News:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon Link

Main Menu

sukin' on the SoHo...

Started by Woolly Bugger, April 19, 2021, 09:30:52 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Woolly Bugger


April 18, 2021

Partly cloudy, low to mid sixties.

Gas $2.79

the TVA is doing some work on the weir so there are low flows now for a while. I cleared the deck of chores and headed over the hump hoping to find some little yaller bugs and rising fish, but a call to the fly shop indicated that the bugs aren't out in force yet and their advice was to go small, really small, with light tippet, like 6.5 or 7x.

There were a lot of drift boats in the parking lots, foiled plans I guess, many were wading and I didn't ger my first-choice spot and settled for an old favorite arriving just after 9, thinking I should have gotten to the river at 8 to get my preferred spot.

I hit some spots with a dry before switching over to nymphs and shot. Fish weren't easy to find but I managed a bunch of rainbows, some of which looked great, and others more like stockers, along with an occasional brown. Fishing with tiny flies (#20, #24) and 6.5 times tipped leads to lost fish. I had a couple of big head shakers on the line for a while but the fly lost its purchase.

I saw risers now and then and there were some sulfurs coming off along with several bows and tons of midges and I switched back and forth between dry and nymphs. I managed to catch a few of the rising fish and enticed others to take the fly.

By 4:30 I was done with the wind and wading and since the fishing was relatively slow I packed up and headed home.


Photo dump:

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

It looked like these troutbros were casting dries or soft hackles on the flat water randomly and surprisingly enough I saw them catch one!

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Barn of the trip for Richard Herington!

{/report]


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!

Phil


itieuglyflies

Good stuff Keith. I look forward to being frustrated by those picky fish in a few weeks.....which likely means
it will start raining again and they will be generating 24/7!

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!

Woolly Bugger


April 27 2021
Gas Over and back on one tank... @ $2.45

sunny 56 - 84

since I invested in a TN annual license and they aren't generating on the SoHO, I went back again for more punishment.
I left a littler later than usual and planned to stay til dusk. I listened to the rest of the Letters from War, Washington Post Podcast on the way over. What I found interesting is a first hand account of the battle for Kwajalein, where I lived for 3 years...

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Despite arriving at 10 there were plenty of spots to park along the river. I hit the area that I had planned to fish the other day, and chose the lower run hoping to fish the upper reach in the late afternoon.

It was pleasant in the fifties, not a cloud in the sky with the promise of a hot afternoon. Fist cast with the nymph rig (splitback with a RS2 dropper) brought a small brown to hand. I proceeded to work the water and bring brown after brown to hand. The I saw a fish rise on the far side across multiple conflicting currents. Then another rise. hmmm this might get interesting...

I scanned the water to see if I could determine what they were feeding on. I tied on a #18 olive comparadun with a trailing shuck and targeted the risers. The liked the fly!

I switched back and forth from dry fly to nymphs several times with different flies.

Several bigger fish were hooked and brought to the net and a few broke off or became unbuttoned.

Things slowed down after lunch and I was done by 4:30


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login



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!

Michael Toris

#5
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on April 28, 2021, 10:35:12 AM

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login





Pata-gucci tinned fish? I've been to a bull fight and two goat fuckings, but now I've seen it all.

itieuglyflies


Good going Keith, happy to see you catchin on your riffle.  I like your choice of snacks....

RiverbumCO

Snacks fucking suck! But browns on top rock
My real name is Chad Farthouse.

Woolly Bugger

#8

Rhody called / texted and we were discussing the brood x opportunities that might be happening on the Yadkin River. I had been thinking about the SoHo and that's what we ended up deciding to do. I was thinking that the little yellow bugs would be popping off in the afternoon like I had seen the week before. We planned to meet on the river between 9 and 10. I was out the door at a quarter to 7 with some cold leftover pizza and some hot coffee in hand. Tuned into the latest TailerTrashPodcast for the drive over. I made one stop for gat @ $2.89, which is a buck higher than this time last year. I called Jamie and we planned to meet at the fly shop... but they ended up not being open. I the past I recalled that they were open on Sunday mornings... We headed on down the road to an old favorite location and geared up while catching up, it's been a while...

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Make hay while the sun shines...

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

DSFK

There were a few bugs on the water and a few fish rising sporadically. I waded out and targated a riser and the knot on the "new" leader snapped. This 6x Orvis leader had been in the car for 2, 3, maybe four years, my bad for trusting it. I clipped off about a foot and tied on some 6.5x tippet.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Meanwhile Rhody stepped into his spot and proceeded to whack some nice browns, one after another.
I moved up into some broken water and caught some browns and rainbows.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login



It was approaching beer thirty as the day was getting hot.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


More fish were caught and then we broke for a shore lunch. We solved a few of the worlds problems and then got back out on the water, waiting for the bugs to start coming off in earnest. But that didn't happen and we decided a move up river was in order.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

This is a
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEOLOGIES OF MORALISTIC INDIGNATION
DOUBLE INDIA PALE ALE
ABV 8.5%, IBU 48
COLOR; A GLIMPSE INTO THE UNKNOWN
from Burial Beer Company...

it's a big beer  :cheers

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


We were hoping that the afternoon pulse would kick off a hatch but that came and went and nothing really got started on the surface. When we moved I had loaded Rhody's rod in the honda, when we got to the new spot I grabbed the wrong rod and as we were walking in, I kept thinking that the rod looked short. Only when I went to cast did I realize that I had the 6.5' one ounce rod. Well damn, I'll give it a shot, better than walking back out and switching rods I thought, and fighting the browns in fast water  with a 2 wt was a challenge.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login



We waited and waited and then Rhody moved on and I stayed and waited. Sat on the bank for quite a while and still nothing much happened until the sun started to go down. A sparce hatch started along with some egg laying sulfurs. It was enough to get fish to rise. However they were mostly punes and picky at that. I got a couple of dozen to smack the fly but few came to hand.
AS the sun set I moved on up to another run on the way out. There more fish were rising and I saw a 20" brown come completely out of the water chasing a yellow bug. Damn. Now I've been fishing the same fly for the past 6 hours, and when I cast to a large riser the fish took the fly but it snapped off the 6.5x tippet. Damnit. It was about 8:40 now and it was getting difficult to see the fly on the water. But the fish didn't have a problem and when I got the fly in the lane the fish would rise. I caught a few more and then it was really getting too dark to see.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


I got home just before midnight.

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!

Big J

You hear or see any cicadas on the drive?

Woolly Bugger

Quote from: Big J on May 25, 2021, 07:01:27 AMYou hear or see any cicadas on the drive?

no, but I've read reports that they are on the Watauga in Elizabethton
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!

Woolly Bugger


Rhody called, supposed to be a three-day two-night deal. I ended up arriving way late for day one.

Floated the watauga hoping to find some cicada action, there were brazillian of bugs in the trees but none on the water to speak of.

Sulfurs popped, fish were caught, beer was consumed.

Next day was really slow in the morning, but picked up in the afternoon when the bugs started poppin off. 


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


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!

Woolly Bugger

#12

One of the reasons I picked up the euro rod was for fishing on the soho, I've been eying a couple of places where I thought it would be especially effective. Phil had also purchased an euro outfit also, so we made plans to fish it together.

I headed out the door, stopped at the local Sheetz to fill up @2.89 and headed up US 52 after a while I realized that I had left my waders hung up to dry after my spill the other day, so I turned around and headed back home. That put me behind 50 minutes. Damn it!

I found Pill rigging up his rod and I geared up. He reported that the river was crowded downstream, which was unusual for a Wednesday. Phil worked a nice long run and I moved downstream and picked pools and runs as the river braided through various deep channels. I've not fished this part of the river in decades. It's also a great spot for a river clean-up as I spotted scores of tires along the riverbed.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Working on my techniques with a freshly tied sparce perdigon I hit a little run and pulled out a couple of rainbow.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


The flow is so low and the water so clear that my perception of depth was way off and I found myself stepping into waist deep runs that looked shallow.

I'm beginning to like this way of catching as I know I never would have caught these fish any other way.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


After a short while I headed back up to Phil and we sat and talked as he ate his lunch.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


I moved up to the top of the next pool to fish a deep run that I remember as being productive in the past, the last time I fished it was during a thunderstorm and I was reluctant to stop fishing. I worked my way up and realized that it was just as deep as I remembered and I didn't have enough freeboard on the waters to make it into the desired casting position, I did catch a pune and saw a good sized fish flash on a nymph. I retreated and told Phil I was going down river to look for some different open water. As I drove down I noticed three anglers in the woowee hole. Drat. On down to rockhold I wanted to hit a drop off at the end of a run that I thought might be productive. But when I got there it had filled in and I caught nothing. There were only a few sulfurs popping off and I didn't see any risers so I continued to nymph and caught a number of rainbows and a few small browns.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


I moved again and worked a lot of water and caught nothing. I even ended up in the now vacated woowee hole and still caught nothing. I was becoming quite frustrating and I was ready to quit. I kept my waders on when I got in the car and then drove up to the dam to see what kind of bug action was going on there.

As I walked in a bait fisherman warned me that the water was coming up (I told him it was only a one hour pulse), and then he said, "don't go down to the second powerlines, those people down there are hateful!" I nodded and thanked him for the intel.

I waded in at the first powerlines, an opening in between stacked up fishermen, and when I looked downstream I saw five or six of the "hateful" fishermen. The fish were taking emergers in a boiling rise and a few fish were picking of duns as they floated by.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


I tried puff daddies, and emergers and duns and cast and cast and cast, I missed a couple of eats, I was tired and my cast were getting sloppy. I probably needed a new leader too. None of the others were slaying they either, and the "hateful" fisherman quit early. I finally I got a rainbow of a comparadun.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


And with that I called it a day.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login



Zero euro rats nests, will try the rubberband second fly holder, lost a few perdigons on the bottom.








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!

Phil

The bossman took me to school with the new-to-me Euro thingie. He was catching fish. I missed a few strikes, got tangled up, hung on rocks (resulting in more tangles when dislodging), and generally made a mess of things. Switched reels to my dry leader/dropper in disgust, and proceeded to stick, miss, and put down 3 more fish. Left with a whopping skunk with my new fancy Euro outfit.  b';
Phil, the Master flyfisherman. Heheh. In my dreams. I suck.  :embarassed: