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

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

Perseverance

It's been way too long since I've taken the time to sit down and write on this blog, and I feel bad for neglecting it. I have occasionally updated the blog's Facebook page with outdoor happenings, but this little corner of the Internet has sat quiet since December. There's several things I plan to write about in the next few weeks, and I hope you will indulge me by letting me look back over the last six months or so and catch things up around here. To start with, I wanted to write about a trip my wife and I made last week, and the frustrations (and rewards) of fishing a new spot.

Lake Ruth Ann, Small Country Campground, Louisa, VA

Last week the 2nd anniversary of this blog came and went without a mention on here, mainly because I was on a family vacation trip in Louisa, Virginia. My wife and I were staying with her extended family at the Small Country Campground, and visiting with people we only get to see a few times a year since the majority of her family live in Pennsylvania. We actually stayed in what was called the Manor House, which was built around a pre-Civil War era log cabin. What had me excited about the trip was finding out that the campground sat on the edge of a 25 acre private lake, and that it was open for fishing by anyone staying in the campground. After hitting the Internet to do a little research, I found out that it was called Lake Ruth Ann, and that it contained largemouth bass, bluegill, black and white crappie, and catfish. I was a little apprehensive about my chances of catching anything, because I had no idea if the lake was heavily fished or even fished out, but I decided to throw lots of fishing gear in the car for the trip.

Small Bluegill With Lily Pads in the Background

I packed my 8 wt flyrod along with my vest and fly boxes with the intentions of doing a good bit of flyfishing for both bass and panfish, and I also packed a baitcaster and spinning rod for bass, and an ultralight spinning rod for the panfish in the lake. I considered taking along some catfish gear, but decided that I already had enough fishing equipment to keep up with and find a place for in the car. I wanted to be prepared for almost anything because although flyfishing was my intention, I really wanted to be able to catch a few fish if the flyrod didn't work out. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, I grabbed the ultralight and a few spinners and headed down to the lake to check things out. What caught me off guard about this lake were all the small lily pads lining the shore and going almost unbroken all the way around the lake. These lily pads extended from the shore out about 20 - 30 feet depending on the area of the lake. There were some spots of open water around the banks, but the majority of the edges were completely covered.

Crappie from the first day

I picked one of the relatively open areas along the bank and made a few casts with a black and gold Rooster Tail spinner, and managed a nice black crappie and a small bluegill. I figured that this was a good sign, especially since I only had a few minutes of fishing time between unpacking and dark. The biggest challenge that I could see to flyfishing this lake was going to be finding enough open water to work a popper or streamer without tangling in the lily pads. I decided that since I had a week to figure it out I wouldn't worry too much about it on the first day. With a few fish caught, I headed back to the house for the night with a head full of plans about the week to come. I figured the next day I would get serious about trying to catch a few bass, especially since talking to a few other fishermen around the lake revealed that people were catching bass on a fairly regular basis, and one young fisherman told me he had caught a nice bass the day before we arrived. I had a vest full of flies and a large tackle box full of all kinds of bass lures, and I thought I had the situation well in hand. Unfortunately I would find reality to be an entirely different situation.

The next day found me down at the lake with a spinning rod in hand rigged up with a plastic frog imitation rigged weedless. I figured that with the challenge of fishing the lily pads and the amount of bullfrogs I had heard the evening before, a weedless frog would be just the thing to catch a few bass with. I fished this particular lure for a couple hours at a time over a two or three day period, without much success. It worked wonderfully for fishing through the thick cover of the lily pads, and I had a missed strike or two, but I couldn't seem to hook up. At one point I switched to a wacky rigged soft plastic jerkbait (Senko-style lure), and manged to hook a nice bass that broke the line as I got it in close to the bank. I'll chalk this one up to fisherman's error, because the line actually broke at the knot and I was fishing 14lb test that was brand new. All I can figure is that I must not have tied the knot correctly for it to break that way.

Solo Flyrod Fish of the Trip

 Then came the most exciting and heartbreaking moment of the trip. I was fishing the frog and had casted out past the lilies to some deeper water, when I felt the thump and saw my line moving. I set the hook and the rod doubled over, and then one of the biggest largemouth bass I've hooked in quite a while jumped out of the water and threw the hook with a violent head shake. I hesitate to try to guess the size of a fish that got away, but this time I'm going to try anyway. I know losing a fish always makes it seem bigger, but my best estimate was that this fish was in the 5 - 6 lb range (and maybe larger). Regardless of its size, it was tough losing that fish after several futile attempts at catching a bass. I felt encouraged that I might be on the right track, but I wasn't getting very many strikes on the frog and decided to switch things up.

I had originally come with the intentions of doing a good bit of flyfishing, and I decided that it was time to change things around for an evening and get the flyrod out. I picked one of the few spots that had enough open water to fish, and started off throwing a streamer with the hopes of hooking up with a bass or possibly a crappie. After several minutes of unhooking lily pads and fighting underwater tangles, I decided maybe a popper would be easier to fish. Once again going with the frog idea, I tied on a green popping bug and began working the open areas between the lily pads. I never got any bass to strike the popper but I did manage to hook a nice bluegill, and I decided to call it a day shortly after.

First Largemouth

 The next couple days of the trip saw more of the same, with me fishing almost exclusively for bass. At this point it had become a personal goal to catch at least one largemouth out of this lake before the week was over. I must admit I was getting a little frustrated, however that just made me more determined to figure out something that would work. I switched lures around and tried buzzbaits early in the morning and late in the evening, along with a lipless crankbait and Texas rigged worms, all without any luck. However, I stuck with the frog the majority of the time, mainly because I was getting a few strikes and also because of the ease that I could fish it through the lilies. Finally a small largemouth decided it wanted a bullfrog lunch, and the first bass of the trip was in hand. As excited as I was to finally catch a bass, I couldn't help but think about the big one that had got away a few days before. I also knew that our week in Virgina was quickly coming to a close and that if I wanted to catch a big bass from this lake I would have to do it soon.

Last Day Bass

Friday evening came and I knew that this was my last chance of the trip to fish, since we would be packing up and leaving the next morning. Other than a few bluegill on spinners, I hadn't had any more luck since catching the small bass on a frog. It was time to get serious about catching a few bass, and I decided that maybe a change was in order. Working off of a hunch, I rigged up with a blue soft plastic jerkbait, fished wacky style, that used to be one of my go-to lures for summer bass fishing in ponds before I started chasing fish with the flyrod in rivers the majority of the time. After a short time fishing this lure, I hooked up with what felt like a good bass. Once again, this fish jumped but this time I remembered to lower the rod tip and managed to keep the fish hooked. After a good fight, and a wrestling match through the lily pads, I finally had a nice sized largemouth in had. It wasn't as big as the one that got away, (they never are), but it was the type of quality bass that I am happy to catch anywhere.

Last Fish of the Trip

 After a quick picture or two, I released her and kept fishing. I felt like I was finally onto something, and of course it took until the last day to figure these fish out. As time was running out, I did manage to hook up with another nice largemouth that wasn't quite as big as the first. Either way, these two bass were the highlight of the trip, as far as the fishing goes, and there were lots of great times and great memories made with family as well. It had been a while since I had done much bass fishing with non-fly tackle, and I forgot just how much of a challenge summertime bass in a lake can be. I think the challenge is what made these fish stick in my memory, it wasn't necessarily the size, or the numbers since I only caught 3 in a week, but the fact that I finally was able to catch a few fish by persevering and trying new techniques. I've often said that fishing has a lot of life lessons to teach, whether we as fishermen realize it or not. I'd like to think that this trip was one of those lessons, and the lessons I took from this trip were don't give up, and keep on trying until you get it right. Sooner or later, the big one will make a mistake and if you're lucky, it won't get away.

Thanks for stopping by!

- 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

Adventures in Popper Making

The other day, while my wife and I were rambling around the Smokies, we made a stop in Townsend, Tennessee at the local fly shop where I intended to pick up some more material to tie streamers with. Of course, being a fly shop, I had to look around a little bit at all the different tying materials. I can honestly say I'm not much of a shopper at all, but put me in an outdoor store or a fly shop and it might take me a while to get out. In the course of looking around, I ran across a display of popper tying supplies. Tying my own bass and bream poppers is something that I have been meaning to learn how to do, and I figured there was no time like the present. Before it was all said and done, I had picked up enough material to tie several different colors of poppers.

My 2nd Attempt - After the Pink Popper Incident

Once we got home from Tennessee, I was anxious to give popper making a try. Up until this point, I had been buying all the poppers I fished with, and just about the only flies that I had ever tied to use in warm water had been the Triple Threat streamers that I used for smallmouth fishing. After doing a little Internet research and looking at the directions that came with the popper bodies I bought, I set out to give popper making a shot.

Yellow Popper

Right away, I was treated to some new experiences, such as the fingernail polish aisle in Wal-Mart. I had read on the Internet that clear fingernail polish with glitter worked well as a sealer for the finished poppers, and that Sharpie markers were handy to use to color the bodies. Armed with that knowledge, it was off to gather materials. I took my wife along with me for two reasons - number one, I wasn't sure I could even find the aisle with the fingernail polish, and two I figured that if she was with me it wouldn't raise as many eyebrows. She thought the whole thing was hilarious, and kept threatening to tell everyone that I was in Wal-Mart shopping for nail polish. Once that ordeal was over, it was off to the vise to give tying poppers a try.

Green Bug

The next thing I learned very quickly about tying poppers is that it takes Zap-A-Gap about .000002 seconds to bond my fingers to the foam popper bodies. After a few sticky situations, I started to get the hang of gluing the bodies on and keeping my fingers off. I also managed to eventually get my fingers all unstuck from each other and functioning again, but it was touch-and-go for a while.

Blue and White Popper

One last thing I figured out on my first attempt was that if I didn't give the marker enough time to dry, my white popper with a red face would turn into a pink popper with a red face with the first application of nail polish. I know that I've got long way to go with the learning curve on popper making, but it's fun taking on a new challenge. Now if I can just get my fingers unglued from this keyboard!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Rambling Toward 2013

I figured that I would jump on the year-end post bandwagon and reflect back on my first six months as a blogger. I started this blog on June 28 with a post titled Here Goes Nothing!, and in that post I outlined my reasons for starting NC Outdoor Ramblings. Six months and 32 posts later, I'm still here rambling about my outdoor adventures. As I sit here on the last day of 2012, I'm humbled that people actually take the time to read my Internet ramblings. According to Google Analytics, this blog has had 452 unique visitors since I started it six months ago. I feel like I've made some connections in the outdoor blogging community, and have found some wonderful blogs that I enjoy reading by writers who are much more talented than I am, both through comments left on this blog and through the Outdoor Blogger Network.

For my year-end post, I thought I would write up a year-in-review of some of my favorite posts from this past year, starting with this past summer when I started the blog.

Broad River Bream

My first post of any substance when I began the blog was Warm Water Fly Fishing, a post about my new found love of warm water fly fishing, and why I enjoyed it.

Davidson River Brown

There were lots of posts about fly fishing for trout, including Summer's Last Cast.

From the garden

There were also a few about our vegetable garden and orchard, such as A Tasty Legacy.

Blue/Purple/White Triple Threat Streamer

There was a post or two on fly tying, including one about my favorite smallmouth fly the Triple Threat.

Bumblebee

Some of my writings weren't about hunting, fishing, or gardening, but nature in general, including my Backyard Ramblings.

2012 8pt Buck

Then as hunting season went into full swing, I found out that Patience Pays Off.

NW PA Snow

Last week, my wife and I were in Pennsylvania to visit her family and celebrate Christmas. Mother Nature helped out with a white Christmas and about 12" of snow! I had thought about trying to do a little trout fishing while we were there, as Oil Creek is close by and quickly becoming one of my favorite places to fish outside of NC. However, the below freezing temperatures changed my mind. As I move into 2013 as a blogger, I plan to continue to write about my outdoor experiences. I already have some posts written, and some of those will see the light next year. Deer season is over, and fishing will probably be slow for a few more months, but there are flies to tie, and small game seasons are still open through the end of February. Hopefully there will be some squirrel and rabbit hunting in the near future for me.

As we end this year and begin a new one, I hope that everyone has a safe, happy, and prosperous New Year!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings this past year!

-Joseph

Fishing With Dad

The other day I did something that I haven't had a chance to do in a while. I went fishing with my Dad. We have been talking about going fishing for a while, but since Dad retired at the end of June, he's had a little extra time to be able to go. I was even more excited than usual about this fishing trip, because my Dad is the reason that I love the outdoors now. He introduced me to fishing when I was young, and from an early age I was hooked.

We finally got a plan together the night before and decided to try smallmouth fishing at the Broad River. Dad had never been fishing here before, and I hadn't been down there myself for about a month. The last time I was there, the smallmouth were biting pretty good and I was hoping for a repeat performance. Dad decided he wanted to give fly fishing a try on this trip, and I figured the river would be a good place to let him learn since it is nice and wide, with plenty of casting room. Also, the bream down there usually go absolutely nuts for small poppers. I figured Dad would be into fish in no time.

Dad looking for his next spot to fish

Of course what I hadn't taken into consideration was all the heat that we have had lately. I had attempted to fish down here once between this trip and the last, but it didn't work out due to high water. This time the USGS gauge showed the river at a reasonable level and dropping, so I figured we would be ok. When we got there the water level was low enough to wade comfortably, but the river was still pretty stained, probably from all the thunderstorms that we recently had. We decided to give it a try since we were there, and I figured that the stained water might help our chances since the fish wouldn't be able to see us quite as easily. Dad jumped right in and started fishing with a popping bug, while I tied on my favorite smallmouth fly for this river, a blue, purple, and white Triple Threat.

My go-to smallmouth fly

I missed a couple of strikes early on, from either eager bream or small bass. Dad was fishing below me with the popper, but wasn't having much luck. We both fished for an hour or so with no strikes, and like fishermen do we began to speculate on why the fishing was off. My guess was the dirty water, and Dad figured that all the heat we had been having had the fish hunkered down in deeper water trying to stay cool. If I had to guess, I'd say the answer is probably a combination of those two factors, along with that mysterious way a river has of just turning off. We stuck with it though, and I could tell Dad was starting to get the hang of fly casting. I kept hoping for a fish to hit his fly, and I kept on fishing with the Triple Threat for a little while.

Dad fly fishing

 As time went by with no more strikes, I decided to change it up and throw a popper for a while to see if the bream were in a biting mood. I must have fooled the only one that felt like eating, because I did have one come up and smack a yellow popper.

Only bream of the day

These bream are usually my fall back plan on this river when the smallmouth aren't wanting to bite, but for some reason today even the bream were in a funk. I hoped that they would turn on and give Dad some action, but the one I caught turned out to be the only one for the day. I switched back to the Triple Threat thinking maybe the fish would eat something subsurface, and kept on trying to find a bass willing to bite. Eventually I did manage to find one little smallmouth that wanted to eat.

Smallmouth

This fish turned out to be the last one of the day, but we fished a while longer hoping for another bite. As I was working a pool that is usually good for a bass, Dad headed downstream to the next deeper hole. He hadn't gone far when I heard him say "Look at that deer!".

Deer in the river

A deer had come off of one of the downstream islands and was taking a drink at the edge of the water. I moved to where I could see it and snapped a few pictures, and then we just stood there watching as it waded the river. It stopped about halfway across and looked toward us, almost as if it was saying "Don't you guys know it's too dang hot for the fish to bite?!".

Checking us out

We fished a little while longer, but with the sun getting hotter and the fishing getting slower, we decided to call it a day around 12:30pm and go get lunch. We decided to stop in at a local Chinese restaurant, and as we were eating I looked out the window and there were four more deer across the street in someone's yard! It appeared to be a doe and her three fawns that had come out to graze. 

Deer In Town

We debated for a little while on whether or not to go back and give the fishing another try, but in the end we decided with the temperature already in the mid 90's it would probably be wise to call it a day. We did make some future plans involving a trip to a new smallmouth stream I had heard about, and possibly doing some trout fishing. I'm looking forward to those trips, but most of all I'm looking forward to another day fishing with Dad.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Broad River Smallmouth (Finally!)

I have been smallmouth bass fishing twice this summer, and I had planned on writing about these trips first when I started this blog. However, things haven't worked out like I had planned, so here is a belated report on the smallmouth fishing that I did a few weeks ago. The first trip was on June 15, and the second was June 19. Since the two trips were only a few days apart I decided to combine them into one post.

The first day my brother-in-law Trent and I headed out to a spot on the Broad River that we have fished off an on for the past three years. The area we usually fish is downstream from the main access point and by walking down we normally are able to avoid the crowds of swimmers that enjoy the river during the summer. The area we fish most is around several small islands and there are some fairly deep holes and rock ledges that usually hold smallmouth. We were both fly fishing, and I started out using a Triple Threat streamer, while Trent was fishing a small popper. Trent had some success early on catching a few largemouth on the popper, while I hadn't had any strikes on the streamer. As we worked our way downstream, I cast to a deeper run against the first island and caught this guy:

First smallmouth of the year!

I absolutely love the way that smallmouth fight. It seems like almost every smallmouth I have caught jumped several times before being landed. Smallmouth are what got me truly interested in fly fishing for species other than trout, and they are fast becoming one of my all time favorite fish. We continued to work our way downstream along the right side of the islands, and when we came to another good hole this bass hit my streamer.

We continued fishing, and I wound up catching two more smallmouth and several bream. Trent also had success fishing poppers, but for some reason the largemouth were hitting his popper but not my streamer, while most of the smallmouth were caught on streamers. I did have one smallmouth take a chartreuse Sneaky Pete, but it seemed like the largemouth were the main ones feeding on top.

One of Trent's largemouth

 Our success the first day convinced us to give it another try a few days later. We returned to the same area with the hopes of repeating our success from a few days earlier. In my experience, you usually can't make history repeat itself, especially in fishing! However, we were lucky that day and found that the fish were biting just as well as a few days before. Once again, I decided to fish a Triple Threat streamer, and Trent decided to use the same frog colored popper that had been so successful for him on our last trip. I didn't catch as many bass as before, but I did manage one nice smallmouth on a streamer.

Broad River bronzeback

At this point the bass were coming few and far between as the day warmed up, so I switched to a small popper and fished a while longer for the feisty bream that this river seems to be full of. If I ever have anyone who wants to learn to fly fish, I can't think of a better way to introduce them to the sport than a popping bug and a river full of nice bream. Watching a fish smash a popper never gets old!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Warm Water Fly Fishing

One thing that I have really enjoyed the past few years has been fly fishing for smallmouth bass on the Broad River. I had been fly fishing seriously for five or six years before I ever targeted anything besides trout. I have been a fisherman for most of my life, but until a few years ago I fished for bass, bream, and other species of fish with conventional spinning or baitcasting tackle. Then I decided to check out some rumors I had heard about decent smallmouth bass fishing at a local river that was publicly accessible. I had caught a few smallmouth before, but mostly by accident when I was spinner fishing for trout. I decided to check out the river and see for myself what kind of fish I could find, and for some reason I decided to grab a 6 wt fly rod and some poppers and see what I could do.

The majority of what I caught on that first trip (and just about every trip since then) were longear sunfish (bream to most anybody around here).

The river is absolutely full of these guys, and I have to admit, they are a blast on a fly rod. However, I had made it my goal to catch a smallmouth. I did wind up with one that day, a small bass that I caught on a grasshopper fly of all things! I didn't know a whole lot about warm water fly fishing then, other than what I had read, but I figured a popper would be a sure thing on bass. Not on that first trip! However, I had so much fun catching bream that I almost forgot about the bass. Several days later, I returned to the river determined to catch some bass on the fly. This time I was in for a surprise. I started out catching more bream, and then this guy nailed the small popper I was fishing with.

I knew I had a bass, but it wasn't the species I was expecting! It turns out there is a pretty healthy population of both largemouth and smallmouth bass where I was fishing. This was just icing on the cake for me, and I have always been the type of fisherman who is happy just catching fish. Size and species come in second to the experience of being out there.

This is what I've come to really enjoy about fly fishing at the Broad River - even if I don't catch a bunch of smallmouth (which is what I'm targeting when I fish there) I can usually count on enough fish of some type to be interested in my flies to make it an exciting trip. I still enjoy fishing with conventional tackle and do fish that way some, but more and more I find myself grabbing my fly rod no matter what I plan to fish for. If you are a fly fisherman but have only ever fished for trout, I encourage you to give bass and bream a try. You may be like me and find out that there is some excellent fly fishing to be had right close to home! Later, I plan to do a few more posts about smallmouth and trout both, as well as posting a few fly patterns that I have had success with lately. Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph