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24. October 7 PFF v 4.0 North Fork French Broad River
 

Everybody pitched in with the clean-up of the loged and it was done in short order. Midge and I were the last to leave and we were headed back to the Davidson but missed the turn and ended up fishing the North Fork of the French Broad a wild trout natural bait stream. The water looked fantastic and we were eager to catch a fish. But the water was quite and very few fish were seen after about two hours I managed to get a few to rise and even landed two. Midge was fishless. So we moved on, passing the crowed Mills on the way home. We stopped for gas just outside of Brevard where we heard that the bombing in Afghanistan had begun.

We went to a little brook trout stream in the national forest. A little jewel of a steam with plunge pools and pocket the size of a bathtub. It looked like we should be getting a rise on every cast, but again we were dissappointed. I caught four or five of the natives. The light was bad and it was impossible to watch the flies on the water.

Lots of fun, everybody caught some fish, some lied about catching fish and that was the end of PFF 4.0

23. October 6 PFF v 4.0 Tuckaseegee River
 

Some stayed up late others hit the sack early. But around sunrise everybody was stiring about. JT, Brown Trout and I cooked bacon and eggs for twenty!
Others helped with the clean-up and soon everbody was headed in different directions to fish for trout. An early group went to the Nantahala, others went to the Davidson and I went with Midge and JT and several others bact to the Tuckaseegee. The water was still up but we managed to find a wadable section and soon everbody was catching fish. The didn't come too easy as the swift current must have kept them on the bottom and our flies might not have been getting close enough.

After lunch we tried our luck on Courthouse creek, this tiny hearwater stream holds small rainbow jewels. Stealty fishing was neseccary as the water was low and clear. I caught just enough to keep things interesting.

As evening approached we headed back to the lodge. Loop Daddy was going to cook up some spagetti, he even brought his own pots along. A salad was prepared and we all chowed down on a wonderful meal. After dinner jars and bottles were passed around. Then we were treated with a proformance by Readhead a country singer from Nashville. You can hear and purchase her CD at SongRamp.com.

22. October 5 PFF v 4.0 Davidson River
 

Midge and I headed up to Brevard early Friday morning with the plan of getting in plenty of fishing on the Davidson before meeting up with everybody at the lodge. We enjoyed the beautiful fall weather, the leaves falling with the breeze made the casting a little more interesting. Timing cast to avoid multicolored rafts floating down the stream. In the sparkling clear water elusive dark shadows darted for shelter at the slightest movement. The fishing was hard. I was working a small pool when I glanced up two fishermen were working there way downstream thorough the narrow gorge. They are going to spoil my water! I went back to fishing and as they approached I was going to give them a "What the heck do you think your doing?" glance but I realized it was Midge and Maniac coming to get me for lunch!

We went to the Pizza Hut and rounded up a few more PFFers: FT Caddis, JT, Red, and Rusty. We proceeded to order and eat what was possibly the worst food that I have ever been served! After this disappointing meal we headed to the lodge to get things ready for the arrivals. There were about six cars and 12 guys waiting at the gate, we were about 30 minutes late. The lodge was open and the fishing stories began. Croaker had been bushwhacking, Loop and Loop Daddy along with Brown Trout had been slaying them on the Tuck. After claiming bunks we planned out evening trip to the tuck!

But when we arrived we realized that this wasn't the same river we had heard about earlier! No, it was running about two feet deeper and a heck of a lot faster. Looked like they were running wide open. We cautiously walked the bank looking for a spot to wade. JT finally jumped in, the swift current made it difficult not only to wade but to fish. Finally were were all wet about the knees and everybody caught a few fish.

Later at the lodge Croker had a Low Country Boil started we drank beer and waited for this great smelling meal to be ready! Fantastic. Croaker was immediately made the Official Cook of PFF 4.0 and given a bunk as a reward!

Now I have been to the lodge many times, and there is a telephone there, but I never saw anybody use it and never ever heard it ring. Well this time, the phone rang and rang and rang some more. I was Tom's son-in-law, lost on the mountain, coming up 215 from Tennessee along the West Fork of the Pigeon. He'd travel up the mountain a ways and then turn back and call us, someone would ask "Did you cross the parkway? Well, you need to keep on going until you cross the parkway!" Thirty minutes pass and then we get another call, same thing he turned back too soon. This went on and on till about one in the morning! What was an hour drive turned into a six hour ordeal.

21. September 16th Small Nameless Headwater Creek
 

I needed to get away from the tragic news, the constant replay and the horror of the missing count climbing higher. I didn't want to go, I felt guilty, but I went. I drove and was comforted by the freedom of traveling on our highways. I could go anywhere, to any steam, I was free to fish where I wanted. I was comforted by the wind and the speed and kept on driving. As I cruised on down the highway I choose a distant small creek which I knew was filled with small eager rainbow trout. I needed to catch fish. The didn't have to be big, but I wanted to feel the tug of life on the end of my line. The day was brilliant, the sun to my back. I choose a small stimulator. Easy to see on the broken water. I quickly caught a nice wild rainbow, beautifully marked and full on life. I carefully removed the hook and let it go. How can we care so much for such a small life and yet others can kill thousands of people. I just don't understand and I fish on. I miss many strikes as my thoughts drift away from the stream. I reach a spot where two years ago there was a huge rock slide down the mountain side right into the stream. When I saw it then it was a fresh scar in the earth. Now it is green with shrubs and small trees, nature healing and renewing the land and that gave me comfort. I came to a place where the current pushed up hard against a bolder and I knew a fish would be holding there. My cast was a little long and the tippet caught on the rock, fly dangling four inches above the water. It swung back and forth and then to my surprise and delight a trout jumped clear of the water and grabbed the fly.

Most of the fish I caught were in the six to eight inch range with a few that went ten. I was almost enjoying the day, but I still couldn't shake the troubles from my mind. When the time came to hike out I thought of the firefighters racing into the inferno, climbing those stairs with there packs. I paused about 100 feet above the river my heart pounding and my breath heavy. How brave and strong they were.

Give to the:

20. September 2nd Smith River
 

Al on the bb was giving some awesome report on the Smith so I decided to give it another try. Started late in the afternoon with plans to fish till dusk. A number of anglers were coming off the water as I arrived at the mirror plant. Most were from Druham. A train was parked on the track so walking down wasn't as easy a usual and the heat of the day forced me to stop short of my goal, I put in just above the trestle pool. As there were no risers I tied on a nymph and cast up near the bank. I hooked one quickly but lost it as quick. Moved on down and got a few hits, broke two off on light tippet with a heavy set! Mist came off the water towards evening and I left the river without catching any!

19. August 5th Watauga H20 temp 49
 

Man that is some cold water! I fished the Watauga. Settled down into a nice deep run. Tied on my favorite fly for this stream: brassie #18, had immediate success hooking several nice 14 inch rainbow trout. Missed a half a dozen at the end of the drift. Just too darn quick for my aging reflexes. Maybe I needed another cup of coffee! Several flies were hatching, little yellow stones, bwo, mostly with an odd fly now and then. Some of the fish started smacking the surface, but I stuck with the nymph and caught a dozen more. A few pushed 15 inches but most were about 12". The brassie was working quite well but I wanted to see if they would key in better on something else. I tied on a WD-40 #20 and on the first cast I hooked a fat rainbow. LDR. The I caught a 16" brown! The fish of the day! Caught several about 12 and then tried a flashback scud. Caught a couple on that as well. More fish were hitting the top water and some were even leaping out of the water. I tied on a #12 Stimulator and caught two more. Only 2 and a half hours fishing and about 20 fish, not a bad day.

18. August 4th H20 temp 67
 

I took Christopher up into a gorge section of a trout stream. We worked our way up sneaking up to pools and runs before he flipped his fly into the current. The water was low and the trout were difficult. Unfortunately we didn't have any hookups. But it was a wonderful day spent hiking and fishing.

17. July 20th Kennebec River Shawmut dam
 

On the last night in Maine I headed back to the river, one last attempt to catch a trout out of this river. When I reached the river I was surprised to see how high and swift it was running. Another angler told me that they had just increased the flow. There was only about a half a foot of the white rock sticking out of the water. Even with the high water there were a number of fishermen in the river. I started out moving slowly in the fast high water casting as I worked my way across to the calmer water on the far side of the river. I had tied on a conehead muddler and on my fourth cast I had a hard strike and line was zipping off the reel. I thought I had a trout on until I saw it jump - a 10-inch smallie! He fought hard in the current and as I reeled him in I reached down to remove the fly. He struggled and I lost my fly…should have used the net!

That was my only muddler. I tied on a green woolly bugger and a dozen cast later I got into a bigger fish. Long down stream runs almost took me into the backing and it was a difficult fight against the current. The fish was working into the weedy bottom where I was sure to lose it in the weed and rocks. I finally managed to bring it up and reel in a nice 15-inch smallmouth. This time I used the net.

The current wasn't a lot of fun to be standing in so after a while I called it quits satisfied, sort of, catching two smallies! I'll be back!

16. July 16th Kennebec River - Shawmut Dam
 

I took my son Christopher for a float trip on the Kennebec. The forecast was for scattered thundershowers all day! As we drove up to the river we ran into a couple of showers and we hoped for the best. We met our guide Jimmy at 4:00 and headed to the put in below the dam. The guide rowed us to the far side on the river and put us on a good run. I waded upstream and Christopher fished the deeper water with his spinning rod with a Panther Martin. I tied on a double nymph dropper and began fishing. It wasn't too long before I heard my son cry out, "Fish On!" He reeled in a nice 12" rainbow and Jimmy helped net and release it. A little later he had another one, a 20" rainbow, on the line but it threw the hook after it jumped.

An ominous cloud was looming to the north and soon we heard the sound of thunder. Several lightning flashes later we were headed to shore to sit out the storm. We got our rain gear on and sat down in the woods, trading fishing stories with the guide. The storm passed slowly and it was close to an hour before the sky began to clear.

Back on the water Christopher caught another fish, a smallmouth this time. I told him the the guy who caught the most fish had to pay the guide! He wasn't buying any of that. We floated on down stream into the deeper flats. As the evening wore on the fish began to rise, but I was still unable to get a hook up. One large bow took my fly, but I was distracted and failed to set the hook. When we reached the landing it was dark.

15. July 7th Sheepscott River - Kennebeck River
 

On the way up to Fly Fishing Only, a local fly shop on the Kennebeck, I stopped at a small catch and release stream. I fished from the bridge up to the hatchery. I tied on a bwo parachute and was quickly rewarded with an eight-inch brown trout. This pretty little stream held a number trout and I brought four to net. I was soon on the road to Fairfield where FFO is located. I met Mike at the shop and we talked about the hatches on the river and I arranged for a guide for my son and I on the 16th. Mike indicated that not much would be happening on the river till after dark so I stopped at Captain Jacks for a bite to eat. When I arrived at the parking lot there were about six or eight cars parked and a number of anglers gearing up for the evening hatch. While getting ready I meet Andre from the NE VFS board. He fishes the river four or five times a week. We were planning for a black caddis hatch. Mike told me an easy wading access point and I headed out though the waist to ankle deep water toward the far shore. I began fishing with nymphs but didn't have any success along with the dozen or so anglers on the river. As the sun began to set the activity began to pick up and Andre and another angler upstream from me began to catch fish. I noticed that there were fish rising and jumping about, so I switched to a dry, bwo and caddis were on the water. I missed several strikes before finally catching my first Kennebeck fish! Unfortunately it was a 10-inch sucker! They were rising, but the trout were still taking nymphs. It was too dark for me to switch back to sub-surface patterns, and I continued to catch the rising fish of the day. I guess I'll need to have another talk with Mike. Good thing I stopped at the Sheepscott or this would have been a troutless day!

14. June 23 - Wild Catch and Release Stream - H20 Temp 62
 

My plans for the Watauga were canceled due of oversleeping, I must be getting old. I had the full day off but somehow couldn't get myself out of the bed! Last night my son got silly putty stuck in his hair and I made an emergency cut, buzzed his head this morning and then headed back up to VA hoping for a repeat of last Wednesday. As I drove up I was wondering how crowded it would be and what part of the river I should fish. Amazingly when I arrived there were no other cars parked. I had the steam to my self. I stared out in the lower section throwing a stimulator and a nice brown rose on the first cast. I got several good looks at the stimi but no takers, as the water was stained and running a little high from last nights storms, I switched to a woolly bugger and after a number of cast I had the first fish of the day on line! A 14 inch brown hooked right in the corner of the mouth. My casting was a little off and I lost that fly in a tree as well as several others, I broke off a fish with my only other woolly bugger and was forced to switch to nymphs for the rest of the day. I caught several small browns on a prince and later a 14 in rainbow. Not quite as exciting as last time but just enough fish to keep it interesting.

13. June 20 - Wild Catch and Release Stream - H20 Temp 64
 

I was working north of town and was able to take off in the early afternoon and head up to Virginia to a little mountain trout stream that I haven't been to in years. I was thinking about the wild raspberries at the parking spot, but when I arrived the bush was gone! I hope the fish weren't gone also. I headed upstream and the fishing was a little slow, I managed to catch a few small browns, nicely colored, but I didn't see any larger fish. I was fishing a stimulator as I had seen a few yellow stones coming off the water. I got a number of refusals and was considering changing flies. I snuck up on a nice deep run where the current flows up tight against the bank, a great holding spot, and a nice 14 inch rainbow took the fly with a loud smack! Fish on! It ran up the run into the pool and back again, one more short run and a leap and he came to net. Now that was a nice fish!

Moving on up I cast into a run from up above on the shore. I got excited as I saw a large fish track down the stimulator only to turn away at the last moment when the fly began to drag. Another cast brought another smaller trout to the surface again refusing the fly. I climbed down the rock to the water and changed to a green woolly bugger. I cast to the head of the run and the instant the fly hit the water I had a hook up with a nice 14 inch brown trout. I left the bugger on and quickly had three more nice fish on the line, one of which was 16 inches!

The evening was approaching and I was struggling to decide to continue upstream or call it a day. Eventually, after catching a few more fish on an Elk Hair Caddis, I called it quits and hiked out along the stream listening to the bird sing there evening songs.

I like to think that I'm a better fisherman now than the last time I fished this stream, but perhaps it was only luck.

12. June 10 - Delayed Harvest Stream Water Temp 74
 

I headed up to a nearby delayed harvest steam foolishly thinking that I would be able to find a trout or two overlooked by the meat casters. But I was wrong. All of the pocket water, runs, and pools were empty. I caught one chub. Scratch this stream off the list till October.

11.. June 2 - Watauga River 75 degrees
 

Those Watauga Bows were playing on my mind, I was trying to figure out a way to get back, so when I woke up this morning I decided to go. Two and a half hours each way! But I couldn't think of a place I wanted to fish more.

The water was wadeable when I arrived at 10:00, the next scheduled release was three hours later, that would give me plenty of time to catch some fish. I hiked and waded to a promising run, watching mallards fly in and land on the river. Also spotted a large small mouth bass lurking in the deep pools of the river.

Problem! I left my nymph box and nippers at home! I checked my dry box and sure enough there were about six acceptable patterns on nymphs to choose from. I choose a beadhead pheasant tail, put on plenty of soft weight and a strike indicator about 4 feet up on the leader.

At first things were going slowly and I was wondering if the nymph was a little on the large size when Wham-o Fish On! I nice 12 inch rainbow full of fight and aerobatics. I was in the zone again and had caught three more.

I was inspecting my knots when all of a sudden there was a tremendous crash behind me, I turned just in time to see two fellows turn over in a canoe after they struck the rock at the head of the pool. Flotsam and Jetsam abounded as the two floundered to safety, their canoe firmly lodged against the rock and a submerged log. I was frozen in shock for a second, but was unable to lend a hand as they were on the other side of the river. At first I thought that there would never be able to free the boat from the rivers clutches.

P0001800.JPGP0001799.JPGP0001803.JPG   After collecting paddles and gear they set about the task of freeing the pinned canoe from the force of the water. Hampered by the cold water and strong current the had to make several attempts before the canoe moved only to be pinned again with a little more effort the finally freed the canoe and the set about looking for they fishing poles . Needless to say my fishing spot was spoiled and after the moved on I had to retreat before the next dam release. After getting back to the car I drove on down to Sycamore Shoals and tried my luck at the head of a great run. Nothing was working so I moved up into a smaller run and caught four before moving up into the pocket water, pictured to the left. I caught several more good bows out the this water. They were strong and exhibited frenetic runs and leaps in the strong current. The day was split with six hours of fishing and six hours of driving. It
was worth it, but I don't know if I'll be doing that drive any time soon again. At least by myself!
10.. May 28 - Public waters 75 degree
 

I was planning to hit the Sulfur hatch on the Smith but they are generating 24 hours a day "until further notice". I headed up in holiday traffic to fish delayed harvest water. Not too crowded. I slipped in the water and noticed a fish rising in among some logs and branches that pushed out into the current. I was a big fish, each gulp left a cup size whirlpool in-between the branches. I cast a little short, a little to the left, finally dropped one right on target, watched it swirl about and then drive out of range. I cast again a little too far in front and another fish holding above the branch took the elk hair caddis. It was a good fish, about 14 inches, but left me wanting for the wild Watauga bows. He fought a little and after a short run came easily to net. I moved on up and caught another cookie cutter trout from the hatchery. I was glad to be fishing and enjoyed the day catching rainbows, browns and brookies. They took the dry fly - "God Save the Queen" - set the hook, nothing like the quick takes on the Beaver Dam.

7-9 May 18 -20 - Psycho Fly Fishing
 

Friday, took the day off to fish with the Psycho Fly Fishers in eastern Tennessee. Filled the Miata up with waders, tent, sleeping bag, cooler, three rods, four reels, and drove three hours to the camp on the Beaver Dam. Half the gang was there when I arrived, JT tells me that 28 showed up, but there are only 20 in the group photo. I would guess that we unleashed 250 - 500 years of fly fishing experience on the Beaver Dam, Whitetop Laurel, S.Holsten, and the Watauga.

I staked out my tent and before I could rig my rod, Red had a fish on in the pool at the end of the field. I fished the section behind the house and quickly caught and release three healthy rainbows. Jeremy told me about an 18 incher he caught on a nymph in a back eddy just up from where I was. There was an occasional green drake coming off the water mixed with a few sulfurs and other mayflies.

Itching to catch some Tennessee trout I stepped into the cool water of the Beaver Dam. I quickly caught several rainbows with good color. Later I rode into the park with Ron and we started fishing about five. The insects were still not too active but we managed to catch six tout each before heading back to camp for dinner. Loop Daddy's chili was served up with just enough bite to remember. Everybody in camp was waiting for the Green Drake hatch to start in earnest at dusk. Soon the air was filled with insects and the fish began to feed on the spinners. The darker it got the more aggressive the trout became and just about every well placed cast brought a rise from a greedy fish. We it became too dark to fish we returned to the camp fire.

The next day most of the group headed for the Watauga, while a smaller group went to Whitetop and the rest hit the Beaver Dam. I fished the pocket water of the Beaver Dam and had and excellent afternoon fishing. A thunderstorm was moving close by and threatened to blow me off the water, but it passed off to the south. The drakes came again and fell with the darkness, slurping trout filled vacant pools unafraid greedy trout. The fishing was fast and furious. I drove back to the camp in the darkness smashing Green Drakes on the windshield all the way.

The next morning Beowulff cooked up a mess of bacon and scrambled eggs eagerly devoured by the rest of the group. We broke camp, loaded up the trash and Midge22 and I headed to the Watauga.

We got to the river and began to fish down toward a riffle. Psycho and Scottie showed up and pointed out some good water to us. Scottie told me he had caught a bunch of big fish in the fast pocket water at the head of the pool. I was unable to get a strike there, but did get a number of hookups in the runs. I worked my way down to a pool and caught a number of rainbows on deep nymphs while Midge and Psycho worked the pool with sulfurs.

Scottie was anxious to move to one of his favorite spots before they released the water. So we drove to his spot and hiked into his pools and riffles, It reminded my of the Colorado at Lee's Ferry, emerald green pools, and fat rainbows. I landed six feisty fish in twenty minutes and several big fish broke off. My 7x tippet didn't hold up to their blistering runs. We had to leave all too soon as the dam release was approaching. I drove three hours home all the time thinking of all those uncaught rainbow in that pool, those fat, drag pulling, tippet snapping, rainbow.

6. May 11 - Public waters 82 degree
 

Friday afternoon fishing on the local delayed harvest waters proved to be peaceful and exciting. Peaceful in that there was plenty of water to fish, hardly any other fishermen were there! Exciting in that the fishing was fast, large brook trout readily took stimulators and hopper patterns! Mixed in with the brookies were a few browns. Several fish were over 14 inches, most were 10 - 12 and as I eagerly anticipated a strike at the head of a run I launched a fingerling. There was plenty of water in the stream, running high, not that we have had much in the way of rain recently.

5. April 21 - Stone Mt. State Park 75 degrees
 

Cub scout trout fishing day. Four scouts and their dads headed up to Stone Mountain to try to catch some trout. We hit the stream hard and I'm surprised that the trout didn't die from fright and the boys thrashed the water. They hunkered down on the bottom and wouldn't turn their heads for dries, woolly buggers, or even well presented nymphs. Too scared to feed!. The boys soon tired of fishing and turned their attention to rock tossing and splashing. They were having a blast. I moved up stream and quickly caught a couple of trout.

We ended the day with a hike to the falls.

4. April 16 - National Forest 68 degrees
 

Easter Monday, I'm getting a little older or a little wiser, I didn't get up at o'dawn hundred. I enjoyed my day off and slept till 7. On the road by 8 I began my annual pilgrimage to my favorite headwater trout stream. I arrived at the trailhead at 10:40 and was on the water twenty minutes later after hiking 500 down from the ridge top. The sun was shining brightly only occasionally blocked by clouds and the wind blew crisply ruffling the water and making casting my two-weight rod difficult. The clear water was deceptively deep. I tied on a elk hair caddis and quickly hooked a tiny rainbow trout. This launcher had a bright red streak showing through its par markings. No other fishermen were on the stream and I had miles of water to explore. I fished the likely pools and runs but was only occasionally rewarded with a tight line. Four to eight inch rainbow were the order of the day although I was surprised to catch an eight inch brookie. I fish on till six and one last pool. Now I have fished this pool before and have usually hooked a nice brown in head of this pool. Sure enough a nice brown took my fly on the first cast, only to throw the hook a second later. The last fish of the day was a LDR (long distance release)

I hiked back down the trail and then up out of the gorge. It looked like I was going to arrive home at the promised time of nine. But then after driving down the forest road to the State road I ran into a couple who flagged me down. "Can you help us, we're terribly lost!", the man stated. I asked them where there were going and after a brief interrogation I determined that they had hiked into the cove from the west and hiked out on the eastern side. They thought they were hiking in a loop but now found themselves about twelve miles from their car at dusk on a chilly evening. They had hiked four mile on the forest service road and I was the first car they had seen. They piled into the convertible and I drove them up the next forest road, over a ridge and down to another stream were their adventure had begun eight hours earlier. They were pretty excited to see their car and offered me money for my trouble, I said "Just get a map!."

Here was a couple from Raleigh going for a four hour hike described in a travel brochure into a wilderness area without marked trails, no map, no compass, no sense! I got home about an hour late.

3. April 13 -Roanoke River - Partly Cloudy - 75 degrees
 

I figured that Good Friday would be a good day to fish. There was a front moving through NC and the forecast was for up to 2" of rain! Normally this wouldn't be a problem but I was taking my wife and children along for a day of fishing on the Roanoke River. We were planning to catch some hickory shad and perhaps an early striper or two. Cloudy weather followed us to Weldon and the air was cool, threatening rain. Once we loaded up the boat the sky broke and sun and blue sky peaked through. Captain George Beckwith piloted the boat up river navigating the tricky channels of the river. Soon we all had our lines in the water. I was fishing with a sink tip and a green clouser. After missing several strikes I had a fish on. I handed the rod over to my son who worked hard to land the 14" shad. Next it was Zoë's turn and she, with a little help landed her fish. We caught several more and then Christopher yelled out "Fish On!" He cried out for help as his rod bent. We encouraged him and soon he landed an 18" schoolie striper. The only one we landed! The children grew impatient and we explored the river for a while noticing the wildlife; muskrats, turtles, osprey, were everywhere. The Captain heard the cry of an osprey and slowed the boat, we found it in a tree above us clutching a nice shad of its own. It soon flew away to a more secluded spot to enjoy its meal. We fished on through the day into the early evening, the children were getting hungry. We stopped at Ralph's all-you-can-eat buffet, Zoë was too tired to feed herself. We were on the road home by 7:30 and Zoë fell asleep five minutes later. The ride home was quite, but the silence was broken around 10:00 when Zoë called out "Dad, Dad, where's the Captain?" She was dreaming that she was still on the boat!

2. April 7 - Mitchell River - Clear - 72 degrees
  The water was slightly stained, just enough for fishing with woolly buggers. At the first deep run I ran into a pod of fresh stockers who hit the bugger one after another. I pulled six or seven 10 to 16 inch brook and rainbow trout. I moved on up and continued to catch a number of good sized rainbows and a smaller brown. I switched to a dry and hooked up with several, but the action was faster with the woolly bugger. I spotted another fisherman ahead of me so I went back down the stream to a favorite section of mine. Just as I was getting close a car pulled up and out hopped to fly fishermen. That's one problem with a drive up trout stream! I got in the stream a good ways upstream and watched them. They were just fishing the pool and it didn't appear that they were moving upstream, so I started to work my my downstream to one of my favorite runs. When all of a sudden a yahoo jumped in between me and the other guys. I couldn't believe it. He splashed right into the head of a pool where I usually have had a hook up. The he had the nerve to fish right up to where I was. I almost asked him if he was trying to be rude or was he just plain ignorant. I was getting pretty steamed. I thought what psycho might do or say. As he passed he had the nerve to ask how I was doing. Well that spoiled the rest of the evening for me. I should have quit while I was ahead.
1. March ??- Mitchell River - Cloudy - 53 degrees
  My first trip of the year! Finally, a day without a chess tournament, or scout activities or honey dos. There were only a few other fishermen on the river. I fished a woolly bugger and caught a number of 14 - 16" brown and rainbow trout. Toward the evening I moved on down to a large deep pool with an undercut bank. I waded out waist deep and began casting into the head of the pool letting the current carry my woolly bugger along the undercut. I managed to move a large fish from under the bank, he chased my fly, I didn't see him again, but I did hook a nice 16" brook trout..the last fish of the day.