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NC Fly Fishing

49K views 178 replies 30 participants last post by  PSYOP Soldier 
#1 · (Edited)
Here we go...I spend alot of time here doing my best to stalk and catch the elusive Oncorhynchus mykiss (aka Rainbow) ant its' cousins: Brookie and Brown...

I live in Charlotte, travel all over the region to fish and am going to post some of my favorite pics wihtthe group, perhaps start a thread or place where like minded folks can share tips, techniques, and tactics, oh and favorite places as well...

I will go first...

For day trips, it the Mitchell River off hwy 77 near Shelton and Wilson Crk above Morganton...I have caught some nice fish both places...

I manage to get on The Devotion too...

I recently hit Cherokee, caught a couple nic 'bows in the 14-17" range and had a 20+" er on too, broke off....

I fish the Davidson too, near Brevard..

What would it be without hitting the Watauga or S Holstein too...

There you have it..pics to follow, after i resize em to fit....D:
 

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#153 ·
The one on the right was all of 16" caught on an olive wooly bugger,...

the one on the left was close to 30" caught on a #8 purple stonefly...monster brown...

we do have a river in WNC, the Nantahala, big, wide river, tailrace, with a railroad track on it, that we hit at night with mouse patterns....the hogs feast....
 
#154 ·
we do have a river in WNC, the Nantahala, big, wide river, tailrace, with a railroad track on it, that we hit at night with mouse patterns....the hogs feast....
Now that sounds like fun. I know the river as I have floated it before but have never fished it. I hope to hit it this fall sometime. Night fishing for big Browns...??? Now that sounds like a blast.
 
#156 ·
Well,

I recently ordered an Eagle Claw 7' 5wt 2 piece glass rod, bright yellow, and it arrived quickly from amazon, 25.00 thank you very much and i promptly threw on a cheapo Pflueger reel loaded wiht 5wt line and went off trout stalkin wiht a buddy of mine...

We hit our favorite wild trout stream ,all pocket water, plunge pools, lots of overhead stuff to get caught in/on, so casting is paramount....

This was all wild brookie, brown and some bows too...

perfect day, cool, overcast, buggy though, lots of no see ums, hence the buffs and DEET...

I rigged up a 7 1/2 ft 4x leader, tied on some 6x tippet, and put on a yellow bodied stimulator and a tungsten bead head nymph, small black ****, and went at it...

The rod is medium to slow action, but very smooth and predictable, slung the line no issues, and i was nailing the strike zones easily...This type of fishing is 2-3 casts per hole, then move on, either they hit or they don't, and the hole is spooked after 3 attempts...

stick and move is the motto...

Now, this is very rugged, boulder/root/snot rock strewn with deadfall everywhere, one has to be very careful about foot placement...

Oh, bear country too, so we wore bear bells, had whistles and other tools to aid in our defense....lots of scat, and signs of foraging and fishing attempts in some of the deeper pools...no actual sightings though...

I try to be stealthy as i move thru the woods and on/in the water, not just lumbering about, tactical fly fishing if you will, good training...

The fishing was great, hooked up 10-12, anywhere from 6-12", nice brookies and a brown or two as well....lots of missed fish too....

I love this rod, great piece of kit, will be my go to small stream rig from now on, just smooth, precise, perfect for this type of fishing...

once we finished the upper section of wild stuff, we hit the lower section for 'bows, and managed to score several, brought 8 of em home for dinner that night, and the following night, wifey was happy, so i was very happy... :D:

I used the same rod, just switched to an olive wooly bugger, and it was game on.....It handled the larger trout well enoough, great backbone, no issues bringing them in, did have am estimated 20" snap off my bug, just BAM! gone.... :mad:

Oh well, that's fishing...

All in all, a great day, good buddy, cooperative trout...

in a couple week, off to Bryson City Cherokee/WNC for several days of stalking, will take the rod, gonna use it in the Smokies, maybe the Little River....

I will post up afterwards...

Enjoy the trout porn....

Tight Lines....

PSYOP
 

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#157 ·
PSYOP Soldier...
If you recall, I bought all three of the Eagle Claw featherlight rods a few months back. I, too, found them on Amazon and with a promo they had and free shipping, have three rods for arounf $50 total. I have a trout trip planned in early November and if I don't get them on the water before then, I will let you know how I like them, too. I am most excited about the little 3/4 wt 6'6" rod. I will be on the Chattooga River and plan on hitting some of the wild brown section North of Burrell's Ford and maybe catch a Brookie as well.

I am glad to hear that you like the 7'. If we ever get together, I will let you try the 8' version of the same rod and the little 6'6" version as well.

Tight lines!
 
#162 ·
I like to hit Rivers Edge off 74 , near Cherokee...nice shop...

You mean the upper section above the power house...I know it well...i was a judge on the national fly fishing championships a couple years ago....great time...

No worries my friend, i will stay clear..

heres a hog taken from the nanny above the NOC....
 

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#163 ·
So, needed to get my man card punched and beat the ungodly hot weather here in NC, so off to the Smokies i went...Beautiful weekend, stayed at a campground at 5400' and set up base camp.

Brought along my snivel gear, and my commo gear for a little Commo FTX using my Kenwood 281 2m rig, a rollup jpole and my solar kit. I added an mfj 1 to 1 balun between antenna and feedline too...Antenna was approx 50' up in tree.

Overall, pretty happy with the performance of the rig, was able to hit repeaters 50+ miles away, did some simplex too in the 40 mile range, and a lot of scanning and even did a net check in on the Mt Mitchell 6600net...Strong reports all around.

My solar kit was very impressive, using Northern Tool panels, a 50ah agm scooter battery, i kept fully charged, and ran the rig..I was under major tree canopy, and the panels did a great job collecting rays and the charge controller did its job too.

The rest of the kit performed as expected..

Ate & drank like a king, and even managed to wet a fly line, do some recon. Found a great mountain stream called Straight Fork..

Even had an early am visitor, this beautiful bull Elk paid me a visit.

All in all, a great time, cool weather, and much needed disconnect from society and the distractions therein....
 

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#164 ·
Project Healing Waters trip w/Marines

I do some PHW volunteer work, and a few weeks ago, i was fortunate enough to spend the weekend teaching and guiding some Marines and their XO, from a Wounded Warrior BN, who either suffered from PTSD, TBI and/or physical wounds and was deeply humbled by being in their presence...

Quite an experience on a personal and emotional level....

Of course, once we were all together, we the older 'veterans of Vietnam, 80's **** holes, and 1st Gulf War, and these Marines of today, the **** and trash talking started right away and we were all the same....Amazing....Brought back alot of memories of being around my mates....

The real reason was to get em hooked up, teach em how to stalk trout, and change their paradigm and get em focused on something else for a spell.

That we did, 3 days of monster trout stalking in VA, good food and some drink, and comradeship...

I was assigned a single Marine, who was blown of a Hummer, broke his back, and he suffered from both TBI and PTSD, doesn't really sleep much and when he does, dreams of the attack.

The best part, besides the **** eating grin of his first catch, was him telling me sunday morning, that he slept, and actually dreamed of catching trout.....

We got several reports like that from the other Marines too...

Success!!

ps..faces blurred for persec reasons..
 

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#166 ·
I live on the Watauga River in East TN and I can be at South Holston in about 40 minutes. I am just below Wilbur Dam where they launch the drift boats. I have fished for trout my entire life and I must say, this place offers the best trout fishing I have ever experienced. There are TONS of big rainbows here. My best day this year was when I caught the spawn. I landed and released 16 rainbows between 18-24". I have caught well over 100 that size this year.

There are MONSTER browns in the river as well. I have been broken off many times (I use 7x leader) but I have seen fish caught in the 15+ lb range. The big browns will be spawning soon and I will be at the Weir Dam at South Holston in mid to late December. I plan on hooking up with some big ones this year now that I have had a chance to see where and how to fish these productive rivers. I release the vast majority of fish but one time I kept some for a fish fry for some friends. Here's a sample of a few that my buddy and I caught that didn't get away.





Fish this place if you ever get a chance. You will NOT be sorry. Many fisherman stay at the Bee Cliff Cabins which are right on the water in my area. They are great people and nice cabins. There are also many local guides that offer drift boat fishing.

http://www.beecliffcabins.com/
 
#167 ·
^^^Fillzee,

I routinely fish the 'Tuga and Holston...mainly do float trips with Champion Outfitters or App Anglers out of Boone...Have stayed at the http://wataugariverlodge.com/ too and floated w Brownie as well.....

I will wade the Holston occasionally too, gotta be careful of releases though....

you are right, big fish there......Holston has record Browns....

of course, no trip would be complete w/out a stop at Webbs Diner....

ps..nice haul....
 
#168 ·
Syndicate 10' 2wt Czech Nymph Rod

Yep..

Pulled the trigger on a new rod, hi stick nymphing/competition rod...

as a licensed guide, i cut a deal with a supplier to make it affordable to do so...

I have used several in the past few months while on guided trips w pro's and have become very impressed with them, especially for nymphing, which is what i mainly do, as it produces the most fish..

Some folks will say a 2wt is too light, not so, as i have netted several large trout, plenty of back bone to land a large fish, just gotta finesse it, not haul it in like a tuna...

One of the major reasons is that it protects lighter tippets, 6-8x, much better than a heavier rod, and finer tippet produces more fish too...

At 10', will make keeping line drag to a minimum as well, using mainly the leader/tippet, almost vertical in presentation of bug/s...

So, i should be able to pick it up fri when i hit Cherokee, then go off to stalk trout fri-sun...

I will report back but in the meantime, check this out...

http://syndicateff.com/category/flyrods/

ps..here are some pics of recent outing in WNC/Nantahala region...The fellow holding the brown is a friend of mine, never really fly fished before, so i was acting as a teacher/guide for him, now he is hooked.....
 

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#174 ·
Watauga River, TN trip

Recently, spent a long weekend up in Elizabethton stalking trout...

weather was cool, rainy and sunny all in one day!

Fished fri, landed a nice 16" brown..

went out w a guide on saturday, floated watauga lake, and between the two of us, netted 50+ wild bows, browns, and even a lake trout.

i have floated w many guides on many rivers on many boats, and this was the best guide and boat to date....

Had many hook ups and shake offs too, countless missed strikes too...

we used 10' 3wt syndicate rods w small bead head midges (size 20's) and small 6x tippet....those rods really made a difference, more forgiving on tippet than heavier rods...

my buddies nailed many too, including this 7lb hog...

of course, had to enjoy a sip of Jameson as well, listening to the rain on the tin roof...

Sunday, headed out on my own again, and waded the toogie in the city proper, had some hooks ups, but nothing to the net...

drove home and scouted new water above spruce pine, nc, the n toe river....

that will be my next adventure me thinks, or helton crk....

enjoy the pics....
 

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#175 ·
ps...at the behest of one of my guide buddies on the watauga, i bit the bullet and bought a spin casting rig..

eagle claw glass rod..nice action, great color, an avocet reel, 8 bearings, nice bail and some 10lb spider braid...perfect for spin casting....
 

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#176 ·
Wish me luck..tomorrow i am off to some new private water near stone mountain..2 miles of clear trout water...gonna sling my 10' 2wt czech nymph rod...

wifey & i were there last weekend for a visit, so now i am heading back...

will report back..should be a good day..
 

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#177 ·
Went out saturday am for a little recon trip to the roaring river up in Traphill NC...

I was on private water for approx 2 miles, i had the entire river to myself... :D:

It stated out well, threw a stimulator/dropper on the surface, and BAM!

A hog came of the water and broke off my ****, 4x tippet = 6lbs....didn't even look back...

I tried a few more times, figured i spooked the fish and hole so i moved upstream using same rig and landed this nice Brown...the bottom of my net is 16" and it filled it nicely...

I moved upstream and landed a nice little 8" wild rainbow too....

the further i moved upstream, the more difficult and technical it became, no fish caught....

At the end, i stopped back into winery/beer garden/restaurant and had a nice roast beef sandwich and local micro brew....

kit used:

Syndicate 10' 2wt czech rod
Monic All Weather Covert Clear Floating Line
7.5' 4x leader w 5x tippet at times
Cabelas large arbor reel, 200yds backing.

I could have wet waded too, and had i stayed all day, would have ditched the waders...

I wore by Simms guide boots, rubber lug sole w titanium studs, should have used felt sole studded boots, as it was slippery as goose ****...

all in all a great day...

ps..pics are not uploading so i will add em later...
 

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