Smith-Continued

[Onslow]

It blows my mind how many people will pay $500 to catch pune browns. I wonder how many repeat customers they have?

This is not a dig at the guides or their price, they have to pay the bills.

I might would pay that much for a guided trip down the Nolichucky gorge or the lower Gauley in WV only because it would be cheaper to hire a guide than to procure and store specialized equipment.  At least with the Nolichucky and Gauley, one is paying for an adventure, and not just the pune brown fishing on a fake trout stream.

I paid around $500 for my Old Town Guide 119.  It is the only guide I'll ever need.  Great boat for old men as well as it very light and easy to handle.  A couple upgrades to the seating, and one is good to go. It is yeetable, or one can lower it from a bridge guardrail without issues. Boat ramps are for bros and brays.

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

That is a hefty chunk of change to float the Smith. 

I've only float fished a few times, and the only enjoyable trips I remember were floating from A to B and exiting the boat to wade fish.  I did not learn a damned thing fishing from a boat; my feet needed to be on the bottom.

The Smith is a counterfeit trout stream, BUT you can/could learn much from that mother.  I ain't sure you discover much elevated in a ship.   Heck fire, I believe every brown and rainbow water I've fished could be considered a fake trout stream.

I'm as sad as a lone cloud in a clear sky now that spring turkey season is over.  However, I am now thinking of fishing the Smith in 3+ weeks, after list of honey do stuff is completed.

I do miss the "punes" of the Smith.  I've only caught one very nice brown on the Smith (22",  on 9 June 1979 on a fully hackled Light Cahill in the Mirror Pool using a Fenwick glass and Orvis Battenkill reel). 

Grousing about or judging educated punes is like erroneously assessing the gal with small breasts.  It is what they know and how they move.   

[Woolly Bugger]

#23-40

Just a quick trip up for some intown fishing. Sulfurs popping and fish rising...


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[Woolly Bugger]

#23 - 41

Another late trip up to catch some trouts

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swinging flies and casting dries.

[Woolly Bugger]

#23 - 42


Fuller day, hiked in to the usual spot, the grass is way tall now, but there is hope that it will be mowed in the coming weeks as neighboring fields have been cut and bailed. Three trucks in the lot, Fishbug and Dougfish were already there.

The fishbug was in Turtle Creek run and I watched him whack a few from the trail above.

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I went on down to the lefty's pool and swung up a stockerbro and a few pune browns. I looked upstream and watched fishbug catch a couple more and then he disappeared. I learned later that he had a reel malfunction.

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On downsteam, I ran across Doug's beer stash.

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Cheers!

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Another stocker amoung the pune browns.

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Fished till 8, but the hatch was pretty much done at 7ish.

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[streamereater_101691]

It blows my mind how many people will pay $500 to catch pune browns. I wonder how many repeat customers they have?

This is not a dig at the guides or their price, they have to pay the bills.

I've had 5 repeats this year already from last year. Granted most are newer anglers willing to learn/put the time in. Most people seem to think it's a fair price considering I'm handing them top of the line equipment and halfway decent instruction.
Yeah once you get to the level of an experienced angler, I can see your point. Those same people won't pay for a soho/watauga trip either purely out of arrogance either..

[creakycane]

One thing my once or twice a week excursions to the Smith in 2023 have shown is that I seem to be catching fewer of the better browns (chunky 11-12 inchers) and a larger proportion of the 8in-ish fish.  Not complaining, just seeing less of the positive impact of the higher flows.  Not scientific and a very biased sample from the Philpott to Mville. Still stumble on an occasional bigger fish, and of course decent rainbows at times, but the run of the mill seem smaller than last coupla years.

One reason is perhaps that I have backed off on bigger nymphs, and been using more soft hackles, small nymphs and little dries.

[Dougfish]

Meat catches meat.

[streamereater_101691]

One thing my once or twice a week excursions to the Smith in 2023 have shown is that I seem to be catching fewer of the better browns (chunky 11-12 inchers) and a larger proportion of the 8in-ish fish.  Not complaining, just seeing less of the positive impact of the higher flows.  Not scientific and a very biased sample from the Philpott to Mville. Still stumble on an occasional bigger fish, and of course decent rainbows at times, but the run of the mill seem smaller that last coupla years.

One reason is perhaps that I have backed off on bigger nymphs, and been using more soft hackles, small nymphs and little dries.

In certain areas, I concur. I think the fish really move around more than we give them credit for though. Another factor could be the large number of rainbows in the system that are eating the food source. I caught 7 in the fish camp hole Monday..and that's 1.5 miles from the nearest stocking site..ridiculous.

[Dougfish]

[/quote]

In certain areas, I concur. I think the fish really move around more than we give them credit for though. Another factor could be the large number of rainbows in the system that are eating the food source. I caught 7 in the fish camp hole Monday..and that's 1.5 miles from the nearest stocking site..ridiculous.
[/quote]

You might have come by me as I was hiking out Monday.
One guy in the bow?

[Fin]

large number of rainbows in the system

From Woolly's pics and others I've seen, those stocker bows look like they are certainly enjoying the more consistent flows. Prior to the damn dam's issues you rarely caught a rainbow by late May and if you did it looked so pitiful you felt like you should just knock it in the head to put it out of it's misery. These fish are beginning to look "wildish", fat, and happy.

How about all the fingerling brookies the Trout in the Classroom program has been dumping in the river for years? All just brown trout chow? 

[Woolly Bugger]

#23 - 43 70s partly sunny

Three vehicles parked in the lot and a couple of trailers at the boat ramp. I almost went elsewhere, but hiked in down the path were  vehicles has been driving through the field. Maybe we should all do a lap around now and then.

I ran into driver's dad at Sally's. There was a smattering of sulfurs on the water and fish were rising, but they were damn picky. I lost a couple of flies to the rhodo and only caught a few punes before I headed on down further.

I struggled at the left hand pool too and only caught a few more small brown trouts.

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Down further I had better success, and caught a handful of better fish. The best part was getting trout to rise in these tiny pockets of calmer water off the cataract at the head of the run. I saw them come up off the bottom and smash the fly.

The hatch petered out and the fish became non-committal refusing the fly more times than not.

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A guide floated by and commented that he had stopped upstream and took a photo for a guy that had caught a 16" brown on a dry. The guide said that Driver's dad had told him to tell me about his fish. I text Driver and got the photo. He said that his dad said it was only 13-14", that just shows you how much a guide can exaggerate.

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I hiked out shortly after the second guide came through. He remembered me helping him when he was just getting started, and is now a guide, "My Bad!"

Fishbug was back at it again, in the Turtle Creek run.

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[streamereater_101691]

You might have come by me as I was hiking out Monday.
One guy in the bow?

I saw a large footed bastard scurry up the bank but didn't think it was you honestly..

[streamereater_101691]

large number of rainbows in the system

From Woolly's pics and others I've seen, those stocker bows look like they are certainly enjoying the more consistent flows. Prior to the damn dam's issues you rarely caught a rainbow by late May and if you did it looked so pitiful you felt like you should just knock it in the head to put it out of it's misery. These fish are beginning to look "wildish", fat, and happy.

How about all the fingerling brookies the Trout in the Classroom program has been dumping in the river for years? All just brown trout chow? 

They do look good. A lot of bows in the system that are holding over. Also important to remember that the length/weight frequency on the browns has been on a steady rise the past few years. A lot of fish in the 85-90 score that used to score substantially lower.
Also interesting that the soho has reported a 35% decline in overall fish in the past 3 years. From what I'm hearing they are attributing that to low flows, habitat destruction, people stomping redds, and overall increased angling, aka the covid bomb. I have a feeling it's coming on the smith as well but more due to angling.

The fingering brookies don't make it. On the other hand the rainbows do make it decently. My clients have caught a handful this year 5-8", mainly near the great rd where the release happens. It's night and day difference. They look wild.

[Dougfish]

31

I was out west/out of commission for three weeks.
This covers my last 4 trips in the last 11 days. 

Holy shit, the woods/my garden grew like a bandit!
Did some trail maintenance along with the fishing the last 2 days.

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The green tunnel.

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The field.

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No body. 

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A very tasty find.

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Booty from CO. 
Probably my favorite beer.
Can't get it east of the Mississippi.

Good to be back.
WB and Fishbug are good.
Sulfurs are spotty.
Water is cold.
Wood has moved around.
No ticks.