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#91

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 25, 2024, 23:08:46 PM

#24 -16

I stopped at a lower boat ramp where I intended to catch some rainbows but there was some sketch activity going on and I kept on driving on up the road. There were several anglers on the river and I saw one trailer parked at another ramp. I didn't bother checking the MP lot instead choosing to drive directly up to the damn dam. Nobody parked in the lower lot but there were a lot of horse trailers in the next spot. I started gearing up, first rigging up the euro which I had fubared the other day and one of the reasons that I quit early. I was just tired of losing flies and rigging up the double nymphs A truck pulls in beside me and a family hops out three or four kid, (hard to count because they were running around crazy. The dad hollers out to me, "Hey Bossman, how are you doing?"  I get a kick out of that being the BRFFF Bossman and all.

I worked the runs and was not treated kindly, I didn't even feel a strike. I moved on to the lower "honey hole" and hooked but didn't land a 14" bow. It would probabley been too big for me to harvest anyway.

I had spent a couple of hours there and needed to find some fish, so I drove to the MP and was surprised to see it empty. I hiked on in and caught a handful of fish, some were just at the slot size, so they were released, but I took one nine incher. Moved on down and hooked a few more but it wasn't easy, and I was getting fed up with getting hung up in the diddymo covered bottom and I broke off a couple of times too. Time to tie up some more frenshies. 

Stopped at Sally's on the way out and caught another 10+ inch brown.

#92

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 24, 2024, 20:54:43 PM

#24 -15 Gas $3.26

Wayne Kramer, MC5 Co-Founder and Activist, Dead at 75


Drove up in the afternoon and found 5 vehicles in the lot, turned around and went up to the damn dam.

Two guys were spinning their way up though the run, but didn't get up too far before quitting. They didn't catch any. I rigged up the euro and geared up. It was cloudy and spitting rain on and off with a bit of wind. It felt colder than what the thermometer read. I caught a stockerbow on the second cast, and hooked several more in short order, but they managed to wriggle off the barbless hook as I stripped in line the leader knot got caught in the guides and the slack allowed them to escape. This happened several time and I'm going to get rid of the "competition" leader and go full mono rig.

The wind started blowing fiercely and a squall started dumping some rain and the temperature dropped, I headed back to the car with three rainbows in the cooler. I wasn't ready to quit so I hit a popular spot on the way home and caught a couple of browns, released one that was close to the slot limit and culled the smaller one.

#93

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 23, 2024, 11:10:56 AM

#24 -13

Went up to the usual after noon and fond an empty lot, just took the euro, and caught a couple of handfuls, I was standing in a run and noticed a bunch of rather large BWOs popping off and I did see a fish rise, but there wasn't enough surface activity to go fetch the other rod to swing soft hackles or cast a dry. Later I ran into a spin guy wearing neoprene waders, he reported catching three small rainbows.



I ended up whacking four fish for the birds.



I forgot to mention that the rafters, Jason and Mark, used Sally's Bench as their lunch stop.

#24 - 14

Drove up late in the day hit a spot near the road, caught 2, headed home after an hour or so.

#94

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Dougfish - February 21, 2024, 13:29:26 PM

Crushing it.
I will return next week.
 

#95

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 20, 2024, 09:59:54 AM

#24 -9

Can't exactly remember what went on this day other than I creeled a limit of trout for the raptors.

Used the euro rod and caught dozens of small browns. It was a feckless day.

#24 - 10

The rafters were out in abundance. Saw two close together as they passed through the old special regs section. Mark and Jason from Clemmons were in a NSR and were followed up with blue raft possibly a SRO bote?

Did the usual with the euro, but swung up some too.

#24 - 11

I dropped off about 30 trout to the Raptor Center the day before,

Back to collecting some more, caught and released a half dozen that were right at the cusp of the slot limit. Then I got serious about keepers, but only had three on the day. For a while, when I hooked one and said to myself, "I'm going to bonk this one", they wriggled free at the net. Pretty day and a nice sunset to boot.

#96

Warm Water Species / Re: Unlimited Shad

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 20, 2024, 08:06:45 AM

Hickory Shad are being caught on the Neuse River in Kinston!

#97

Local Trip Reports / Re: Before The Cluster

Last post by driver - February 16, 2024, 19:45:42 PM

So ok, got the new whorevis catalog in the mail today and turned to the wader section to check out the zipper versions. Turns out they offer them in short and long sizes Now that ain't any of their business!    The damn thing's zip lower or something?  I mean, who is going to order the short size?

TB

Haha

#98

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 15, 2024, 21:35:37 PM

You cannot view this attachment.

You cannot view this attachment.

https://www.wfdd.org/weeklyphoto

 

#99

Local Trip Reports / Re: Before The Cluster

Last post by troutboy_II - February 15, 2024, 15:45:31 PM

So ok, got the new whorevis catalog in the mail today and turned to the wader section to check out the zipper versions. Turns out they offer them in short and long sizes Now that ain't any of their business!    The damn thing's zip lower or something?  I mean, who is going to order the short size?

TB

#100

Local Trip Reports / Re: Smith-Continued

Last post by Woolly Bugger - February 13, 2024, 21:02:45 PM

#24 - 8 Sunny, upper 40s, and very windy.

The Raptor Center has received a lot of fish in recent weeks, so I was curious if they still needed me to continue to harvest trout for them.

Here is their reply.
[indent-both]

Despite all the fish donations we have been getting recently we could still use your fish. Currently we have one Bald Eagle in rehab that only eats fish. In addition, several of our resident eagles need fish several times a week. So we have been using the recent donations at a pretty fast pace.

Please continue to save fish - the birds (and staff) appreciate it.

Vacuum sealing is a nice bonus.

[/indent-both]

Well the river is blown out below the creek, so I headed up to the damn dam. The wind was pretty wicked, and I put on some layers to try and keep warm. I caught a couple of small browns and four very fat rainbows, to which I promptly administered the priest.  I finally gave up after battling the wind.

All the time I was fishing I heard work being done up at the damn dam, so I walked up to see what was going on.





I guess it's progress, as none of that was in place the last time I drove up to look.