Every year I try to hit Lost Cove Creek on Easter Monday. I drove the two and a half hours thinking about the water and the fish. Thoughts of being alone far away from anybody on a remote stream had me filled with anticipation.. As I turned up the Forest Service road I remembered the lost hikers that I helped last year. But when I arrived at the trailhead I was shocked to see six cars parked. Yikes, I didn't even stop I turned around and went back down the road to a Harper Creek trail. The hike in is a little longer and steeper and the water a little smaller, but nobody else was on the water. Once I reached the stream I continued hiking downstream to the confluence of N. Harper and Harper. The recent rain had filled the creek and it was good to see them running at a high spring level. The waters usual gin clarity was even so slightly stained.

There was an abundance of BWOs hatching, #18 but I didn't see many risers. I love to fish a Royal Wulff in the fast pocket water and bouncing riffles of this freestone stream. I took a little while to find the holding pattern. Once I figured it out I caught fish after fish from each little run or pocket that looked promising. These beautiful little jewels measured from six to eight inches in length. I spotted a few early black stoneflies mixed in with the BWOs.

Later I fished up Harper and things slowed down dramatically with the brilliant sun shinning straight down the steam. The glare and brightness make fishing and wading tough. So I ambled back down to a pool I had spotted earlier and in the shadows of the evening. I tied on an Adams parachute. I managed to raise a twelve inch rainbow. His heroic struggle on the 2 wt rod was thrilling. He jumped and ran and just when I though I had him at hand he went berserk on another long run.

The air was filled with the chill of the evening. Many pools remain unfished but it was time to hike up out of the gorge. I changed out of my waders and as I removed my boots I notices a styrofoam nightcrawler container tucked under the root of a tree. Even on this remote section of a bait fishermen had violated the stream.

Well I did it again. Went up to VA and got my annual license and then headed over to the Smith to try it out. Three cars in the Mirror Plant Parking area. On down the tracks I ran into 4 tight lipped fly fishermen. One said he caught one! Hiked on down a ways and jumped in. Worked the Trophy Section without any bites for a couple of hours. Fished #20 black nymph deep in the runs. Finally a BWO hatch brought the fish to the surface. But failed to get any. These fish are picky!I got a few bite before I hooked up with a nice streambread brown a foot long. I really had to work to get this fish and the satisfaction of catching one of these tailwater trout cannot be equaled with hatchery trout.

Brown Trout and I went over the mountains for a day of fly fishing on the Watauga. By the time BT got his license and we got to the trophy section the water was rising. It takes about four hours for the dam release to get to the trophy section.

So we waited an hour and headed back up to the dam but the water didn't stop as scheduled by the TVA. Checking the schedule for the S. Holsten indicated that there wasn't a release. So we were surprised to see the river up when we arrived. We fished anyway. The strong current and deep water resulted in 0 fish. Since BT hadn't been here before we decided to scout the river a bit. Up stream we found the water had receded and we fished a couple of riffles. BT caught a fish on a brassie I tied for the big W. We planed to go back to the Watauga and fish after the last release of the day and we found the water down when we arrived. The cloudy skies started to snow and checking weather reports decided to fish for a little before heading back over the mountains to NC. The snow slacked off and we waded down to a productive hole. BT quickly caught his second TN trout. The snow started coming down harder and we head home. The drive up the mountain was quiet as we watched the snow pile up first on the lawns and trees, then the shoulder of the road and finally it started to stick on the pavement just as we crossed over into NC. Fortunately the storm ended and by the time we go to Boone it was clear.