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Great Day Exploring

Started by Yallerhammer, May 25, 2019, 15:58:54 PM

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Yallerhammer






Around here where I live, there are good trout streams all around me, so I tend to get stuck in a rut of fishing familiar waters. But-Yesterday, I decided to branch out a little and fish some new water. Drove an hour and a half north and east into an area I have never fished before.

Breakfast of champions:

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After some windshield time, I arrived in a rugged, beautiful, isolated area, with a multitude of clear, cold streams draining some of the highest mountains in the east.

First thing, I hiked back into the watershed of a small tributary stream, hoping to find some native specks.

When I found these Mayan ruins, I thought I had somehow wound up in the Yucatan:

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I soon heard running water, and broke through the rhododendrons into a beautiful small creek. Looks like speck water!

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Except that I caught four of these out of that first hole:

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I fished about a quarter-mile up the creek, and veered up a smaller tributary that emptied in. Still rainbows in every hole, no specks.

I decided to do some more exploring, so I hiked back out and drove on up the watershed on a little gravel road. Found a trailhead on a bigger stream, and set out upstream. This was an absolutely beautiful stream. I would have enjoyed it even if the fish hadn't been hitting.

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Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

Yallerhammer

#1

Everything was lush and vibrantly green. Mountain laurels, bluets, and other things were blooming along the stream, and colorful butterflies were fluttering around everywhere by the thousands:

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How was the fishing, you ask?

It was fantastic. Almost every hole yielded one or more colorful 8"-11" rainbows:

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Along with a good many brilliantly-colored browns:

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I even caught one bonus, beautifully colored 8" speck, which I wasn't expecting in water this size:

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I soon got lost in the running water, scenery, great weather, and colorful, feisty fish. These fish on average were some of the most colorful and lively trout that I've ever caught. Every rainbow would jump repeatedly, and even the browns and the speck jumped at least once. A 10" fish felt like it was much bigger. Very, very game and strong fish. I very soon lost count, but I am not exaggerating at all when I say I bet I caught a hundred trout. And almost every one of them would have been a legal keeper, almost no little 5"-6" dinks. I didn't catch any whoppers, just loads of solid small-stream wild fish, and that was good enough for me.

Before I knew it, I realized that I was probably three miles upstream from my truck, and shadows were starting to lengthen. I came to a big, deep hole, and got no hits on the dry fly. I tied on a Prince nymph, and made two casts into the swift tongue of water at the head of the pool. One cast yielded a 10" rainbow, and the other one an 11" brown. I thought that was an excellent stopping point, so I clipped the fly off and bushwhacked up the mountain to an old gated FS road, and started the long hike out, tired and tuckered, but happy and fulfilled. It was just one of those perfect days that come along ever so often. And all day, I never even saw a sign of another fisherman. This is one of the best days of fishing I've had in a long time. I needed that.

Fin.


Women want me, doughbellies fear me. - Little Debbie Prostaff

Phil

Damn, Yaller. Always enjoy your GSMNP exploits. Mighty pretty fish and scenery too! I'm glad ya had a great day and shared it here.  bd;0    'c;

Dougfish

Solid work pays off.  'c;  -+;
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

itieuglyflies

Hard to beat a day like that..thanks for reporting.

Dee-Vo

Beautiful water. Great report!

Stone-Man

Nice work ,Sir ----- pretty photos also  'c;

Big J


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!