News:

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

Main Menu

Smith-Continued

Started by 5xTippett, June 17, 2012, 16:15:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Woolly Bugger and 17 Guests are viewing this topic.

Al

Come on down to the L&T shindig at Bassett Cabin this weekend Muddy - We'll have a good time and I'll even give you a couple AW.

NCsporksman






Unsuspecting generosity in generation scheduling coupled with a solid chance of clouds and rain made Thursday the day to slug the Smiff. Woolly was down to skip work and play..I fished... he caught...dudes got mad mojo on this river..I rake over a spot til its beat and the man walks in and pulls the fish....."just cleanin up your mess dude"


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


"Dude you gotta take a selfie in the rain" tis protocol?

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


Then the ass fell outta the clouds... mass soaking occured... one more fish jumped my fly and thats a wrap  p;-

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


This Man routinely outfishes me

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








RiverbumCO

Hes got my trout 'milk' for sure.  Warmwater...well lets just let him have his moment.
My real name is Chad Farthouse.

Woolly Bugger

#423
I should have taken that big ass fly out on water, bet the beastly browns would have smashed it too.

Favorable generation schedule this week as well. All we need is another storm.

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

I love me some selfies

Deepblu505

Thanks to the guys at the SRTU ,It was good to meet yall. And thanks to Al for the invite had a good time shoot the bull around the fire the last two nights, Look forward to coming up there again, maybe even cat some fish next time.
If I'm not going to catch anything, then I 'd rather not catch anything on flies

consumnfire1229



On Friday, we met up at the cabin for some lyin' and tyin'.  There wasn't any tyin' going on while I was there, but some of the stuff I heard was definitely far from the truth. 

On falling water...

[attach=1]

I decided after Friday night, I was going to skip out on the rest of the outing.  My wife had been out of town on week, returning on Saturday.  Plus, there were a number of chores that needed to be completed around the house.  Dougfish, Pwolley and I discussed fishing the Sulphur hatch on Sunday evening.

I met up with Dougfish around 4:30 and Pwooley soon followed...

[attach=2]

Bug activity was sporadic early on...the fish would key in on emergers for about 2 or 3 min, and then it would shut off...

[attach=3]

[attach=4]

Then the bottom fell out...

[attach=5]

[attach=6]

[attach=7]

[attach=8]

[attach=9]

Until next time...

"Thou shalt know thy waters and be wise about those things upon which thy prey doth feed."  4th Commandment of The Eleven Commandments from the Curtis Creek Manifesto

Big J

Dang.  I didn't know the Smith had hatches like that.  bd;0

Michael Toris

Wish I could have made it up....

NCsporksman

insanity...how are those fish still so dinkish...hope you guys ritualistically sacrificed those fitches on a bed of frisee with browned butter and toasted pecans,  'c;

Dougfish





Three days of fishing.
Again.

I had not (gasp!) fished the Smith since early March. Our Lyin', Tyin' and Fishin' weekend fixed that for me.
Al has pics of the cabin festivities, I'll go straight to the river.
Fished a little at the cabin section before generation Friday and then after generation as the water fell. Caught fish, no home runs.

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


Saturday dawned cold. 42 friggin' degrees!
The evening's alcohol slowed everyone down and we tied some while savoring the coffee and smelling bacon frying.
Shane and I headed down to a usual haunt. Hendricksons and Cahills were coming off. Slow, but steady for four hours.

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


Sunday came too fast. I started tying the blank fly that had proved to be the go to emerger yesterday.
Ugh, different day, rules changed. Oh, well. The Smith, if nothing else, is a classroom.

I fished by myself after we cleaned up, loaded and said our good byes.
I was going to go lower, but I could not account for all the people that the cars in the parking area allowed. I assumed some folks had beat me to it, so I jumped in at the same place as yesterday. Flat water? Nadda. Seams, riffles, slots? Bang!
I brought 12+ fish to hand and lost more in a few hours.
Hiked back to the car and got a brew and snack and tied some more flies while waiting on consumingfire and pwooly. There were still  two cars in the lot and Scott was freakin' thinking they were gonna be in "his" spot. One car load showed up just as we were ready to go.
The guy who was working toward the honey holes had dumbly decided to go down and flog the water that I had fished.
The sulfurs started to sputter off. Then they really picked up. But matching the emergers the fish were keying on was tough. It's a little unnerving to be looking through your fly box while trout are savagely eating all around you.

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


Thanks to all the campers and day trippers for a fun weekend. Good to put some more faces to names!
We will have our June Meeting on the river and have our Fish w/A Friend immediately afterward. Look for a post on that.



Al


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

Looking at the calendar and trying to figure a date for an event without conflicting with something else is near impossible these days. With that in mind SRTU stuck to it's guns and went with our originally announced schedule of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 16-18 for our Lying / Tying / Fishing at the Bassett Cabin which sits right on the bank of the dam or upper section of the Smith River. Considering everything else that was going on we had a pretty good turnout.
Some folks bunked at the cabin, some camped on the grounds and several who lived in the local area just came for the main events and went home for the evening. One thing is for sure, those who missed it, missed a heck of a good time and also missed some good fishing.
 
Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

Others have posted some good stories and photos on BRFFF about the fishing http://www.brfff.com/forum/index.php/topic,10127.0/topicseen.html  so I will confine my post to happenings at the cabin with a little of the fishing thrown in where I was personally involved.  Photo above shows a couple Smith River Regulars waiting for "newbies" to show up so they could be greeted and pointed in the right direction.

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

On Friday they were generating from 1-7pm so afternoon fishing was limited to the lower river ahead of the flow or the upper river during the last hour before dark once they shut the turbines off. I was there early so jumped ahead of the flow to see if the river was fishable after the recent rain which had dumped a lot of silt into the lower river. The section down through Bassett was cloudy but apparently the fish could see a nymph because I caught a half dozen like this before heading back to the cabin to help greet folks.

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

We had two fishermen from Fayetteville NC show up in hopes of learning a little more about the closest trout stream to the majority of folks who live in eastern NC.  Just before the COE turned the turbines off I grabbed one of them and headed to the dam in hopes of catching a sulfur hatch on falling water. We had to wait a little before stepping in but as soon as the water started to receed you could see fish activity.

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

I fished downstream and gave the riffle with all the activity to Eddie.

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

I just knew we were going to tear them up but I went a long way before hooking this stocked rainbow. I added a couple of small brown trout to the tally before locating a "get out" point. The recent surge of 44 degree water was bone chilling cold. When I got back to the truck Eddie reported a similar experience, i.e. some activity but no spectacular hatches like we had hoped for.

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

Prior to heading out we had been made the "designated pizza delivery team", so called ahead to Papa's Pizza where we dropped the better half of a century note on the local economy.  Pizza, a hot fire, good friends,  tall tales authenticated by a liberal flow of adult beverages - What more can a fisherman ask for?


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

There was no generation over the weekend so we should have been up early and on the water but for some reason folks were late getting out of the sack.

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

Once up no one was eager to be the first to head out. It seemed like most of the tying took place in the morning both days - folks were mumbling about trying to tie something that would match the hatch they had seen the evening before.

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

Shane does a great job of whipping up breakfast.

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

While the folks who had over indulged the night before got their act together a few tested the waters right in front of the cabin. We saw several fish rising there but if anyone caught them they did not reveal it to me.

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

I took a different "newbie" to a well know spot. There had been a drastic change in the weather with a  cold front pushing through but we were determined to give the fish a try.

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

It doesn't take long - at least half a dozen similar to this put a big grin on his face. I'm betting we have the makings of a "Smith River Regular" here.

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

Saturday evening we had a big meal of barbequed pork with all the fixings washed down with the beverage of your choice.  I even tried a strawberry beer which tasted like strawberries (officer I've been eating strawberries all day - they must have  been spoiled and fermented in my bloodstream).

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

Once again no early risers Sunday morning. The crowd has thinned a bit but Doug is determined to tie something which will match the hatch everyone saw the evening before.

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

Got to give that pesky trout which has been giving us the finger for the past three days one more opportunity to commit suicide. It turns out it is still saying "are you kidding me - I'm not falling for that imitaiton".  Some of the diehards stuck around for the evening hatch and reported "ya should have been here". Most of us packed it in, cleaned up the place and headed for home with the feeling that life is good and we are fortunate to have good friends to share it with.

Dougfish

Big props to Shane for hooking us up at the cabin.  V:;
He is the man!

We tied some flies. We potentially wore out the pit toilet.  :laugh:
We caught fish. We made new friends. and solidified others.
Seeing Scott hooked up in a cloud of sulphurs sealed the deal. Good times.

Woolly Bugger





When I stepped out of the car I heard thunder to the north and saw lightened flash in the clouds. I had left all of my rain gear at home but it was close to ninety degrees and I hoped any storm would be brief. As I walked the half mile to the river through the hay field which was ready for a second cut, it started to rain huge drops that spattered on my back and hat. The sun was out and as my grandmother would say, "The Devil is beating his wife!", as I walked east into my growing shadow. It was so humid that my shirt was soaked, reminding me of sleepless summer nights lying in bed sweating and praying for a cool breeze to blow in the window. On down to the river, I found that I was early and the water had not receded enough from the generation to be fishable. As I rigged the rod I realized that I had left the fly box with the flies that I had tied just for this evening on the front seat of the car. Damn! I popped a Dale's and hiked back to the car. The rain had stopped by the time I got back to the river and the water had fallen another six inches. There was a thick fog growing on the water as the evening approached. I opened another beer. A fish rose, I cast. Again. It took a while to adjust to the bamboo, especially after casting chickens for musky. On the third cast the fish rose to my fly and I felt the tug of a Smith River brown. It's been a while since I've fished the boo, after breaking the tip on this rod a couple of years ago, I've been hesitant to take it to the river. Photo taken, fish released, eyes on the water looking for the next rise. I was hoping for a decent hatch and or a spinner fall, but it wasn't coming on. I saw a few sulfurs floating and saw more fish rise as darkness approached. The river came to life, with fish rising everywhere, during the last half hour of light and I fishing on until it was too dark to see the fly upon the water. Stepping up out of the riverbed to the open field I walked through a blizzard of fireflies that blinked and danced in the cool night air.

Old School!
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!

JWJ

That's the essence of fishing a hatch right there Woolly. I think I'm gonna have to go check on the sulfurs at my local now.