So to kick off the weekend, I took the girlfriend to an Alan Jackson concert to earn brownie points for the upcoming fishing trip. The concert was nice, minus the obnoxious/drunk bammers behind us that kept yelling, "Roll Tide."
After getting in late, I had to get some sleep. I was set to meet a buddy the next morning to head to my new favorite fishing grounds. After 3 hours of sleep, and even more driving time, the destination was in view.
Time to get the mind right......
So we arrive at the first creek and fishing was tough (for me). It was small, technical water.
My first (and last) fish in this creek would be this monster brown.....
Caught back up with my buddy, and he had caught a nice little rainbow.
Fishing was slow there, so it was time for a change of location. Along the way, we hit a traffic jam. Turns out, it was just a bear sighting. Got a few crappy pics.
Mama bear with cub above her to the left.
Cub
The next stream was equally slow for me. All I caught was this little rainbow.
The scenery made up for the lack of fish though.
Yellow stonefly
I could look at this all day....
This is where things get interesting. We decide to head to the (backcountry) campsite. It is already dark:30 so we will be hiking in with headlamps. I had equipment for a campground camping, not a hike-in camp. So it was a little interesting trying to bring my tent bag, tent, fishing gear, sleeping bag, etc. all somehow attached to my regular backpack. Luckily it was only a 1.2 mile hike in. We find the site and get a fire going. The temp has now dropped into the 50s.
So being almost dead from fishing and no sleep the night before, I want to eat and chill by the fire. So once a suitable brat-roasting stick is found, I feel the need to "modify" mine to make it even better. Bad idea.
Sliced my thumb from the top of the nail, down to the nail bed. Blood was freely flowing all over me, the ground, my gear, etc. So neither of us have a first-aid kit (why would we need one?). The only thing I can do is wash some water over it and then wrap it up with the dry socks for the next day. I then proceed to enjoy the hard-earned, campfire-grilled brat, the first real food of the long day. So after shooting the bull around the campfire, we notice that the lantern has attracted quite a few trout bugs.
Salmonfly
Caddis
FYI- My buddy ate a caddis fly and said it made him one with the fish. In retrospect I should have eaten all of the caddis I saw, because he caught a heck of a lot more fish than me.
So after a long sleepless night of pain, cold (40s) and fear of a bear smelling my blood everywhere, it was time to break down camp.
I decided if I was going to fish anymore, I needed real bandages, not socks. So we headed to the visitor center hoping for a first aid kit. I got myself bandaged up and was ready for the day. Saw a lot of these when we left camp.....
Fished another super small creek. My buddy being way more experienced with this type of fishing caught quite a few brookies out of it. I missed a lot of strikes, but found the fishing there to be a little too technical for my skill level. This creek was considerably smaller than any other creek I have fished up there.
You could really only bow and arrow cast, and getting a good drift was a struggle for me.
We decided to try somewhere else, and made the hike back out.
Pain medicine....
Heading for bigger water
Had a LDR on a nice rainbow fish out of this pool.
Almost stepped on this little guy:
Last spot of the trip....
This trip was humbling. Nowhere near the number of fish I caught last time, but the scenery and good company made up for the lack of fish. Although, I did learn a few things on this trip:
1) Bring proper equipment for backpacking, including a first aid kit.
2) Don't play around with sharp knives
3) Eat more caddis flies.
I hope I can get back up there again soon. That type of fishing is certainly addictive and it would take more than a thumb injury to deter me from future trips. For those of you who care, my thumb is healing......
***Disclaimer- I did not have one drop of alcohol anytime close to when I cut my thumb. That was 100% natural stupid on my part.***
Another mountain trip.....not as many fish this time
