I had some stuff to do Sunday afternoon, but I snuck off for a few hours to one of my favorite creeks near here.
The creek is between the near and far ridges:
valley.jpg
Hiking in, ironweed and green coneflower were blooming abundantly beside the trail:
flowers.jpg
The creek:
creek.jpg
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I started fishing, and caught several nice rainbows and browns for this size of creek. Beautiful colors.
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These wild fish are fighters. The rainbows in particular are like chained lightening. This colorful 13 incher cleared the water by an honest two feet about half a dozen times. He would be ten feet in front of me one second, and ten feet behind me the next second.
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As I worked higher up the creek, I also caught several little colorful natives:
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About mid-morning, I got the shit scared out of me. I came up to this hole:
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I was fishing it, standing next to the rocks in the foreground. Here was my view:
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I was standing there fishing just below the little waterfall. I had just released a trout when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up, and a big bear, about a 350#-er with a head like a five-gallon bucket, was in high gear, jumping from the rock on the right to the rock in the center of the pic. It startled the hell out of me. I could have smacked him easily with my fly rod. I thought at first he was coming after me. I was about to drop my fly rod and grab my pistol.
Luckily, he was just crossing the creek. When I saw him, it startled me and I jumped, and then he saw me and he jumped into the creek right in front of me, and floundered out on the bank and tore up through the woods behind me.
That will get your adrenaline going. No, I didn't get a pic of him. If you want one, you can come up here and take it yourself. n!n
All in all, not a bad way to spend a morning.
Nice looking place to feesh. I'd prefer taking my chances with a bear over an encounter with a drunk Harnett county redneck on the Cape Fear with an assault rifle. I heading to the CF tomorrow :laugh:
Solid work. And pucker action! :o
Looks like a heck of a day in a lot of ways. Beautiful fish.
That's a whopper of a creek rainbow, Yaller -- beautiful! Great pics and report as always. You have the Smokies dialed in for sure. Thankfully the bear was as scared of you as you were of him! I've never seen one that close on the stream -- that's pucker-worthy. Thanks for taking us along. 'c; 'c; bd;0
Quote from: Phil on September 01, 2019, 06:28:02 AMThat's a whopper of a creek rainbow, Yaller -- beautiful! Great pics and report as always. You have the Smokies dialed in for sure. Thankfully the bear was as scared of you as you were of him! I've never seen one that close on the stream -- that's pucker-worthy. Thanks for taking us along. 'c; 'c; bd;0
Yeah, I've seen a couple hundred of them over the years, but I've never had one do a belly flop into the creek three feet in front of me before.
Close encounter of the fury kind d:b :o
Very nice Report. Amazing how critters can sneak up on you in the roar of a small stream. Reason I carry a .357. Figure if a sick bear gets after me, I'm only getting a shot or two off. Might as well be something loud and forceful.