Yesterday I spent the day fishing for wild brookies high in the mountains. Soon there will be loads of people descending on the park for Memorial Day weekend and the kickoff to the tourist season. I thought I had better get one last quiet day in while I could. I chose Flat Creek and Bunches Creek off the blue ridge parkway just outside of Cherokee.

PICTURES HERE

Bunches creek looked to average about 8 inches deep and about 10ft to 12ft across, an awesome small stream. Unfortunately the path starts near the top of the stream and there doesn’t appear to be a path blazed. There might be a way to follow flat creek down to its confluence with bunches and the fish bunches back upstream. I was alone and the path past the Flat Creek Falls looked dangerous so I passed.

I fished my fallback, Flat creek, odd creek with a low grade at around 5000 ft in altitude. I fished the section from the falls to about 1/2 mile up and caught and released 35 wild brookes including a bunch at 6-7 inches. Its a short run so I had to fish it twice to get in a full day.

They were willing to take just about anything but once a cream-mayfly hatch came off I switched to a cream adams and they started hitting my fly hard instead of sipping it.

WHAT I LEARNED
After having fished a few high volume wild streams I feel like I am getting the hang of hook setting. My focus has greatly improved, I can spot fish easier and I don’t miss very many strikes anymore. At the beginning of the day I hooked three fish under their chin. I think I was setting too quickly.

Brookies scare easy. Approaching a stream from the side in thick brush scares loads of fish. I did this a couple times and was amazed at how many fish I scared off. I get a little sloppy toward the end of the day and scare too may.

Tags: Fly Fishing

There are Morels being reported all over North Carolina. Courtney and I went this last Saturday with the Asheville Mushroom Club on a foray. Only a dozen were found by the group but its more than have been found this year.

Having heard there were Morels being spotted in Cherokee, Courtney and I went looking around there. We found only two yellows, but they were both on the sunny side of a path that got sun most of the day. My guess is that the soil was warm enough there. For our 3 or more hours of hiking and searching we didn’t find anymore. Perhaps the season is just starting here.

Morels were also spotted this weekend by friends in Chapel Hill. A small foray found about a dozen in a couple hours.

There have been no reports of NC bumper finds this year so lets hope they did not skip us.

Tags: mushrooms

INTERESTING TECHNOLOGY ALERT!

I’ve been spending more and more time in the woods here in WNC.  Carrying water for a full day or more has become an issue.  If I am fishing and hiking all day in backcountry I can go through almost 2L of water, that’s heavy – not to mention equipment.  Obviously I need a water filter.

Like all optimizers, I spent days looking over reviews and technologies.  I came up with an amazing option for portable water purification.

The SteriPen!
“The water purifier destroys viruses, bacteria, and common protozoa. It weighs just 8 ounces with four AA, disposable batteries (not included) and purifies 16 ounces of water in 48 seconds, or 32 ounces in 90 seconds. Measuring 7.6 inches long, the purifier employs ultraviolet light (UV) to destroy the DNA of microorganisms, making them unable to reproduce and cause illness. It’s effective against outdoor microbes like giardia and cryptosporidium; pathogens that cause diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, and Legionnaire’s Disease; household germs such as bird flu, E. coli, and salmonella; staph and strep; and natural-disaster risks like botulism, cholera, smallpox, and typhoid.”

This think is like something out of a science fiction show.  Put the wand into your water and 90 seconds later it is sterilized using UV light/radiation.  AMAZING!   I wouldn’t drink this dead-water daily but for camping/hiking its amazing!

Chem tabs are SLOW and taste bad.  Good water filters are expensive and their filters get clogged.   The steripen just needs batteries!   Yes I carry chem-tabs as a backup.

Wed, Courtney and I spent the day in Asheville NC and ate at some amazing vegetarian places including Laughing Seed.  We found a nice Asian Grocery and spent a bunch of time in GreenLfe Grocery, a place that reminded me of Weaver Street Market Coop in Carroboro.

The hilight of the evening was the Asheville Mushroom Club.  A speaker gave a little talk on Morels and a slide show was done about last years events.  I think court and I are going to end up be very active in this club this year.

The talk also inspired us to get out morrel searcing this weekend.  They might not be up yet but there is a chance they could already be poking their heads through the leaf layer.  EXCITING!

As planned, I spent the day on the ‘Trophy’ section on the EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) reservation.  When buying my permit for the day ($7) and my tropy section permit for the year ($20) I asked about the areas to fish.  The guy told me that most of the good fishing was on the top part of the river and most of the water below the bridge was ‘dead water’.  Of course I believed him so I fished the top half for most of the day.

I found both pocket water and long flat runs.  I saw many trout spawn living in the river but little insect activity and no surface feeding.  Around 11am, a black caddis landed on me so I put him in my fly box (left most bug in picture below) to see how he stacked up to what I was carrying.  The morning was uneventful except for a couple fo small (5in) trout on some wet flies.

Around noon I decided to check out the lower part of the stream.  There are few places to park so I parked at the bridge just past the new high school.  After fishing a while and seeing some good size fish I noticed a path on the other side of the river.  I discovered that thare was a well used path that gave you access to the entire lower half!

The lower half was chuck full of fish but I coudn’t get any to take.  At one point I looked down to see three trout, each at least 12in holding just a couple feed away from me.  Fish were all over the place but they did not appear to be feeding and I couldn’t get them to take anything.  I had no idea I was that bad at fly fishing.  These are STOCKERS and I couldn’t get them to take.  One followed another wet fly for a while but decided hit had better things to eat,

It was however an amazing 74F today and sunny.  Not a bad way to spend the day.

Tags: Fly Fishing

Saturday Courtney and I explored the Nantahala Gorge area.  We stopped in te NOC for lunch and watched some kayaks navigate the river.  It looks like this place gets very busy in the summer.  This is one of the few rivers you are allowed to fish at night due to the heavy use during the day.  I need to watch for full-moons and do some night fly-fishing.

On the county trout maps, there appears to be 6-8 wild trout streams running into the Nantahala but I couldn’t find more tan one or two.   I fished one of them through a tunnel (pic) under the railroad but it quickly got choked off with rhododendrons.  Too bad because I saw one good size trout and a couple small ones in a short stretch of stream.  Most likely the just came up the river from the Nantahala.

Sunday I went out to the delayed harvest area of the Nantahala.  The stretch is 4 miles long and is well maintained.  There are loads of pull offs and the sides of the stream are fairly trash free.  Just like most of the mountain trout streams this one had a load of pocket water but there were enough flat areas (pic) to keep me interested.   I scared about 4 fish but none of them were interested in anything i presented.  Its nice to know they are there, I just need to tune my skills.  There is still almost no hatch activity so trying to figure out what to fish with is not easy.

This weeks plans:
Tuesday I am going to hit the Cherokee trophy section to get my mojo back.  Wed we are heading to Asheville for the Asheville Mushroom  Club meeting on Morels.  Thursday morning I may fish somewhere if the weather is ok.

Tags: Fly Fishing

Last wed I went back to Noland creek tempted by reports of this stream being a good-to-excellent fishery, especially a mile upstream from the access point.  Unfortunately I forgot to pack my GPS so I don’t know exactly how far upstream I went but it had to be at least a mile and a half.   The day was beautiful but the water was bitter cold due to the last few days weather.  I could spot ice just about everywhere on branches near the stream.  Needless to say, the fish were not very active.  I caught one small rainbow and that was about it.   I need to get back to Noland when the stream warms up.

Another problem for me with Noland is that the kind of water upstream.   It’s all pocket-water.  I dont have much experience with these kinds of streams but I think I am going to have to learn.   Anyway, it was a nice hike.

PIC: Noland Pocket Water

PIC: Noland Getting choked out upstream

Tags: Fly Fishing

Courtney and I got out exploring a few times this week.  Mushroom activity was minimal at the begining of the week by by the end we saw yellow jellies, black jellies and varius common shelf mushrooms growing all over the place.

Pictures of the weekend

Noland Creek
I went to Noland Creek this week, but I the rains the night before swelled the river into something I felt was too dangerous for wading.  I couldnt fish from the bank because of all the brush so I called it quits quickly.   The hike was nice.

Deep Creek
Courtney and I hiked around Deep Creek a bit.  I can see how this place would be impossible to fish without a hike in the summer.  The place is set up for tubing and looks like a lot of fun.  I will come back with a fly rod and some hiking shoes!

Gatlinburg TN
Court and I decided to head over the mountain and check out the aquarium at Gatlinburg,  We had no idea that Gatlinburg was the insane carnival of a town that it was.  The place reminded me of Niagra.

The drive out to Gatlinburg on 441 was amazing.  There were a bunch of streams on the NC side and the TN side that I need to check out.  I think some of them are going to be on the top of my list for this coming week.  I did not register names but there were plenty.

I am now a resident of Bryson City for the year.  The move went well last weekend and this week was about getting everything settled into their proper places.

The home we are renting is a fantastic place but has some ‘renter’ issues.  I’ve done a little work on it here and there to get it livable but it honestly requires a nice overhaul.  It will be perfect for the time we are spending.   I put in new door locks, jams in the sliding doors, a new toilet seat and new shower heads and the place is just fine for us now.

The town is SLOW this time of year. The train doesn’t appear to be running and over half of the shops are closed or on limited hours.   I had dinner at a scary looking bar walking distance from my house and was rewarded with some information.  They are opening a kayaking themed micro-brew.  Nice…

Today Court and I took a ride into Snowbird to check out a museum.  Spending time with her is more important than fishing right now so we can build up some shared experiences out here.   Of course i DID check out snowbird creek while I was there.  The creek looks amazing but I wont get to fish it till April.  It’s hatcher supported so its closed in march.

Fungus is also slow at this elevation right now.  A short walk in the woods revealed a couple of shelf mushrooms and thats about it.  We are getting rain for a few days and temps are around 60 so perhaps this is the weekend where everything will ‘wake up’

I think I will get up and go do some Nymphing on the noland in the morning.