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April 19, 2024, 00:14:48 AM

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#21

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by troutboy_II - April 10, 2024, 20:03:30 PM

"The "Rod of the Day", was a St. Croix 7'8" Legend Ultra 3 wt."

My go-to 3 wt for small streams even if it is a little stout. Fast action sure comes in handy when throwing a pair of bead heads in a stiff wind. Still has a fine touch though, so a good compromise in my opinion. Mine is an early 3 piece while Trout_Girl's is a later 4 piece. Nice rods I bought from the Champions before they got the shop in TN.

Well, I had my right knee replaced by a robot on Tuesday.

Not the most fun so far, but they say it just takes time and patience and everyone I know who did it says it was the best thing they ever did. Doesn't feel that way right now but I'm a wimp at heart, so there's that. Anybody else who has done this successfully and who wants to share their own words of wisdom, please steer them my way. I could use them and I suspect our aging membership might have some interest as well. Perhaps not in this thread though if it would be better elsewhere. What do I know - I'm trying to not use too much of the opioids and what I am using plus the dull pain in my leg is confusing me. Perhaps I shouldn't have started down this road. My apologies.

TB (now just mostly original)

#22

Warm Water Species / Another Annual Trip to Shadlan...

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 10, 2024, 15:14:42 PM

#24 -- 36 Sunny, low 60s in the morning, heating up to 78 in the afternoon, with a slight chance of a shower,

Fred and I had been texting about a possible shad date, thing were up in the air as Fred was juggling a new project, but in the end, we decided to go on Tuesday and I drove up Monday evening, using my Marriott "Points" I checked into the Courtyard in Chester, leaving me a 20-minute drive in the morning. The only catch was that it was Championship NCAA Basket Ball night and the game wasn't starting until 9:20 PM

I started watchin the game, telling myself that I could turn it off at halftime, but that wasn't possibly and I watched the entire game, which I thought was well played by UCON in the second half by shutting down Perdue's offence.

Up by 5 in the morning, eating a Trader Joe's breakfast burrito and hotel room coffee, I was out the door by 5:45 and met Fred at the ramp at 6:05. As usual he was first at the ramp, but others were queuing up shortly after we got the boat loaded.

The river was up higher than I've ever fished it, but Fred thought we still should be able to get into them, "if they are there". He wasn't making any promises this time.

Out on the water we made our way to "the spot" and dropped anchor. Fred was saying that I may have jinxed the whole operation by bringing a cooler filled with ice with the intent of keeping a cooler full of shad for the Carolina Raptor Center. The day started out on the slow side, perhaps it was the turbidity of the water, or the high levels, or the fish weren't there. Was it the jinx of the cooler?

Well it didn't take all that long before Fred hooked up and to my surprise, based upon his reluctance to harvest fish, he placed it on ice. He is a proponent of enacting a 10 fish limit. I hooked on one and the game was on. It wasn't on fire but we managed to put a good number of fish in the cooler, stopping at two in the afternoon. I would extimate 30 - 40 fish but nobody was counting.

Throughout the day boats pulled in alongside us and at one point there were about a dozen close by, everybody was catching fish.

But it wasn't actually on fire and there was no way we would hit 100 as we had in the past, but that's fishing. I had a grand time just being on the boat and catching up with Fred.

We pulled the boat out and I was headed home by 3 or so.

The next morning, I drove on down to the Caronlia Raptor Center to drop of the fish.

Now I've got a cooler to clean out and hopefully that shad odor won't linger in the RAV4!

#23

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 10, 2024, 14:19:09 PM

#24 -- 35 Gas $3.29 Sunny and warm 70s

With just one NC truck in the lot I was surprised to see three anglers fishing below me on a Sunday afternoon. I had struck out on the first run I encountered, there were a couple of risers up against a long on the far side, but I just couldn't get a good angle to get a decent drift in front of them.

I the next spot where I spied the anglers, two at first, but later joined by the third, I did swing up some fish, but unfortunately, they unbuttoned as they jumped clear of the water.

The "Rod of the Day", was a St. Croix 7'8" Legend Ultra 3 wt., I chose it because I wasn't expecting it to be too windy and it has a fast enough action to drive the fly under the rhodo.

The three amigos were staying close to the bank and didn't venture out into the middle, they were casting bobber rigs and reported "We've caught 100s" in jest. Truth was they hadn't had much success, but were enjoying the day away from their homes in Riedsville.

They hadn't been down further than the bottom of the trestle pool, my next stop. I chose to take a beer break and "rest the water" . I made three passes through the pool and brought about a dozen fish to hand. They were just punes but pretty.

I stayed fairly late and caught a couple more in some of the other usual spots.

#24

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by trout-r-us - April 07, 2024, 13:40:11 PM

Quote from: Woolly Bugger on April 06, 2024, 20:51:06 PM

#24 -- 34 Partly cloudy, windy and low 50s

I had read about this access, so I went to check it out.

Woolly, do you happen to know the area code for that number? I tried a couple of the local ones from up that way, without any success.

#25

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Onslow - April 07, 2024, 07:03:19 AM

Wow. Trout Lillies have been gone here for 2 weeks and Redbuds are in pedal fall at west Surry/ east Wikes.

#26

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - April 06, 2024, 20:51:06 PM

#24 -- 34 Partly cloudy, windy and low 50s

I usually stop at the bort ramp to check the raft traffic and checkup on mom on the phone before I loose good cell service. A spin angler was fishing the run wearing camo boot foot waters and sporting a ghost net. He caught a pune, well hooked with the treble of the lure. He held it up on the end of the line and took photo afer photo of it dangling on the line and then and took about two minutes to unhook and release. I tried to see if it floated downstream, but I couldn't see from inside the car. He then, looked at his photos and, I assume, posted a picture to social media. He then got out after that for some reason, went back to his car and fiddled with his gear. I drove on.

The lot was empty, probably because most anglers were smart enough not to fight the wind. I took the RPL+ 4 wt, to fight the wind, but I kinda messed up by grabbing the wrong reel which had a 3 wf line. I strung up the rod and tested in on the grass and was pleasantly surprised that the RPL+ would punch the line through the wind.

The redbud is out and it looks like somebody drove part way into the field, perhaps to count hay bails?? I don't know.

There are a few late blooming Trout Lilies around, and the Trillium are starting to take over.

I'm going to try and fish a different rod each trip for until I got through all the mid to light weight rods and I started with the RPL+

I figured that it would be useless to nymph with the whipping wind, which had hold onto your hat gusts. Of course the wind was blowing straight down the river. I saw a few scattered mayflies and I may have seen a trout or two rise. I went with the usual soft hackle and swung up a handful or so.

Finally the wind was too much for me to deal with and I headed back.

I stopped in at the boat ramp and watch the show going on. Three anglers in the run, a truck from Maryland with rod carries. The usual assortment of bait and spin guy down at the honey hole.

The fly anglers in the bottom of the run came back up arm in arm against the strong current. The father and son, from Maryland stuck up a conversation with the local spin guy and the talk turned to stocking schedule, 10 pound rainbows, and powerbait.

The father and son headed on down to the big hole at the end of the road, when the passed the back of my stickered up CR-V, the dad commented, "You're a fly fisherman too? What works here?" I told him that I used soft hckles and he looked puzzled and showed me a black woolly bugger tied on the end of his line, "That'll work!" They headed down the path and I headed on down the road.

I had read about this access, so I went to check it out.

The highlights of the day were listening to a hawk cry out on the walk in, and as I was standing in a run, I saw a bald eagle fly up the river and then, as it approached, it veered off and up over the trees. Pretty cool. Also, the usual palliated woodpeckers calling out. lost the last of my orange and partridges, so Saturday had to be a fly-tying day and I wasn't wanting to deal with any more wind for a while.

#27