Pretentious Snobby Bastard Fly Fishing!

Fly Fishing Reports => Local Trip Reports => Topic started by: hcrum87hc on April 14, 2021, 11:28:57 AM

Title: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: hcrum87hc on April 14, 2021, 11:28:57 AM
I've been trying to get out on the water more recently, and although I've been able to, I haven't been terribly successful.  Each trip has brought only one or two to hand, including yesterday.  I don't consider these trips failures though, as I've been fishing new water and have learned a lot on each trip.

I've been wanting to hit one of the larger wild streams near the NC/SC border for a while now, and finally decided to do so yesterday with hopes of finding some sipping browns.

There are a couple ways to access this stream, and I chose hiking downstream and fishing back up.  The trail to the river from this direction is an old logging road and requires about a mile's hike to the river.

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The trail eventually crosses the river, and I decided to fish upstream from the trail crossing.  The water was fairly cloudy and a bright blue in the numerous deeper holes, making it hard to tell how deep the holes were.  There was no trail along this section of the stream, and combined with the deep holes made wading tough.  After only about 200 yards upstream, I spotted this tiered cascade/falls.

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It had a nice pool at the bottom, so I picked my way upstream to fish that pool.  I had seen no topwater action so switched to a double nymph rig.  After a couple casts, this guy slammed the bottom nymph.

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I fished the rest of the hole with nymphs and a streamer with no luck.  It was a beautiful spot though, so I didn't mind.

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Unfortunately, I didn't see a good way up or around the cascades, so I decided to walk downstream where there's a trail that parallels the stream.  I followed it until it started away from and uphill from the river.  I tried to climb down to the water, but the rhodo and steep drops at the water's edge made it impossible to fish.

I worked back upstream and found a deep, long run I could pitch a streamer in.  I had one take, but it was right as I was lifting the streamer out of the water for my next cast, and I missed it.  I fished that hole some more with no luck, but wasn't able to reach all of it, again due to the terrain in this location. 

I moved farther upstream and saw that most of the holes were shallow and in the sun.  It was nearly mid day by this point, and being a brown stream, I didn't suspect I'd have any more luck.  Instead of working my way farther downstream and looking for deeper shaded holes, I decided to hike back out and go try a nearby creek I'd gotten some intel on a couple weeks ago.  The intel suggested this was a brookie stream.

When I arrived, I only had about 45 minutes to fish before I needed to head home and rescue mama from the youngins.  In the first hole, I had a take on the top fly, but missed him.  Second hole at the bottom of this cascade gave up this little brown.

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I continued to fish farther up.  Most of the stream bottom here was bed rock with little cover.  I came to a cascade that was about 100 feet up, but thankfully the slope was manageable.  This pic doesn't do it justice.

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I continued upstream with no luck and eventually reach a small falls with a NICE hole at the bottom, but couldn't dredge anything out of it.  I wanted to explore farther up, but I was already pressed for time and hiked out.

When I reached the truck, another fisherman stopped in his car to ask how I'd done, assuming I'd been fishing the main river this creek flows into, which occurs very close to the pull off.  I told him where I'd been, and he suggested fishing the main river and shared a few spots that hold brookies close by.  Sadly I didn't have time yesterday, but I'll check it out later.

When I got home I spoke with my informant and discovered the stream he was talking about was actually the river the fisherman had told me about and he had fished the same spots the fisherman mentioned.   b';  The creek and the river share very similar names, and he had gotten them mixed up.

He had been calling the river by the name of the trib creek, so I wasn't even fishing in the right spot.  That's ok, the trib was actually very pretty and looked promising in certain sections, but didn't produce.  I'll be back to try it again one day.
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 14, 2021, 12:28:36 PM
glad you got out, even if it was the wrong stream...  <-;:
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: Phil on April 14, 2021, 13:20:02 PM
The same thing has happened to me before with much worse results. Nice fish from the wrong stream!
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: itieuglyflies on April 14, 2021, 13:49:10 PM
I always seem to fish the wrong stream....
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: Dougfish on April 14, 2021, 14:34:25 PM
Conversation I have had:

"I'm gonna fish Stoney."

Which Stoney? Plain Stoney, Big Stoney or Little Stoney?

"Little Stoney."

Which Little Stoney? There's only about 5 of them in a 50 mile radius.

"The one in the NF off Rt. XYZ."

That's just plain Stoney.

"No it's not."

Yes it is.
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: Phil on April 14, 2021, 15:08:13 PM
 :laugh:  'c; @Dougfish
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: greg on April 14, 2021, 17:42:53 PM
Nice fish. I've got to start fishing my SC waters more.
Title: Re: Meh fishing, but beautiful water
Post by: RiverbumCO on April 15, 2021, 07:56:13 AM
I love to fish stoney(d)