Smith-Continued

[Woolly Bugger]

#25 -- ?? Gas $2.76

back for the sulfurs again...

pulled over to check out a spot, birds were working and fish were rising. I took the 2 wt. today. It had a snowshoe hare sulfur already tied on. I waded in a few feet as cast to the closest rising fish, the trout liked it and it was on for the next hour. The fishing was pornographic. I finally lost that fly and didn't have another, so I tied on a comparadun, it worked almost as well. I didn't move more that 10 feet and continued catching. Sure they were the usual Smith River Punes, but they put a bend in the Superfine Fiberglass.

I finally moved on after it slowed down, moving on up I didn't find many rising fish, so I switched to a soft hackle and struggled hooking up with only a few bumps.

I moved back down to where I started and swung the wet, picking off a few more. I spied what appeared to be a better fish rising on the far bank, beyond my casting ability with the 2 wt, so I hiked back out to the car and switched rods. The 5 wt. felt very heavy after casting that lightweight rod, but I was able to cast a puff daddy to the target area and I caught a fish, not the one I saw earlery but it was still satisfying. It was now eight o'clock and I was done for the day.

Here are some shots of the browns.











I saw EJ driving through town with his raft earlier, so I was curious if he was doing a late float, and I drove up to the 666 bridge to see what was up. Found this raft at the ramp, not EJ's, they left it after to float to run shuttle.

[Onslow]

I hate this may be coming to an end.  That's a good scene and haul.

[Dougfish]

Bravo.
 

[Dougfish]

Bobby and I are gonna do a float, with lots of wade Wed. Old haunts. Want in, WB?

[Dougfish]

.

Haven't fished much. Too damn busy.
Then my left knee flared up.
Finally got to see an ortho doc. Just good old arthritis. I got a steroid injection and was a new man w/in 24 hrs.

Bobby has a new cataraft. We introduced it to the Smiff on Wed. The goal was to float to Bassett and wade as much of the old special regs as possible.
Since we're still denied land access.
 
We were gonna drop in at the Philpott bridge, but three vehicles and one bote beat us there. Headed upstream. His cat might be fat, but the frame is light. We pulled over at the lemon hole, undid the straps on the trailer, and carried/drug the bote down through the weeds to the water. Easy, pezzy.

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Pretty soon a caught a fish.
Then another.
How bout that?

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Soon enough we passed under the bridge.
Their bote was tied up. No one was around. Running the world's most complicated shuttle?
And there we were.
Below the Mirror Plant.
Anchored up below the island. I fished a dry back up, Bobby swung flies down.
We each caught a few.
Pushed downstream and stopped at Sally's Pool and the first bench.

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Hay field is as shitty as ever.
Bench and Flybrary were great.
We caught some fish and moved on.
Very few risers and sulfur have been seen so far.
Did not get out at the second bench.
Looked good though.
Path is not horrible.
Fished the far side of the lefthander hole from the bote.
Slid down through the rock garden to the trestle pool. New wood in the garden pushed us to the far left.

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We bumped on downstream still looking for a hatch. Bobby's bote might not be Hooligan skinny, but it's surprisingly skinny. Handled 295 cfs great. Never got hung up. Some bumps and grinds.
Snuck around the right side of the drop down to fish camp.
Fished off and on towards the takeout.
Good day, not great. Off the water @ 4:30.
15+ fish for each of us. The fish are chunky and strong. Canoe is next..

Cheers. 

      

[driver]

I like the shirt 

[Fishbug]

 

Hey I know that spot.   

[Woolly Bugger]

#25 -- ?? (one day I might count the days) Mid 80s, partly cloudy, just a bit of wind.


Sulfurs, sulfurs, sulfurs, get 'em while there there.

I went up high and had the run(s) to myself, bugs, fish and flies. There were many fish to target and a few came out of nowhere to hit the comparadun. It was about 7 or 8 to 1, browns over rainbows. Once two fish tried to smash the fly at the same time! That was pretty neat to watch as they both porpoised together, but only one took the fly.

Things winded down as the hatch petered out and I drove on up to take a look at the damn dam construction. A lot has been accomplished since the last time I was up there.

Moved on down to a lower stretch where the residents refused my fly 4 or 5 times, before I hooked one, a pune. Moved again an picked off a couple more before calling it a day.


First Fish


10th Fish






Last fish, maybe 22 total

[Woolly Bugger]

# 25 -34 mid 80s sunny

Fishing with friends --

@streamereater_101691 and I fished the evening sulfur hatch, and it was good. There were multiple species hatching (#14 yellow bugs and #18-20 tiny yellow bugs, along with a bodacious midge hatch) I started off targeting risers with a snowshoe hare sulfur, and hooked up on the first good drift. The usual suspects readily accepted the fly, but a few refused it. I was fishing the superfine fiberglass 2 wt., and had to work to get the distance needed to get to the bank hugging sulfur gulping fish. I didn't move around too much, spending a lot of time working reluctant fish, but finally geting them to eat is the reward.

By 7 things shut down completely, although Alex was still getting hits on a dropper. I was all in on the dry fly action and playing those fish on the 2 wt was a lot of fun.









Ephemerella Dorothea dorothea






Beers on the river and enjoyable conversation make it all the better, 

[Woolly Bugger]

#25 - 35  Gas $2.75 Mid 80s, mostly overcast


Tell my you're fishing the Smith, without saying you're fishing the Smith




I was planning to keep some stockers for the Raptor Center and I hoped to get into a sulfur hatch where I've seen them this past week. No such luck, nobody was looking up, I swung a soft hackle and took a pune or two, before working one solitary riser, which, despite perfect cast with several patterns refused to show any interest at all. I was working under some trees and I hooked the branch above it, and not wanting to lose a fly, walked in and retrieved the fly.




I moved on and found some willing fish where the bugs were coming off and the birds were doing their best to intercept all of them before they reached the safety of the trees. I got a number of fish to rise but only half came to hand, small hooks and all that business.

Moved again and got into them in abundance as the sun was setting. Wanted to take a pic or two but I was standing in fast water and didn't want to risk a phone fumble.




Maybe a dozen browns to hand, not one rainbow.

Chillaxed by the river with a beer and then drove home..

[Dougfish]

"Statue of liberty play, only works once, don't throw it away."

I've had the canoe for 2+ months and had not christened her yet.

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Yesterday was the day.
Put in at the bridge.
I have not been in a canoe or kayak in forever.
And it showed.
I hid it at my planned stash and headed downstream on foot.

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I was swinging soft hackles and not getting much action, so I boogied on down.
Stopped at bench 1 to cool off and reminisce. The plastic hatch started up.
Kayaks and canoes.
Counselors and boys from a camp.
Quite the shit show.

After they passed, I started catching.

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Rhodos are putting on a show. 

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Carried on downstream.
Action picked up a bit as the sun continued to climb.
Switching to a lighter color soft hackles helped, too.

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I pruned a little at the third bench and a little on the trail.
It's surprisingly clear. It helps that the animals use it.
Jumped alot of turkeys.

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Hiked out. Got into some nice fish below turtle creek.
Found Alex and 2 sports fishing near the bottom of the Mirror Pool.
Shot the shit for a while.
Then round two of campers and counselors came splashing by.
Carried on, paddled back upstream to the bridge and drug my stuff up to the truck.
I was beat.
But I'll be back.
 
 

[Woolly Bugger]

Yesterday was the day.
Put in at the bridge.

'bout time! How was hauling that canoe back up to the road? 
 

[Dougfish]

49 lbs of dead weight.

[Woolly Bugger]

#25 - 36 Gas $2.86 sunny and in the 80s, 5000 miles on the CRV's new tires, time to rotate.

Charged up my electric socks and headed up to the damn dam for the afternoon sulfur hatch.

Two fishermen were in the run I had hoped to fish, I saw a lot of rising fish there. Nobody was in the lower spot, so I wadered up and trekked on down to find a plethora of bugs on the water, birds swooping in for the feist and many trout rising. It was game on!


first fish...

It was about 50/50 brown to rainbow, 8-10 inches and 12 inches, respectively. However, this game was short lived as the hatch slacked off and the fish stopped rising regularly. 

I fished on for a while but thought it was time to move on. Up on the lawn, one of the fisherman from the upper run was just getting out. He's from Roanoke, drives a Titan, wears orvis waders and commented that this was his first encounter with dry fly action this year.


I checked out the run and saw a few rises and went in after them. Got a couple of eats, and landed a chunky rainbow, which I culled for the Raptor Center.

Then I headed down to another spot where I had found some late action. I'm getting more comfortable wading out across the fast water, but despite being i a better position, I managed to snag trees on my backcast. I lost 3 flies, fucked up my leader, and finally gave up cutting my losses, despite catching 6 more fish from this run.

Moved up to the boat ramp to  finish off the day.



A truck pulls up and out jump three old dudes (mid 60s would be my guess), they were scoping out the water, and commented, that they were all new to fly fishing and had all the new gear, but didn't know where to fish, so they were checking out all the access they could find in anticipation of fishing Saturday and Sunday. I wished them luck.

[creakycane]

Saw the Tacoma at the bridge and an angler headed under the bridge.  Figured wading, but canoeing down sounds great.  Paddling up, not so much.  Great workout I'm sure.  Also saw the many canoeing kids and the two familiar counselors riding herd. 

There were numerous parties scouting the Smith/ new to the river up there this week.  Nymphing down-river pretty slow this week; one good brown on a stimi; lots of scouting; usual browns on 16 sulphurs, cdc, no hackles etc.   gonna take next week off fishing and swim/nap and take it easy.  Hard to put on waders when it's 90, even to jump in the cool smith.

Drink lots of water