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Damn Good Day Fishing

Started by Yallerhammer, June 03, 2019, 15:39:38 PM

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Yallerhammer




I had had a good friend drive up from north Georgia to fish with me Saturday, so I wanted to put him on some good fish in my local waters.

First creek holds the biggest average specks I know of around here. And according to the genetic studies, they're pure southern app strain. It heads up in some gentle little 6,000'+ hills:

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It was in the 40s at that elevation when we pulled up. That first step into the creek was a bitch, but it sure was purty up there.

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Specks? Hell yeah. Big'uns. We caught several in the 9'-11" range.

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The disturbing thing, though, was the total, complete absence of little specks in this creek that is usually swarming with them, and stretches with seemingly no fish at all. The smallest fish we caught was about 6". I'm afraid that all the nasty floods we've had in the last year have scoured and screwed the fish in here. Hopefully, they bounce back in a few years. We fished a few hours and climbed out.
Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

Yallerhammer


After the hike out, time for some simple lunch fare on the tailgate:

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Then we hit a slightly bigger creek further down the mountain. This one holds mostly wild browns with a few specks mixed in, and the occasional rainbow.

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Dry fly bite was good, we caught loads of small browns, a couple specks, and one nice fat rainbow.

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The puzzler was this 13" hawg brook I caught. This is wild water, way back up in the mountains, and it holds native specks. This creek does eventually feed into a bigger creek that is stocked lower down, but this sucker would have had to have swam several miles to get here. That's the only logical explanation, unless it's the biggest, ugliest speck I've ever caught. Whatever its story, it for sure put up a heckuva fight. It had a hare's ear nymph on about 6" of tippet broken off in it. I took it before I released the fish. Ad Victorem Spolia.

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All in all, a really enjoyable day. My old grandpa legs hurt.

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Fin







Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

Phil

Damn if you ain't on a roll Big Time, Yaller. Wow! bd;0  bd;0  'c;

Dougfish

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

The Dude

"The puzzler was this 13" hawg brook I caught. This is wild water, way back up in the mountains, and it holds native specks. This creek does eventually feed into a bigger creek that is stocked lower down, but this sucker would have had to have swam several miles to get here. That's the only logical explanation, unless it's the biggest, ugliest speck I've ever caught."

It happens.  A year or two ago I caught an 18" rainbow on Big East Fork just below Greasy Cove Prong.  It was clearly a stocker - rounded tail fin, stubby pectoral fins, dull color, mushy skin, smelled like a hatchery, hung out between my feet in 10" of water after release for like 5 minutes, etc. It checked every box. 
I was born by the river in a little tent, And just like the river I've been running ever since, It's been a long, long time coming, But I know change is gonna come.

Dee-Vo

Kickin' ass and takin' names. Good showin, Yaller.

Big J

 V:; First inspection of fins and such tells me wild fish on that 13"er.  But lack of red and blue spots changes vote for me.  Heck of a fish and definitely been in there a while to "git native". 

Dee-Vo

The coloration topic is always interesting. Fish from Big J's areas and some of Doug's haunts have a totally different look than they have down our way (strain difference?). The creek I've caught some of the best sized brookies in almost always produces washed out colorings. These fish were around 11", give or take. Colors are always very muted here.


Yallerhammer

Quote from: The Dude on June 04, 2019, 08:41:41 AM"The puzzler was this 13" hawg brook I caught. This is wild water, way back up in the mountains, and it holds native specks. This creek does eventually feed into a bigger creek that is stocked lower down, but this sucker would have had to have swam several miles to get here. That's the only logical explanation, unless it's the biggest, ugliest speck I've ever caught."

It happens.  A year or two ago I caught an 18" rainbow on Big East Fork just below Greasy Cove Prong.  It was clearly a stocker - rounded tail fin, stubby pectoral fins, dull color, mushy skin, smelled like a hatchery, hung out between my feet in 10" of water after release for like 5 minutes, etc. It checked every box. 

The closest that one of yours could have come from would be that TU water around Camp Hope. That's a ways.

I caught this one up a little tributary creek way up Deep Creek early last year. I think it swam all the way up out of the Tuck to spawn. It sure doesn't look like a Deep Creek bow, especially being in a pothole pool on a small tributary.

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Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

Yallerhammer

Quote from: Dee-Vo on June 04, 2019, 09:29:31 AMThe coloration topic is always interesting. Fish from Big J's areas and some of Doug's haunts have a totally different look than they have down our way (strain difference?). The creek I've caught some of the best sized brookies in almost always produces washed out colorings. These fish were around 11", give or take. Colors are always very muted here.



They're quite variable here, too. One small high-elevation creek near here has the brightest colored ones I've seen anywhere. These are summer pics, not fall spawning colors, too:
Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

The Dude

Quote from: Yallerhammer on June 04, 2019, 09:58:53 AMThey're quite variable here, too. One small high-elevation creek near here has the brightest colored ones I've seen anywhere. These are summer pics, not fall spawning colors, too:


I've always felt that Middle Prong consistently produced brook trout with more red color than most streams around here.
I was born by the river in a little tent, And just like the river I've been running ever since, It's been a long, long time coming, But I know change is gonna come.

Yallerhammer

Quote from: The Dude on June 04, 2019, 11:53:30 AM
Quote from: Yallerhammer on June 04, 2019, 09:58:53 AMThey're quite variable here, too. One small high-elevation creek near here has the brightest colored ones I've seen anywhere. These are summer pics, not fall spawning colors, too:


I've always felt that Middle Prong consistently produced brook trout with more red color than most streams around here.

Pretty browns on the lower end, too.
Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

peter p

#12

The disturbing thing, though, was the total, complete absence of little specks in this creek that is usually swarming with them, and stretches with seemingly no fish at all. The smallest fish we caught was about 6". I'm afraid that all the nasty floods we've had in the last year have scoured and screwed the fish in here. Hopefully, they bounce back in a few years. We fished a few hours and climbed out.
[/quote]

I have witnessed the same thing.  I agree the floods might be the reason.

Peter

NCsporksman

you packed all that seafood in and released the sashimi grade shit. I like it