Dry Fly Heaven!

If you like fishing on top, you'd better get on the water soon. The dry fly fishing has been sensational recently, with solid hatches of March Browns, sulphurs, gray-winged yellow quills, yellow sallies, and three species of caddis all keeping the fish looking up. Within a few weeks, we'll be into the Green Drakes, Yellow Drakes and Litobranchas, too.

Guide Mac Marett and I got into a nose-clogging hatch of E. dorothea sulphurs on the Davidson River last week, but we only got a few fish to eat before the hatch quickly shut down. The fish were really picky about fly selection, too, especially for this early in the hatch. But then on May 7, I fished the same lower section of the 'D' and landed more than 20 fish in an afternoon of fishing, mostly on #14 March Browns or a March Brown emerger of my own invention. There were MB shucks everywhere -- in the eddies, on my waders, on the rocks. Though the browns were definitely amped up, the biggest fish I landed was a 21-inch rainbow that ate the dry fly in about two inches of water. He ran down into some downed wood, but miraculously came out without hanging up. After awhile, I snipped off my dropper because the fish were eating the dry so well and there's a lot of algae on the rocks. The poor Davidson has not recovered from the drought as well as other local rivers. It still looks really low, but right now, the water temps and bug activity are still making for some great fishing.

Speaking of dry flies, we've been seeing some giant golden stoneflies hatching on the North Fork recently, which is a little early by my watch. They come off primarily at night, but the stragglers are keeping the fish looking up in the mornings, and nymphing with a big Karnopp's stone is working well, as our guides can attest. One of my recent clients on the private waters, Robert B. from Bloomfield, Michigan, is such a dry fly fan that he wanted to fish on top all day. Generally, our private stretch doesn't fish well with dry flies unless there is a major hatch on, so with some relunctance, I tied on a golden Hopperstone (a high-floating foam bodied stonefly) and added a Prince dropper. Damned if the first fish, a wild rainbow, didn't pound the dry! Sure, the dropper accounted for a small majority of the fish caught, but Bob kept throwing the dry -- even in the pouring rain, mind you -- and the fish kept eating it. His last fish of the day was an 18-inch rainbow that crushed the Hopperstone in fast water like it had been waiting for a substantial meal all day. Very cool.

Guide Freddie Raines stayed below the surface with clients Randy C. and Robert S. from Monroe, NC on April 26, which paid dividends for those two newcomers to the sport. Freddie's killer fly, "Fire & Ice," produced a bunch of nice fish from the private waters, everything from little wild rainbows to a couple monsters that pulled out and everything in between. Three days later, I took Jimmy L. from Florida back for his second visit to the private waters and we had a grand day of nymphing, catching fish on everything from tiny Harrop's soft hackles to my #14 March Brown emerger. Guide Woody Platt and I hosted a series of trips on the private water in early May, most of which fished very well in the afternoons, when a boatload of sulphurs poured off, along with some March Browns. A good ol' Sheepfly/Hare's Ear combo did the trick, along with some yellow sally and sulphur nymphs when the fish got jaded. On May 10, I had the pleasure of taking Bill F. from Atlanta up to the private waters. Bill and I fished together on the East Fork last year and did well, despite it being the opening day of Delayed Harvest (yikes!), but nothing like we did on the private stretch. Bill landed several big fish over 17 inches, including two big bows that ate his AP Nymph in pocket water and fought like rabid pitbulls. The coolest part of the day, at least for me, was seeing a 17-inch hellbender right at our feet. Hellbenders are the largest aquatic salamanders in North America, and the North Fork (as well as the Davidson and Looking Glass Creek) are some of the best breeding grounds for them in the country, a testament to the purity of our streams.

On May 12, one of my favorite repeat clients, Stan R. from Huntsville, AL, made a return visit to the private waters. The last time we fished together, almost every big fish we hooked came unglued just as they reached the net. This time, it was payback time and Stan did it with style. He put the smoker-doker to every big fish, and this time we landed the vast majority of those we hooked, plus a bunch of pretty wild trout that jumped like trained circus animals and made his drag sing. It's a great time to be on any trout water in Western North Carolina, but be sure to book a trip soon if you want a piece of dry fly nirvana, because the bugs are going to peak here in the next three-four weeks. Tight lines!