A cold day in NC

[tbird4]

Well Wrector and I went to a river that we've never fished before this past weekend that someone told us about.  You know who you are and a many thanks to you.  That morning we got up to meet at the river early, Wrector who lives in Winston Salem and I live in Rock Hill, SC.  When I got up it was 33 degrees at the house I figured man by the time the sun gets up it will be comfortable.  Well when I got to the river it was 20, the temp had managed to drop as I drove, thankfully I had enough cloths to dress a small army.  We got our gear together and headed out down river, Wrector took the first hole we came to and I decided to head off down river to find one of my own.  I tied on a trusty dry and started roll casting because of all the limbs and a steep riverbank behind me.  Almost after every cast I had to get ice out of my guides the line wouldn't slide like it was supposed to.  During the finagling with the guides I saw a few rises.  I threw to that spot a couple times and finally hooked up with a nice bow.  It was about 13" with some good color a lot more than I'm use to.  I caught a few more and missed some out of that hole in about an hour and a half.  My back started bothering me from the way I was standing so I figured I'd head up and see how my bud was doing.  I got up there to him and he hadn't moved an inch.  He had also caught a handful, but was focusing on this gorgeous brookie in the middle of the river.  It finally came up and took the fly, he got her almost to him and she shook loose to bad an awesome fish.  Well I decided to go up river and give it a shot, after about a half of a mile I found a hole stacked with some big bows.  I eased down and started casting.  I threw the kitchen sink at these fish and couldn't get them to take anything.  I tried to catch one out of this hole for an hour or so, before being fed up.  I started back down river and Wrector was coming up, I stopped him and told him about the big bows in the hole and he set off to see if he could do any good, damn if he didn't, some people just have a horseshoe up their ass.  Well, with him up there catching those fish I moved back down to his spot.  The fish in this hole were rising like crazy, I mean a feeding frenzy.  I must have caught fifteen out of this hole he just left, which made me feel much better.  He came back down and watched me fish a little while and I had a little bit of a longer trip so I decided to hit the road.  Can't beat good fishing and good friends.     [attachment=1][attachment=2]

[Oldman]

Fishing with friends makes a heck of a nice day.

[WRector]

As TBird4 stated above, we had another great day on the water.  With the temperature being in the 20s early in the morning, the fishing started off fairly slow.  I just happened to find a bunch of fish stacked up in the first hole I decided to stop at.  The water being crystal clear didn't help either.  After a lot of experimentation, small dries and nymphs dropped about a foot back seemed to be the ticket, since the fish were taking everything very subtly.  Every once in a while, you would have one shoot up from the depths to take the dry.  With it being so cold, I decided to keep my camera tucked away in my pack till my hands warmed up a bit, for fear of dropping the damn thing. 

I did manage to hook the big Brookie, that I had spent somewhere around an hour trying to get to take.  With water being clear, I could see every move she made.  I would make a few drifts by her to no avail, and let her sit for a bit.  Then try it all over again, with a different assortment of nymphs.  All the while catching the smaller fish that were schooled up in a deeper pool behind her.  Finally, I made the perfect drift and my dry disappeared.  Set the hook and FISH ON!  I couldn't believe it.  Once she got close to me, I could see the colors on this fish and they were absolutely amazing.  Fought her for about a minute or so, all the while keeping her upstream of me.  I went to turn her head downstream, so that I could swing her down to my net and just like that she was off.  My flies flew to the trees and I was heart broken.  Guess that is why we call it fishin and not catchin.

I did manage a few nicer bows, all round the 14-15 inch range. 

[attachment=1]
After heading upstream and having a little luck with my horseshoe I decided to head back downstream to see TBird4 having a ball at the hole I had left for him.  Man, it's hard to come by good friends these days! 

[attachment=2]
Here's TBird4 in action  ;hb

[attachment=3]

[Woolly Bugger]

sounds like a good time to me!

[benflyfishn]

Nice fish, sounds like a good time. I think I saw you guys. Did you see a red tacoma drive by you that morning on the gravel road?

[tbird4]

Yeah, I saw you go by benflyfishn, how did you do?  I'm headed up Friday, are you going to try it over the holiday?

[benflyfishn]

Had a great day. Had a couple big uns get unbuttoned  o-o. I may be up there Friday too. If you want to hook up, let me know. Check your messages.

[wvyou]

Ben,

Give TBird our club information and see if he wants to join us in January.

It's more of a drinking club that fishes than a fishing club that drinks...but still good fun.

[tbird4]

wvyou, ben got me I saved the web site I'm going to check you guys out this jan, nothing wrong with a drinking club that fishes

[anothertroutbum]

The best things about days like this is that they stay ingrained in your memory. One of the best days I ever had fishing had 5 inches of snowfall and it was still falling. The quietness of the snow falling per se was enough to put anyone in a zen-like state. I caught 16 that day.

[troutphisher]

Fine day indeed........

I just got back from a week of golfing in Florida, I am ready to hit the water soon.