And your caption would be?..

It never fails...
Ever have a day when you just can't place a finger on why people do what they do? Maybe its me, maybe today my arse hole meter was up dunno.. I hesitated on taking this picture however, I just had to. I take it these guys felt safe in numbers as they pounced on the half a dozen spooked 10 inch or less fish in that puddle. I seen this crap all day along those easy access spots. I wonder when they got home if they told people how they went deep into the NC mountains to catch trout? Gawd!

One time, they both snagged into the tree's that was some funny stuff.. Anyhow, I thought this would be the perfect photo to have people add thier own caption to.

Let me start off.. (sorry couldnt resist)

"HEY...You over there, what they hittin on man?"

Stone Mountain II

After Austin left for the day, I continued down river. Caught a nice 17 inch rainbow and captured a few shots of the day. The rainbow in the picture was a smaller 12 inch earlier in the day. Came across some busy beavers working on their home. River became quiet as many left for the day. The last couple of miles was all mine. Beautiful day!

Stone Mountain 10/29/2009

Fished Stone Mountain with Austin today. Great day of fellowship and fishing adventures. The weather was great, water temps warmed up close to noon. Shared alot of good Army stories and swapped some flies. Between us both we caught about 5 or 6 fish with Austin landing a nice 18+ rainbow. I was presented with two of Austins homebrew beers which I will wait to enjoy in a couple weeks. I got to see some of his flies he had tied and what an artist he is. Around 3PM we parted ways, him back home and me down the stream for a few hours more of fishing. Ended up catching a nice 17 inch Bow however, as luck would have it, no pictures as she was a quick release. Great times, great fellowship, flies and homebrews... great day! Thanks Austin.

Thorpe Creek II

Just some left over pics from the Thorpe Creek trip I thought were worthy to post.

Thorpe Creek Wild Brown

Thorpe Creek

Interesting day today. Arrived at Wilsons Creel Gorge about 11:00 AM and noticed the water was way up, I mean WAY UP! Guess I should have figured that the gorge is more or less a funnel for the entire areas drainage. I attempted at throwing some bright colored streamers to no prevail. Alot of debris in the river today giving false strikes right and left. I decided if today was going to be fishful, I needed to hit the smaller wild streams.

Went to Thorpe Creek. I had a few campers stop by and say, "theres never any fish here" and "its always to low". Well a few chubs took my #16 prince however, as I was fishing my way back to the truck I decided to work an area that was in a thicket. It paid off, a beautiful wild brown came from no where, very casually, sipped my prince and casually swam slowly away. I was so amazed at how she reacted, I delayed in setting the hook. I did finally set it and what a prize she was. We both looked at one another like, "what? who? wait a minuet" took a quick pic and let her go. She darted off this time. The pic of her is not a good one as after I let her go, I seen the pic had the suns glare in it. I did however, see where she went to and got some cool underwater vid of her recovering from her alien abduction.

A couple of those campers came by again and said, "catch anything?" being it was hatchery supported waters below Thorpe Creek and knowing if I told the story of the wild brown, her future would be short, I stated " just them ole chubs".

The water was so high that the a Kayaker decided to get out! I picked him up dragging his kayak, told him to throw it in the truck bed. He looked gracious as he had about a 3 mile walk with that boat.

The other crazy thing today was that I heard a few vehicles up on the road as I was attempting to fish the big water earlier. I continued to fish until I seen it pointless given the cfs. As I climbed the hill I realised I got between some bear hunters and the bear! They said they have been running him since 9am and he was headed my way. I thought wow, I may have been directly in front of a scared as hell bear if I hadn't stopped fishing. I waited a while and watched the hunters track their dogs with direction finding antennas. Apparently the dogs and the bear must have taken a break, nothing ever showed. I don't think I would have cared to see the end result anyhow.

Another fine day on the stream!

Spooooky Stuff?

Took some casual pictures along Wilson's Creek the other day. I found what the locals call "the ruins" here is some info on them.

The Wilson Creek Wilderness area was once used by the Cherokee Indians as summer hunting grounds. It was settled in 1750, and logging began on the dense forest. Mortimer, once the largest community in the Wilson Creek area, was the site of the Ritter Lumber Company sawmill and a small textile mill. The mills provided jobs enough to sustain 800 residents. If still in existence, Mortimer would be the county seat of Caldwell County, North Carolina (which is now Lenoir, North Carolina) Mortimer flooded on August 13, 1940

Why do I think of Freddy Krueger when I see that old boiler system? Given The Brown Mountain lights are on one side of the creek, a bear sanctuary is up the road and given its history, this would be a creepy camping area over Halloween!

Well, it is spooky enought that the X-Files done an episode on it (doh!).

Wilson's Creek

PIG Time! This monster actually bent the hook! What a great time on the new delayed harvest waters on Wilson's Creek. I was alone and tried my best with the camera. Found myself in the Bear Sanctuary close to dark, had to get scooting!

Wilsons Creek NC (New delayed Harvest section)

Started out fising the slow water on the new Delayed Harvest section of Wilsons Creek in NC. Seen alot of spooked little stockers. After watching a couple of other guys fishing through, I noticed they were using the typical small stuff. I decided to use a #8 white wooley bugger! It produced, 3 Brooks one well over 15 inches. The pictures don't catch what happened as she did not want anything to do with me in or out of the water so I was only able to get a few quick shots.

She was caught in the swifter runns which is my preferred fishing style. Funny thing is, those two other guys walked right over her. She almost...almost got me into the backing. She ran hard down stream!!

Mortimer Wilsons Creek NC

Just having some fun with the camera.

Me and my son went to Helton today. What a great time we both had. He caught the pig of the day and a beautiful small Brookie. Weather was great with temps in the mid 60's. A father couldn't ask for a better son, I am very proud of him.