Smith River & Pond Fishing 7-3-09

Started by Al, July 06, 2009, 11:17:51 AM

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Al

At the recent Smith River TU cookout I met a Ft Bragg soldier who was about to deploy to Iraq. He had been there before and knew he had better get his "fishing fix" taken care of by the end of July. With that objective in mind I invited him to join me for a day and night at my "get away" place in Bassett VA. The folks at Philpott were scheduled to crank up the turbines at 1pm so we did not waste any time getting on the water.

This young fellow is one of the few I've encountered in all my years of fishing the Smith who routinely wades it "wet" :o - Yes, he has waders but only wears them in the early season or if they have just flushed cold water downstream in a generation cycle. Brrrrrr - that's youth for you - or maybe it is the fact that he hails from Maine and is used to cold temperatures.
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We did not do that great. We did not get skunked but close to it. We moved once and did not do any better. Because the generation surge was about to run us off the river and the fishing was only so-so, we quit early. Being the smart old geezer that I am :angel:, I took advantage of that young soldier and talked him into helping me move one of my deer hunting stands. With a little bit of pointing and supervision by me ;D and a lot of muscle power by him we moved a ladder stand from an unproductive spot to a new location which I am sure will pay off this fall.

Early that evening we headed to nearby Patrick County where a good friend allows me to fish his secluded 6 acre pond which is filled with large bream and small bass.
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A bass size popper with a size 12 Allieworm hung about a foot under it did not stay on the surface very long.
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I was initially in the front seat but we soon found the best way to fish was for the one in the rear to control the boat while the one in front hit all the likely spots. After I had caught a few, and considering that I had taken advantage of him with the deer stand move,  we went back to the dock and switched positions.  For the remainder of the evening I lazily paddled us around while my soldier friend worked on his fishing fix.
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Lots of small bass. Some made multiple jumps and all put a big bend in the flyrod.
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We probably caught 3 bream to every bass. The bream in this pond are huge and give a good account of themselves when they turn sideways against the pull of your rod.
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I am not sure if we cured that fishing itch but we made a good dent in it.
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I felt fortunate and humbled to be able to share some time with one of our fighting men. We did a lot of talking over a late dinner of venison kabobs. It was interesting to compare notes from my era of 40 years ago in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam and the challenges facing our forces today with all the emphasis on urban warfare. I proudly render a salute to each and everyone of them.


WRector

Nice going Al,   0--0

I am sure the memories engraved from that day of Fishing will serve him well during his next deployment! 

Hoping for him and his unit to have a safe return!!! 
There's a big difference between a dry fly dancing through
a riffle and a weighted fur ball dragging on the bottom.

5xTippett

Sounds like ya'll had a nice trip, Al.  Do you think he has turned back to his normal color by now? :)

Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

brownhunter

Excellent job!!! You do a really great thing with helping with the soldiers and everything  ;hb Keep up the good work  0--0
"Why, he wondered, did rich people call it sushi while poor people called it bait?"   -- Same Kind of Different as Me

Gofisher

Way to go Al...Of course I would have started him in the front of the boat...
Yankee by birth, Rebel by choice.

Ham

Thanks again for the trip and th hospitality Al. We'll have to do it again!

Trout Chaser


5xTippett

Ham, Good Luck!  Get back home safe.

Stone-Man

Nice trip, Al  !!!                Good on you !!

I think the bream in the last flick is a shellcracker

Next time you get to the pond and catch one of those giant bream post a flick. You know that I am bream crazy. In fact, I'm having bluegill for supper that I caught this morning

  JT