Smith-Continued

[Dee-Vo]

Of all the outdoor time I've spent in my life, I've still yet to see a bald eagle in person.

I did see plenty of turkeys yesterday. And I'm kicking my own ass for not going today. Things happen.

[Dee-Vo]

Also meant to make mention of that didymo factor in the Smith. I hate that shit.

[Dougfish]

Of all the outdoor time I've spent in my life, I've still yet to see a bald eagle in person.

I did see plenty of turkeys yesterday. And I'm kicking my own ass for not going today. Things happen.

I've seen dozens of eagles. Rivers and lakes out here, lots along the salty sections of the Potomac. Rapp, York and James. One of my favs was a big boy sitting on a road kill deer in the right lane of a 4 lane state highway. Would not move, unlike the vultures. 

[Dougfish]

57
Too warm. Overcast sky was finally moving in. Rain showers?
I was planning on going, so I did.
Beat WB there by 1 1/2 hour.
Decided at the last minute to take the 9' 4 wt.
Got to the destination riverside and discovered I needed to build my leader out.
3x to 4x, 4x to 5x, 5x to 6x.
Waded down to indicator nymph the lower run.
Took a while, but scored a really heavy, strong fish to start.







Don't be cared to fish big shit.



Hodgmans suck. Humans suck.





A young fella hopped in above me. He was lazer focused.
Not sure he noticed me for a while.
WB appeared on the trail above him.
I treated him a Mad Elf beer and the wife's undefeated gingerbread cookie.
Tied on some 7x and the stupid small fly.





I moved up to the run I lost the nice fish on yesterday.





I got nothing. Not a sniff.
WB joined me for some unrequited flogging for picky fish.
We hiked out at 4:20.
A lot less fish rising. A lot less looks at our flies.
Time to work on emerger patterns.....

 

[Woolly Bugger]

#132 Gas $3.12 65 and overcast

The cloud cover was perfect, and I was hoping for some major BWO activity, but as Dougfish said, it was way too warm for December.
There were a bunch of vehicles in the lot, so a number of fair-weather anglers were taking advantage of the conditions.

I had a streamer tied on, so that's what I started out with in the first riffle I came to. Third cast and I hooked a nice brown.



On the next cast I watched a fish take a swipe at the fly and then after a few more cast I had another grab. I landed another trout and had one more bump before I covered all of that section.

I moved on down and spied the young guy working the water above Doug. I wanted to high-hole him and hit a couple of spots, but after studying him for a while I realized he was moving upstream.

When I got down to Doug it was beer thirty and we drank and watched the water as fish began to rise. I hit the head of the run with the streamer to see if anybody was interested. Nobody took a look today and I switched to a dry fly to fish to the risers below. They were punes and picky at that so after a good effort I decided it was time to try the Mad Elf that Doug had brought for me.



Dough continued to fish, and I waded out to chat. I was listening to him and watching as he began to reel his right-hand retrieve reel counterclockwise. I thought that was strange but so is right-hand retrieve. What do I know? After a while he realized what he had done as his line was now totally back lashed all the way down to the backing. He took it to the bank and sat down and spent the next fifteen minutes straightening his jumbled line out. I wanted to take a photo, but he was adamant that I now show this fiasco. So I told him I would just write about it.

I played around with the slow water risers for a while as Doug ventured back upstream.

Nothing was happening up there, so we hiked out.

I figured those Hodgman waders might have belonged to Eric with a K and were "waders of shame" 

[Dougfish]

I am an idiot. That is all. 

[Dee-Vo]

Of all the outdoor time I've spent in my life, I've still yet to see a bald eagle in person.

I did see plenty of turkeys yesterday. And I'm kicking my own ass for not going today. Things happen.

I've seen dozens of eagles. Rivers and lakes out here, lots along the salty sections of the Potomac. Rapp, York and James. One of my favs was a big boy sitting on a road kill deer in the right lane of a 4 lane state highway. Would not move, unlike the vultures. 

There's a popular eagle's nest not too far from me high in a tree on the banks of the Yadkin. I've seen the nest. No eagle.

Also, several months ago, a friend of mine seen one flying over his yard multiple times. That's only a few miles from my residence.

I really wish I would've fished today.

[Woolly Bugger]

I am an idiot. That is all. 

You were just absentminded and under the influence of Mad Elf!

[Phil]

Nah, Doug was just getting his just reward for setting his reel up wrong side/ wrong way.

[Woolly Bugger]

#133 45 overcast to sunny



I was hoping that a couple of days of gloomy weather would kick the bwos into high gear. I left home in the rain with the anticipation of arriving just as the worst of the weather passed. I had tied up some emerger patterns and I put the #24 barr's and #20 sippers on the threaders in the C&F box. Then I finished gearing up with some layers as it was 20 degrees cooler than the last time I was here.

 

I hiked on in, stopping at a deep run to study the water, it was running clear and there were several fish hitting the surface. You might say, "Things are looking up".

I looked at the redds and watched a dominate fish chase all other away from a female that was holding steady.

I looked at the next riffle and didn't see too much activity, so I went on down where I saw a good number of fish working the hatch.
I had some early success catching some punes with the bwo parachute that was already on the rod, but I wanted to try one of the new emergers that I had tied. I went to open my vest pocket, Oh, crap. I left the fly box in the car. Now I was a mile down the river with only one fly. Damn. I briefly entertained the idea of hiking out to get it. That thought evaporated and I continued to fish with my one fly brining in a handful of picky punes.

The sun was coming out and the fish were slowing down all too soon. I began to work my way out and caught several more at the first run before things shut down completely.



Fly box was right where I left it...

[Fishbug]

Sz 24; 7x --- what is this the SOHO?! How you old farts seeing those tiny things 

[Phil]

Sz 24; 7x --- what is this the SOHO?! How you old farts seeing those tiny things 

   X2. I can't see 'em, tie 'em on, or fish 'em. Tried a few days ago on the Watauga. Jeeze. I'll wait until there's some durn HATCHES.

[Big J]

After a while he realized what he had done as his line was now totally back lashed all the way down to the backing. He took it to the bank and sat down and spent the next fifteen minutes straightening his jumbled line out. I wanted to take a photo, but he was adamant that I now show this fiasco. So I told him I would just write about it.

First time fishing with Doug? 

[trout-r-us]

Very neat videos of the spawning activity. 👍

[Woolly Bugger]

#134 37 sunny

As I was walking out along the field I started to slip and slide, it took a moment to realize that ice was forming on the felt soles of the boots and sliding on the grass. It was a quarter past five, hard to believe how fast the temperature dropped.

With no wind and strong sun, the 37 degrees felt warm on the walk in. I checked all the spots going in and didn't see any risers so I decided to go with streamers.




I worked it hard for over two hours and all I came up with was 2 or 3 grabs. Down at the last run, I spied some sippers on the far side. I switched out to a Frog's Fanny 9.5' 7x leader and tied on a Sipper BWO Emerger. They liked it and I caught a handful. Standing balls deep in the run I concluded that it's time to start wearing fleece pants.


too cold to hold the fish... 

I moved on up and hit another run with a sizable number of fish rising. I peppered the first hookset and broke that fragile tippet. By the time I tied on a replacement the fish had all but shut down. 

I was approaching 5 and the sun was well behind the ridge when I left the river.