Lessons Learned From A Year of Trout Fishing

At the beginning of 2018, I set myself a goal. You could call this a New Year's Resolution, but I chose instead to consider it a personal challenge. I knew for me, New Year's resolutions tended to last a couple of weeks at most, and I wanted this to be a much more permanent type of goal. My goal, challenge, resolution, or whatever you would like to call it, was to fish more. Specifically, I wanted to spend more time fly fishing for trout (and other species of  course). I decided to set a goal to catch at least one trout a month by fly fishing. As much as I love fishing for all types of fish, I chose trout because I figured that smallmouth bass or other species of fish would be even less likely to bite a fly in the winter than trout.

*The Trout of 2018

I know you may be wondering why someone has to set themselves a goal of fishing more. Please allow me to try to explain my thought process behind the one trout a month challenge. It didn't come about due to a  lack of fishing, but rather from a lack of the things that go along with fishing for me. I came to realize that as much as I love to fish, tie flies, and write about it on this blog, there was a distinct lack of writing and fly tying going on. 

It was nobody's fault but mine, and I wanted especially to start writing blog posts again on a regular basis. The fishing would hopefully provide me some inspiration to write again, along with spending time at the desk tying flies to replace the ones lost on the fishing trips. This quest for a trout a month was going to be the cure for writers block and get the creative juices flowing for both writing and fly tying. At least that's what I thought at the time. 

Snow on the Stream

I had never taken the time to figure out our trout fisheries other than during the warm months from March or April through about November. I would put up the fly rods about the time that deer season came around, and sometimes it was after the end of turkey season in May before my thoughts turned back to fishing. There were occasional trips when the urge hit to go wet a line, but overall the majority of my fishing revolved around the seasons that I'd grown up fishing in, especially summer when school was out and fishing time was easy to come by. I love to hunt, and the purpose of this goal of mine was not to replace hunting with fishing, but rather to see if I could squeeze a little bit of fishing in even during hunting seasons. 

One of the first lessons I learned from this quest was that variety really is the spice of life. During deer season, I did spend most of my outdoor time in a stand deer hunting. The occasional fishing trip helped to break up the days of sitting in a stand, especially when deer activity was slow. A trip to the stream seemed to get me excited to go hunting again, and by the same token several days spent in the woods deer hunting sitting still helped me appreciate the ever changing environment of a mountain stream. The wildlife is different, the scenery is different, and the methods are different, but both activities provide me with a deep connection to the outdoors. Sitting in a stand watching the woods come awake at daylight, or slowly working my way up a mountain stream trying to locate fish without spooking them cause me to slow down and really take in where I am and what is around me.

*Cold Weather Fishing

The next lesson I learned from a year spent trout fishing is how to appreciate how difficult fooling a fish into eating some fur and feathers tied to a hook can be. I've will never consider myself an expert fly fisherman or anything close to an expert, but I've had decent success catching fish over the years. However, most of this has been due to fishing the same times of year with the same few fly patterns and techniques. In the summer, one of my favorite ways to fish is to take an attractor dry fly pattern like a Thunderhead and fish the wild trout waters. Most of the time, this is fairly shallow water with small pools and pockets and sparse, varied insect hatches. Matching the hatch takes a back seat to presentation and stealth. If you can approach a pool without spooking the fish and make a good presentation, most of the time these trout aren't too picky about the fly pattern. This is still my favorite way to catch trout, just because to me nothing beats the thrill of seeing a fish come up and eat a fly. 

The dry fly takes of summer were a long way off when I began my quest. It was January and there was snow on the ground from a few days before. I knew that early in the year my favorite wild trout streams would be very difficult if not impossible to fish because the cold temperatures would have the fish sheltering in the few deep spots available. In order to make my quest attainable, I decided to start the year fishing the delayed harvest section at a local state park. This stream has wild trout farther up in the headwaters and tributaries, but the lower stretch is stocked in October, November, March, April, and May with catch and release regulations in effect from October 1 until the first Saturday in June. It also is a little flatter and slower moving than the upper river, and has quite a few deeper holes that I thought may be a good place to find fish. 

Wild Rainbow

The next few lessons I learned came when I ventured out in the snow in January to try to fool a trout. I was able to find a few fish, and they were in the deeper pools. The surprise came when I couldn't seem to get anything to eat. I tried fly after fly, added weight to get my nymphs deeper, and switched flies several times. During all this, I could see the fish holding close to the bottom. They weren't spooked, but they were definitely not interested in moving to take a fly. Finally, I tied on a heavily weighted golden stonefly nymph and worked on presenting the fly so that it sank to the level of the fish by the time it drifted over their lie.The water was extremely clear, and I chose to just watch the fly rather than use an indicator after a few attempts showed me that the fly wasn't getting deep enough with an indicator on the leader. After several casts and corrections, I manged to get a drag free drift with the fly almost hitting a trout in the nose. To my surprise and delight, the trout opened its mouth and ate the fly. It never moved until I set the hook, and I'm convinced that the only reason it ate at all was because the fly was right in front of it and it didn't have to move to eat it. I took a few things away from this trip. I learned that an indicator is helpful at times when I'm nymph fishing, but it's not always necessary or even the right choice. I learned that trout in extremely cold water in the winter are not going to be likely to move much, if at all, for a fly. Finally, I learned that getting a fly down to where the fish are will increase my success, especially if the trout are lethargic and not willing to move for a fly.

Brook Trout

Over the course of 2018, I continued to fish at least once or twice a month. Another lesson that I should have learned long ago that was reiterated to me was not to procrastinate. There were a few months when continuing the one fish a month challenge came down to the last day or two of the month, and a single fish. There's a fine line between success and failure, and not just in fishing. The times when I waited to fish until the end of the month brought this home to me, especially the time when I had to fish back to back days because I got skunked and had one day left in the month. I didn't mind at all having to fish two days in a row, but it did remind me that if you have a goal, don't take it for granted. 

I experimented with quite a few new fly patterns as well over the course of the year. I distinctly remember fishing once on a delayed harvest stream that had seen a lot of angling pressure. I couldn't get a strike on any of my usual go-to patterns, and finally switched to a much smaller nymph than I would usually fish. Several fish later, I realized that I tend to have a few fly patterns that I use all the time instead of trying to match the fly to the situation. Since that day, if fishing is tough I'm much quicker to try a different pattern, size, color, or type. Some days it has made the difference between success and failure. 

*Wet Wading in Warm Weather

Along with all the fishing lessons I learned, I had a lot of fun. I've been tying more flies and learning to tie new patterns. I've spent more time outdoors doing the things I love, and finally the writer's block seems to have been cured. I had so much fun during 2018 doing the one trout a month quest that I've continued it this year. So far as of the time I'm writing this in July I've managed to keep the streak going. I do think that as long as I'm able and life allows it, I want to keep trying to catch trout all twelve months of the year. It has gone beyond just a challenge to myself to see if I could do it, and turned into an appreciation for the challenge of fly fishing and all that comes with it. I realize that quite a few of the lessons I've learned are things that any good fly fisherman should already know. I'm just one of those hard headed individuals that has to try things themselves in order for it to sink in. I know this has been a long post, and if you've read down this far I would like to say thank you for reading my ramblings. I've been doing a fair amount of fishing and fly tying lately, and I plan to have several new posts up on this blog soon.

- Joseph

* Credit for these photos to my wife Trina

Two Bass and a Train Trestle

I'm sure I'm like most fishermen, in that I tend to be a creature of habit. I have favorite rods, favorite flies and lures, and favorite fishing spots that tend to draw me back again and again. However, I think that another trait most fishermen have in common is the desire to explore new places and catch new fish. Sometimes this can lead to exotic locations with exotic species, or in other cases it means driving ten minutes down the road to check out a new spot that you've heard about. While things like bonefish on the fly are definitely on my bucket list, I still jump at the chance to fish anywhere new. One of my most recent fishing trips was just that, chasing down a rumor I'd heard about a fairly new publicly accessible spot on a local river.

View from the Fishing Hole

This particular river flows through my hometown, and isn't very far at all from my house as the crow flies. This river is also a tributary of another river that I fish a lot in the summer for smallmouth bass, and I have heard about smallmouth in the tributary for a long time.  However, there's not any access to fish the river right around home, as it flows through private land. I have been wanting to find a way to fish here for a long time, especially since it's so close to home.

Covered in Vines

Recently, the city downstream has opened a hiking trail that follows the river for about a mile and a half, and this led me to wonder about fishing opportunities along the trail. My wife and I went one evening to hike the new trail and check things out, and I just happened to carry along a spinning rod. You never can be too prepared, after all. On that first trip, we had a nice hike, saw some pretty scenery, and a little local wildlife including a green snake and a toad. I found out the trail itself was high above the river the whole way, and steep banks seemed to make accessing the river from the trail a difficult proposition. However, at the beginning of the trail there is a rough canoe/kayak access that has been built with access directly into the river. I made a few casts in the pool here, which looked fairly deep and fishy, but it was in the middle of the afternoon and the temperature was well above 90 degrees, so I wasn't surprised when all I managed were one or two faint strikes. This first trip just made me that much more curious to see what potential this place had. With that in mind, I made plans to get an early start the next morning.

First Fish of the Day

The next morning dawned bright and early, and I was at the river by a little after 7:00 am. I knew I wouldn't have too long to fish before the temperature starting climbing, and this was mainly a scouting expedition for future trips, so I left the fly rod at home. I decided to try fishing an inline spinner thinking that I had a fairly equal chance at catching almost anything in the river other than a catfish with that lure. Several casts later, I had my first fish of the morning. I was a little bit surprised to see a nice little largemouth bass on the end of the line, as smallmouth were the main fish I was expecting. I have caught a few largemouth over the years in the main river, but by and large the smallmouth seem to be the dominant species.

River Smallmouth

I took that first bass as a sign that I was hopefully on the right track, and just a few casts later I had a strike almost at my feet. This turned out to be the smallmouth that I had expected all along. After I released the smallmouth, I fished for a good while longer with just a half-hearted bump or two. The temperature was warming quickly and the sun was starting to shine directly on the water, and it seemed that the fishing turned off fairly quickly. Before I left, I took the time to do a little exploring around the old railroad trestle that spans the river just upstream from where I was fishing. As far as I can tell, this particular trestle is no longer in use, at least judging by the amount of vines growing on it.

Underneath the Trestle

All in all, it was a pretty successful morning of fishing and exploring. I'm thinking that I will have to bring the fly rod down here sometime and give some small poppers or streamers a try. I'm curious to see if the smallmouth in here have the same preference for blue and purple streamers that their relatives in the big river do. I'm going to have to come hike the trail here again too, since we didn't realize at the time that we didn't make it quite to the end. Who knows, that last few hundred yards of trail might be hiding another good place to fish. Either way, it'll be a good excuse to get outside and enjoy nature close to home.

- Joseph

Smallmouth Bass and Being Slack

I hate to admit that my blogging seems to  follow a trend of several posts, followed by long, (too long!), periods of neglect and inactivity on the blog. It seems that there's always some excuse for why I don't take the time to sit down and write about the outdoors. I'm not going to promise that this is going to change, although I'd like to become more consistent with my blogging. 

I started this blog a little over three years ago as a place to write about and share my love of hunting and fishing, and for a while I was fairly consistent about writing on here and reading other blogs that I found through comments left here and sites like the Outdoor Blogger Network. I found a lot of great blogs, and "met" some good writers through comments left on here. I was amazed then, (and still am now), that anybody would want to take the time to read my ramblings about trout and turkeys, deer and bass, or the joys of planting a garden.  Before I write about my latest trip for smallmouth bass, I just wanted to take the time to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read these ramblings over the past three years or so, and also to all the online friends I've met through the outdoor blogging community who've taken the time to leave a comment on here or added me to your blog roll. I apologize for being such a slacker at times when it comes to blogging, and even if I've not left a comment on your blog lately I do still enjoy reading every one of them. Now, on with the fishing trip!

It's been a hot, dry summer so far here in western North Carolina. With highs in the 90's almost every day since the middle of June, not to mention several days that saw 100 degree temperatures, fishing trips have been few and far between. Our garden is all but done producing, and I keep thinking about fall and cooler weather. In spite of the heat, fishing has been on my mind. I keep thinking how good a trip up to the high country to chase trout would be, but so far I haven't been able to work out a good time to go. In the meantime, to at least temporarily satisfy my need to cast a fly, I decided to give the local smallmouth river a shot. I knew that water flow had been much lower than normal for several days before, but by watching the USGS gauge I happened to notice that the river had come up close to a normal summer flow when I made the decision to take a spur-of-the-moment trip.

I gave my one of my usual fishing partners, (my brother-in-law), a call to see if he was free, and within 45 minutes I was picking him up on the way to the river. When we arrived, the river looked to be in better shape than the last few times I had been by, with a normal current and decent amount of water. The few times I had seen the river previously, the current was almost nonexistent and there were rocks exposed that are normally never seen. I have tried fishing a time or two under those conditions, but the fish tend to be extremely spooky and sometimes hard to locate because the holes that can be accessed by wading tend to get too shallow to hold fish at extremely low flows.

We both started out throwing various popping bugs, with the hope of some surface action. Neither of us were able to get a strike from a bass, although we each caught some redbreast sunfish on top water. After fooling around with a popper for a little while, I decided to switch to a streamer and get serious about bass fishing. I decided to go with a purple, pink, and white Triple Threat streamer  because the water was slightly stained and the bass down here seem to prefer brighter colored flies. I've had a lot more success here with blue, purple, and pink colored flies than I have with more natural colors.

First Smallmouth of the Year

As I fished my way downstream, I made a cast toward the bank just in front of a submerged rock and felt that familiar resistance when I went to strip in my fly. I set the hook, and before I had time to even process what had happened a pretty little smallmouth bass was jumping on the end of my line. After a few good runs and several more jumps, I had the first smallmouth of the year in hand. He wasn't the biggest bass I've ever caught down here, but I was excited to see him. I was worried about what the high heat and lack of rain would do to the bass, but this bass looked healthy and well fed, and was full of energy.


I was hoping that this would be a sign of good things to come for the day, but as we continued fishing we noticed that the river was dropping once again. There is a small dam at a power plant upstream of where we fish, and evidently the gates at the dam had been closed once again. As the water dropped and continued to clear, the fishing became more and more difficult. That first bass would turn out to be the only one for the day, although each of us did manage a few more redbreast sunfish each. Once again, these came on small poppers in various colors. The sunfish tended to be holding close to the banks, in deeper pockets of fairly calm water, while the bass was holding in a similar area with a little more current.

As I write this today, we've gotten the first significant rainfall in about six weeks. Hopefully, this will help improve conditions down at the river, and it's also got me pondering a return trip to see if the bass will be a little more cooperative. Either way, it's always nice to take a hike down along the river and get away for a while. If time and weather allow, I'll be back soon to give it another try.

- Joseph

Summer Smallmouth

Once again, I've found myself being way too slack with my writing on this blog. I'm ashamed to say that when I logged in today, I found that I haven't had a new post on here in almost a year. I got inspired to try to resurrect this blog the other day after catching my first smallmouth of the year (2015), and when I logged into Blogger I realized that I had several posts I had written last summer that through my forgetfulness never got published. Hopefully these are still worth putting out on the Internet. This is a post I wrote at the beginning of last summer, and it leads right into what should be my next post about Wednesday's trip to the river. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

- Joseph

One of my latest addictions in the world of fly fishing is the smallmouth bass. A few years ago, I finally took the time to check out the reports of smallmouth bass being caught in a river not too far from home. At that time I was still primarily a trout fisherman, at least when it came to using a fly rod. I did a fair amount of bass fishing, but I used conventional tackle and fished farm ponds the majority of the time. For some reason, when I decided to finally give the smallmouth a shot, I decided to take an old 6wt Mitchell fly rod I had at the house that my Dad had bought years ago from someone. At the time, this was the heaviest weight fly rod I owned, the others being 4wts and 5wts for trout fishing. I knew just enough about bass fly fishing to know that I would probably be using larger flies and poppers, and that I would appreciate the extra line weight to help me cast these larger offerings. That first trip was a success, at least in the sense that I did catch a small smallmouth, along with several redbreast sunfish. I didn't realize it at the time, but that first little bass hooked me just as much as I hooked him.

First Smallmouth of 2014

Moving forward a few years from that first small bass, I find myself taking several trips down to the river each summer to chase these bronze fighters. Along the way, I picked up a new fly rod for heavier bass flies, and learned how to tie streamers like the Clouser and Triple Threat, and also how to tie popping bugs. I watch the USGS river gauge, and start getting excited anytime I see that flows will be good for wading. I think this is only made worse by the fact that in twenty minutes or less I can be standing in the river and casting flies. The one major drawback to this river is that it is wide and deep under the best of conditions, and a few summer thunderstorms in the watershed can make wading dangerous, if not impossible, for several days after. The area we fish is quite a hike from the parking area, and I have never seen anyone else fishing or swimming down there. This is good from a fishing standpoint, but makes me nervous to attempt wading the river without someone else close by in case of an accident because there are many places that the holes are easily eight feet deep or more. This sometimes limits my trips to the river, because while I will trout fish alone, I won't fish this river alone.

Redbreast Sunfish

As the school year came to an end, I found myself thinking more and more about the river and its smallmouth bass. Finally, the Saturday after the students went home for summer, I couldn't stand it any longer. It was time to go to the river and fish. I made plans with my fishing partner and brother-in-law Trent to head out that morning and see if the river would be kind to us. We checked and rechecked the USGS gauge, and almost backed out of going because we saw the river was running at our self-imposed upper limit for wading. Eventually we both decided that we would go take a look and see if we felt comfortable fishing, mainly because neither one of us had been able to do any smallmouth fishing since last fall.

Once we arrived, the water looked clear enough to safely wade, and appeared to be dropping slightly so we decided it was worth rigging up the rods and giving it a try. We headed down the trail to our usual fishing area, a section of river divided by a series of islands. The right side of the islands (looking downstream) contains a narrower channel than the left, but this channel is composed of deeper holes and ledges, with lots of rocky structure for smallmouth to hide around. We have also fished this area enough to have an idea of where and how to wade to avoid a dunking. Some of this knowledge was earned the hard way over the last few years, but we've fished the area enough now to avoid most of the deeper spots.

River Smallmouth

Once we made it to the water, I decided to start out trying one of the poppers that I had tied, while Trent started out with a smaller popper. After several casts, I figured out that the fish wanted some action on the bug, and once I started stripping the popper vigorously I managed to catch a few redbreast sunfish, and Trent missed a strike from a nice bass on his popper. I wasn't having any luck with bass on the popper, so I switched flies to a Triple Threat, one of my favorite patterns for this river. I managed to catch three smallmouth on the streamer, and also picked up a few more redbreast sunfish. Trent went on to catch some redbreast sunfish on his popper, and all in all we declared the day a success. Summer rains have kept the river too high to wade recently, at least when we've had the opportunity to go, but when the weather and Trent's work schedule line up right, I'm sure we'll be back. Those bronze bass have a way of hooking fishermen with their fierce fight and wild jumps, and pursuing them with a fly rod is one of my favorite ways to spend a summer day.

- Joseph

Returning to the River

After going up in the mountains in search of brook trout, I finally got the chance a few days later to head to the local river for the first time this year to try for some smallmouth bass. I had planned back in the winter to try fishing down here earlier than in previous years to see if the bass were more active in the cooler weather of spring, however the wet weather conditions made me put these plans on hold. This is a fairly large river, at least for around these parts, and all the rain had it too high to safely wade. At one point in the spring, the river flooded and peaked at over 14 feet on the USGS gauge. Flood stage for this river is 12 feet, and to put that in perspective normal flows when I usually fish it are around 2 - 2.5 feet on the gauge. Even at this level, there is a good bit of water and lots of holes to watch for. There was no way that I was going to try fishing here until things had settled down and flows had stabilized.

For the past week I had been watching the USGS flow gauge like a hawk and hoping that the passing thunderstorms we had almost every evening wouldn't raise the water level or cause the river to become muddy and unfishable. With a few days of fairly clear weather, and a Sunday afternoon free after church, I decided it was time to take a chance and check things out. I gave my brother-in-law Trent a call and we made plans to head down there and give it a try. Everything looked good on the Internet, but the only way we would know for sure would be to take a ride down to the river and see for ourselves. I was a little bit anxious, not knowing how the flooding had affected the riverbed and wondering if my favorite area to fish would be unrecognizable.

Results of the Flooding

Once we arrived and hiked the trail downstream to our usual fishing area, I was relieved to see that things more or less remained unchanged. The river bottom here is fairly rocky, with large shoals and shelves of rock that must have resisted the scouring effects of the floods. I did notice that some formerly shallow spots were now deeper, but other than that there wasn't much effect from the floods. If anything, the flooding created some new bass habitat in that stretch of the river. I was shocked to find a round bale of hay sitting in the river, especially since I don't know of any farms for a couple miles upstream from where I was. This had to be another result of the recent floods. From a distance I thought that it was a beaver lodge, because we had observed some recent beaver activity in the form of felled trees on our way in. I was a little disappointed to discover that it was actually a hay bale, but it did give me greater respect for the sheer power of this river.

Redbreast Sunfish

I started out fishing one of the poppers I had recently tied, mainly to give them a test drive and see how they performed. For some reason, I haven't had too much success catching smallmouth on top in this particular river, although I have managed a few on poppers in the last few years. Streamers have been much more consistently effective for me, but I figured that it was worth experimenting for a little while with some new patterns. I did catch a few redbreast sunfish on the poppers, and missed a strike or two that could have been a bass, sunfish, or who knows what.

First Smallmouth of the Year

After fishing the popper a while, I figured it was time to get serious and switch to a favorite streamer pattern to try to get my first smallmouth of the year. My decision may or may not have been influenced by Trent telling me about having a few nice bass chase the streamer he was fishing with. Once I switched flies, I finally hooked up with my first smallmouth of the year. It was a chunky little bass, but it made up for its size with attitude. After I caught this first bass and fished a few more pools without another strike, I decided to try a popper again in the hope that the increasing cloud cover would cause the fish to be more inclined to eat a top water offering.

I had high hopes of getting a bass on one of my new poppers, and it almost happened - but not in the way I was expecting. I caught another redbreast on the popper, and then fished my way downstream to a spot that had been deepened by the recent floods. It looked like a good place for a bass to hang out, with deeper water and lots of rocky structure. About this time, the clouds had increased and it started to rain. I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but the fish suddenly turned on and starting biting. I had a few missed strikes on the popper, then hooked up with another nice redbreast sunfish. As I was playing the fish, my fly rod suddenly bowed deep, and I thought the fish had wrapped me around a log or rock. I put some pressure on, hoping to get the fish out of whatever it had wrapped up in, and to my surprise a big smallmouth came partially out of the water and spit out the redbreast along with my popper that was still in its mouth! I don't want to try to guess exactly how big this bass was, but I can say without a doubt that it was bigger than any I had caught down here before. It had completely swallowed a nice sized panfish, and seemed to do it without any trouble. After my initial shock wore off, I brought in the redbreast, which seemed none the worse for having been swallowed and regurgitated, and released it.

One to End On

I switched back to the streamer in the hopes that the big bass hadn't been spooked by the experience, although I knew it was probably a long shot. To my surprise, I didn't catch the big one but did catch two smaller bass from the same hole. One of these would be the biggest of the day, a fat 12" smallmouth that came to hand after my camera batteries had died. The other one was the last fish of the day, and a nice way to end the trip. By this time, Trent had fished down to where I was and was kind enough to snap a picture with his phone for me. I was shocked to find these smaller bass sharing a hole with one much larger, and even more surprised to catch two more fish after all the previous commotion. I'll be back to give that big one another shot, and I won't soon forget the day that a bass ate a popper and a sunfish at the same time!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph