February Guide Trips

They say March comes "in like a lion, out like a lamb," but they might as well have been speaking of February in the Southern Appalachians. Our weather has fluctuated between brutally cold, windy days and balmy, spring-like conditions that have brought out clients trying to beat their cabin fever.
On the 15th, I took Jimmy and Justine G. from south Georgia up to our private water on the North Fork and we had a blast, despite water temps in the lower 40s. Jimmy is one of my favorite repeat clients because he truly appreciates every fish he catches. He'll hook a nice rainbow and hoot, "There's ol' Mr. Silver Belly!" His laughter and joy is infectious, so we always have a great time together, regardless of whether the fishing is hot or not. Fortunately, the fishing was pretty on. Jimmy hooked up on a big rainbow right off the bat, and proceeded to land a bunch more over the course of the afternoon, all on nymphs. Most fell to small BWO soft-hackles, Juju Baetis and other small offerings, but the biggest two fish grabbed hold of a #8 Yuk Bug. Not to be outdone, Justine held her own, landing several fat rainbows and a pretty wild brown of about 9 inches. Jimmy and Justine spent last summer in British Columbia, fishing the Crowsnest, Elk and other fine rivers, right at the same time I was there researching an article on bull trout, so we got to compare notes on that. Anyone interested in a Rockies fishing vacation that doesn't involve fighting crowds or fishing the same old Montana standbys, give me a call and I'll hook you up with the outfitter I recommended to them. They are already talking about going back to B.C. next summer. The dry fly fishing in B.C. is unsurpassed, better than the South Fork of the Snake (if you can believe that.)
On Feb. 20, Mike D. from Boca Raton, Florida booked us for a public water trip. He has a friend who lives on Frozen Creek and wanted to learn some local waters so he could come back and try them on his own. I took him over to the East Fork, which I was a little tentative about. I'd been hearing from customers that the stream has been heavily poached of late, with few fish holding out since the fall stocking. From the number of empty worm containers along the banks, their reports are reasonably accurate. But contrary to popular belief, there are still plenty of fish to catch. Mike must have landed 20 or so, and hooked many more than that. One of his last fish of the day was a 17-inch holdover brown that fought like a rabid Rottweiler. As usual, our best flies were small Baetis imitations dropped off caddis larva, Glo-bugs and Hare's Ears. The latter makes sense, because there were March Brown and Quill Gordon nymphs under every rock we flipped.
Indeed, we actually got to see some Quill Gordons in the air on Feb. 24 when I took Andrew P. from the Charlotte area fishing, along with his daughter and her boyfriend. They took advantage of a special deal we're running this winter, which combines a half-day private water trip with 4 hours of public water fishing. Like Mike, Andrew wanted to sample some local public streams in hopes of returning to fish them on his own later this summer. We had so much fun on the private waters that we didn't make it to the East Fork until late in the day, where we completed everybody's slam with a brook trout or two before they had to head home to Charlotte. The water was crystal clear compared to the 20th, but the fish were still hanging out in the same ol' places. We did pass a guy with a nightcrawler container on top of his vehicle, right below East Fork Falls. I couldn't get a cell phone signal, or I would've called Wildlife Enforcement on him. If you're fishing the river and see people keeping fish or fishing bait (which now includes PowerBait or any scent-impregnated "cheese worms" and such), you can dispatch the wardens by calling 800-662-7137.
We got more rain this last week and the water levels are holding right at median levels, so we're definitely crawling out of our drought. I fished the Davidson River yesterday with a buddy and we hooked three monsters and a handful of 10-15" fish during a heavy Baetis hatch that started around 11:30 a.m. and lasted until 1 p.m. We also saw some Quill Gordons, but couldn't get our hands on any because everytime one floated downstream, a trout snacked on it! Spring is about to be sprung, folks, and the fishing seems to get better with every 60 degree day we get.

Tight lines!

Magazine Writer Samples Private Waters

Headwaters Outfitters was proud to host a writer and photographer from Mountain Traditions Magazine on our private waters in late January, as part of a story they're working on for spring. The writer, Scott Parrott, is an editor and outdoors columnist with the Hendersonville Times-News who has fished with me in the past. Scott is a great angler, so it wasn't long before he stuck some of the fat rainbows we have up there. The water temp was 39 degrees, so the trout weren't super active, but we consistently hooked them on a double-nymph rig consisting of a Glo-Bug or stonefly nymph, followed by a dropper nymph. As usual, most of the fish took the dropper, whether it was a small Baetis pattern or a #18 black beaded Prince with rubber legs. The current was cookin' from recent rains, so the challenge was getting the flies down in front of the fish quickly, but not so fast that we hung up on the bottom halfway through our drifts. I'm not a fish counter, but I think in the four hours we fished, Scott landed several 15" rainbows and a small wild 'bow of 5 inches that was the prettiest fish we caught all day. We had a bunch of LDRs (long distance releases), too, mostly where the fish went berserk and pulled out the tiny hooks.
On paid trips, I'm a firm believer that guides should guide, not fish. But this was a "media outing," so when Scott encouraged me to fish for awhile for the sake of photographic diversity, I wasn't about to say no. I missed a couple of strikes right off, proving that even so-called "professionals" are fully capable of blowing it when the pressure is on! However, I soon hooked and landed a beautiful wild brown of about 12 inches, which had blood-red spots on its flanks and adipose fin. Photographer Michael Justus got a great close-up shot of it, which made me happy, since everything we had caught up until then were rainbows. That's not too unusual on our private waters, which consist mostly of high-gradient plunge pools and faster, broken water that rainbows favor. But I wanted a pretty brown photo for the magazine. Mission accomplished. 
With our photography needs met, it was time for Michael to step from behind the lens and up to the plate. For a guy who hadn't picked up a fly rod in awhile, he did great, hooking two or three trout once he got the drift right. Alas, those fish came unglued because a tree limb overhanging us kept him from raising his rod tip enough to keep the line tight. We stepped out of its shadow a little and BOOM, Michael landed a silvery 12" rainbow on his next presentation. From there, we moved upstream and flipped some cobblestones so Michael could get some shots of bugs. We didn't have to look long; we found Baetis nymphs, golden stoneflies, Rhyacophilia caddis larva, Hydropsyche larva and an adult Dolophilodes skipping across the surface. That's probably my favorite thing about our private water, other than the solitude and beauty of the place. There's lots of diversity among the aquatic invertebrates, ranging from giant black stoneflies to regionally rare mayfly species. They don't always hatch when I want them to (i.e. when we have a four-person guide trip), but there's always a bunch of different insects in the drift, even in winter.
If you want to read more about our private water, check out the Spring Issue of Mountain Traditions Magazine. If you want a guided trip on this special stretch, give us a call at (828) 877-3106.