowship, great fishing, and a generally great time. My fishing partner Sam was able to come with me this time. It’s been several years since he was at a Bassclave, and it was good to spend time with Sam. I don’t get to see him as much as I did when we both worked at UNC-CH. Sam and I drove up on Thursday the 22nd, arriving about 11:15PM. Set up camp quickly so that we could get a few hours of sleep before we hit the river. Floated from the Campground down to Stuart’s Hotdog stand on Friday, taking the boats out about 3PM. Fishing was very good for small bass (up to about 12″), but no big ones. It was so hot we took out at Stuart’s rather than floating all the way down to Alderson, but we decided to cook dinner and go back out on the river as the sun sank, hoping for better topwater action. Did the same stretch downstream, but got out at “Drew’s Rock” about 8:30PM and boy, was it a chore getting up to the road. It was Drew’s idea to climb out there…he said, “oh, it’s just a one-man job to take the boat up” – right… 😉 and ‘nuf said! Fishing was decent, but I didn’t get as many as the first run through.

Saturday, we decided to run from the mouth of Second Creek to the campground. It’s quite nice to end the float at the campground rather than dealing with a shuttle. Very civilized. Last year, we had Virgil drive us over, but this year John said he’d drive the folks over that wanted to go on that float, so, he drove me, Sam, Drew, Mike, Jeff, Chad, Jason (& Riser) over. We did leave Drew’s car as we had too many folks for one vehicle, but he had WV tags, so we thought his car would be safe ;- ) . We sorta knew the way, but I used my iPad and the Topo Maps application to make sure we got all the funky turns on the the little mountain roads. Less than 5 miles as the crow flies, but a 30 minute drive. It was so cool with the GPS showing exactly where we were on the topo sheet. The fishing was the same as Saturday; lots of bass, a zillion red-eyes, but I didn’t get any big ones. Lost the best one I hooked, about a 14″ fish, right in the same spot where Jason landed a 14″ fish. Maybe that fish didn’t get enough the first time! I caught most of mine on Crayfish flies and brown buggers; Sam caught most of his on the same. We talked on the way home, and figured as the other guys were mostly in front using poppers, that by the time we came along, they fish that wanted poppers had been tagged, and we were catching them subsurface. Hey, no problem.

Sunday, we packed up and drove over to the special regs trout water on Second Creek. Fun, but frustrating. Lots of trout, actively feeding, but in about 3 hours, the best Sam or I could manage was a couple of strikes. It was nice, though, to cast with the 3 and 4 weight rods with small flies rather than the 7 weight rods and heavy flies we’d been using for bass.

Drove home into the heat wave, arriving about 5PM…

What a great trip. Already looking forward to next year.

Aha, I say…just nice puffy cumulus clouds as we returned from Jan’s family reunion. I think I’ll go visit the Morgan Creek sunfish again, and stay a bit longer. Biked the 3/4 mile to the creek, and walked down to the best pool on this stretch of the creek. Rigged up, same as yesterday, with a Syl’s Nymph on the end of my 00-wt flyrod. Though sweat was rolling down and ‘skeeters humming, the water felt cool on my sandaled feed. Eased up to the pool, keeping my feet on the gravel bar, and cast. Quickly caught a tiny sunny, but even a small fish bends this rod. Caught a slightly bigger one and eased up a bit further. A couple of small bass were cruising!

Uh oh…what’s that? Thunder? Clouds moving this way? Better head to the house before the storm. I’ll be back, though, to visit the sunfish and bass in Morgan Creek…

It’s been a lazy Saturday here, 3 lattes after a late start, followed by a trip to Walmart and Harris Teeter. We missed the severe thunderstorms that went by 10 miles north, and by 2PM I’d decided to take my 00-wt flyrod and go visit the sunfish in Morgan Creek. Checked the weather radar, and figured I had about an hour. Hopped on Jeff’s bike (my bike and Jan’s are at the beach) and rode to the creek. Rigged up, and tied on a Syl’s nymph, my favorite wet fly for panfish. Caught a nice little green sunfish on the first cast…followed by a rumble of thunder. Caught two tiny sunnies in the same pool, and then heard the rain coming through the woods. Guess my radar-reading skills are suspect! I might have tried to wait it out, but I could tell the rain was going to stick around. Hiked upstream in pouring rain to the bike, and enjoyed a wet 5 minute ride home. It reminded me, though, of how much I enjoy this small stream and little sunfish 😉 A good day!

Another Bassclave has come and gone. What a great time! Left Chapel Hill at ~6:45PM on Thursday June 25. Arrived at the Greenbrier River Campground (on WV63, about half-way between Roncerverte and Alderson) about 11:15PM. Drew Nix was waiting up for me, but most of the encampment had turned in for the evening, as most folks had floated on Thursday…

Woke up early, and got my gear ready to go. A big group of us (7) decided to float from Second Creek to the campground, about 7 river miles. We got the campground staff to drive us to Second Creek (took about 30 minutes to wind around the mountains and get to the put-in). I put on a chartreuse popper and started working the banks. I started catching fish pretty quickly. It was a good day, catching at least 30 bass. They weren’t big, with the best one about 13″, but satisfying. Also caught probably twice that many red-eyes and a handful of bream. It was nice to finish at the campground, just pick up the boat and walk 50 yards to the camp! Enjoyed the company of my fellow fishers. I’d met most before, but had not met Jerry or Hector. Great to renew old friendships and make new ones.

On Saturday, we planned to float from the campground about 4 miles downstream. Dale and Henry drove their vehicles to the take out, with Hector bringing them back. We slipped into the water and enjoyed what’s probably the most scenic part of the river, with many nice rapids and great river views. I tried the poppers again, but they weren’t working for me (though Jim had a great day with poppers…go figure!). I switched to a crayfish and started catching fish regularly. Again landed about 30 bass and about that many red-eyes. More small fish, but several 11-12″ bass, especially toward the end of the float. Shuttled back to camp and we all fixed dinner for a pot-luck. Good stories around the “circle” as we enjoyed near-perfect weather.

Sunday, I went with Steve to fish for trout at Second Creek. There’s a C&R section just a few miles up from the Greenbrier. I fished about 2 hours before heading home. I had a good morning, landing a 15″ rainbow and two 12″ rainbows. Caught all on a soft hackle nymph. I’ll come back to Second Creek again! I’d forgotten how much fun a nice rainbow was on the 3wt.

All in all, a wonderful trip. Pictures are available here.

A long weekend means a bit of time for discretionary computer activities…this is a report from a trip I took to the Roanoke River on March 27th to fish for Hickory Shad…

In spite of the promise (guarantee!?) of rain and the high water levels, my fishing buddy Sam and I headed to Weldon, NC to try our luck, as I had this day off from work with no promise of another day anytime soon. We arrived in Weldon at 10AM, and launched the boat. So nice to start these 4-cycle engines, just turn the key, and it starts just like a car.

The big rapids right across from the ramp were completely washed out, with the flow ~15,000cfs. Headed downstream to see if we could find a spot. At high water like this, your best bet will be tight up next to the banks, or especially where one of the small creeks comes into the river, creating slack water. Spotted a number of boats at the water treatment plant downstream of the ramp. We grabbed a spot, but weren’t in a good position, and decided to head downstream a bit further…went a ways, not quite to Big Rock; didn’t see any place we liked but tried a couple. Tough even to anchor at this flow level. The river is about 20 feet deep bank to bank with the current really ripping through. Nothing doing with the fish, though the fish finder showed fish (if you believe those things 😉 ). We headed back upriver, and found that the folks who had been in the mouth of a little creek on the north side of the river had left. We anchored there and started catching fish. Not a huge number, but reasonably steady action. Sam and I each caught 15-20. Several were nice, heavy fish. The rain held off until about 2:30PM or so. We fished in the rain a while (gave the bilge pump a workout) and headed back to the ramp about 3:30PM to head back to Chapel Hill. A nice day!

Pictures here…

Finished up the batch of #18 Abigail Adams I was working on and then tied a few #16 Olive Bodied Adams (OBA). I tied these with a a black tail, olive gray dubbing, and a parachute-style wing with a cree hackle. There is more variation in the OBA than the traditional “gray” adams. The OBA has a long history on the Flyfish Listserver, and this tie might stretch the boundaries, but I like it. I thought that this looked good and and I hope a fish will too! I noticed when I looked at the zoomed picture, though, that I didn’t trim around the eye 🙁

I’m taking advantage of some extra time and catching up on some flytying. Seems that I have not managed to tie much over the last couple of years, but I’m trying to get caught up, especially on some smaller dries. Last season, I didn’t have enough size 16’s and 18’s. Tied a few #18 “American Express” yesterday (don’t leave home without it) and am working on some #18 “Abigail Adams” today, all tied parachute style as that’s what I like. Here’s a picture of one of the Abigail Adams. The lighting was too harsh from my tying lamp, and I was trying to get soft focus on the background while crisp on the fly. Sorta worked. Will try again and see if I can get the magic camera settings.