How do you measure success?
10-24-2011 | 05:56 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Fork Horn
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 360
Likes: 0
From: Huntsville, AL
How do you measure success?
A buddy from work asked me last Tuesday if I wanted to fish up around Tennessee and North Carolina over the weekend. I didn't even need to think about it. We left at 2am Saturday morning and headed due north. At around 7am, we arrive to buy some flies and get some intel on the river.
It was extremely foggy most of the morning.
It didn't take long for the fog to burn off and opened uo to one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever had the pleasure of fishing.
We were told that it would be around 11am (eastern time) before the water they were releasing that morning would make it to where we were fishing. So we hit the water and immediately noticed a few risers. We both kept working downstream with no luck. I had on a small stimulator fly with a small gray zebra midge dropper. After a while we noticed the water was moving a lot faster. Suddenly rocks that were easily visible were not anymore. We noticed a drift boat banking across the river and the guide came running towards us yelling for us to get out. Well we had already decided we needed to do that, but it wasn't that easy to move against that water, in fact I almost just gave up and let the river have me. Thankfully the guide rowed over and picked us up. His name is Patrick, a guide with Mountain Sports LTD in Bristol. Nice guy and we thanked him for saving us from a 3.5 hour wait for the water to come back down. So we decided to drive around until the water would be lower. Unfortunately, everyone else was there too. At least the scenery was nice.
This experience alone made the trip for me. A lot of you guys might think this is no big deal, but for a newbie like me, and my first time seeing this with my own eyes, it was awesome. To preface, we get to the water and there are lots of insects hatching. We find a spot among the other fisherman and begin casting to the dozens of rising fish. I am not sure if these were blue wing olives or sulphurs. Some of you that know feel free to identify these bugs for me. Fish were clearing the water hitting these bugs. I saw some nice size rainbows (~16in) and browns leaping which further made me extremely antsy to hook up. However, they weren't touching my fly. I even watched them not only reject my fly, but swim out of the way of my fly as if it was kryptonite. I eventually had a few hits, but kept missing the strike.
My fly (sz16)
There were fish jumping a few feet from me. It's like they were teasing me, and they knew it. I can't describe how many fish were jumping/rising, but as soon as I would cast in the area of one, one would jump over there. So I played the "cast to every fish" game to no avail for an hour or so. Then finally I managed to connect with a little brown that slammed my fly, clearing the water.
That was my only fish, and I didn't see anyone else catching that many either. So, we decided to break for lunch and headed out to try a new spot.
We fished here until dusk, and after getting up at 1am, fishing all day, and being extremely hungry, we decided to call it a day.
Had a great dinner at a place called Cootie Brown's in Johnson City, TN.
Appetizer:
The next day we opted against getting spanked by the South Holston again and decided to try somewhere else. We headed to a river that my buddy grew up fishing in North Carolina.
This is right outside of Asheville, and is where my buddy learned to fly fish. I am amazed at how scenic this river is and jealous that people live so close to this.
So for this stream I tied on a BHHE and caught this little guy out of a pretty fast riffle.
After that fish, I didn't have much luck. So I decided to look around under rocks to see what they might be eating.
Again, feel free to ID these. I have no clue.
Some more scenery:
After lunch we decide to change locations, hoping for better fishing. Again, the scenery was stunning. The fishing, S L O W.
This was more of a mountain stream. Reminded me of the SMNP. It was extremely quiet and peaceful, nothing but the sound of running water. Them all of a sudden, it sounded like a sasquatch was running down the hill. Not gonna lie, I was a little freaked out. Finally, what was causing all the commotion comes into view.
Of course they run right through the nice pool I had been eyeing upstream from me.
I missed a huge strike further upstream. Of course the one millisecond I look away, that's when the fish strikes. We fish up a good ways and I decide to take a break and just watch the water for a while.
I eventually came to this HUGE pool (relative to the rest of this river).
I saw a few risers and never could get a strike on my dry. The only thing I saw was extremely small midges that I couldn't match anyways. I also noticed a nice size brown cruising around. Maybe around 15" or so. I tied on a smaller streamer and had several hits, but couldn't connect. It was getting dark so we decided to hike out and call it quits.
So if you measure success by the number of fish caught, I failed. If you measure it by the experiences you had, lessons learned and sights you saw, it was a huge success. 8)
It was extremely foggy most of the morning.
It didn't take long for the fog to burn off and opened uo to one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever had the pleasure of fishing.
We were told that it would be around 11am (eastern time) before the water they were releasing that morning would make it to where we were fishing. So we hit the water and immediately noticed a few risers. We both kept working downstream with no luck. I had on a small stimulator fly with a small gray zebra midge dropper. After a while we noticed the water was moving a lot faster. Suddenly rocks that were easily visible were not anymore. We noticed a drift boat banking across the river and the guide came running towards us yelling for us to get out. Well we had already decided we needed to do that, but it wasn't that easy to move against that water, in fact I almost just gave up and let the river have me. Thankfully the guide rowed over and picked us up. His name is Patrick, a guide with Mountain Sports LTD in Bristol. Nice guy and we thanked him for saving us from a 3.5 hour wait for the water to come back down. So we decided to drive around until the water would be lower. Unfortunately, everyone else was there too. At least the scenery was nice.
This experience alone made the trip for me. A lot of you guys might think this is no big deal, but for a newbie like me, and my first time seeing this with my own eyes, it was awesome. To preface, we get to the water and there are lots of insects hatching. We find a spot among the other fisherman and begin casting to the dozens of rising fish. I am not sure if these were blue wing olives or sulphurs. Some of you that know feel free to identify these bugs for me. Fish were clearing the water hitting these bugs. I saw some nice size rainbows (~16in) and browns leaping which further made me extremely antsy to hook up. However, they weren't touching my fly. I even watched them not only reject my fly, but swim out of the way of my fly as if it was kryptonite. I eventually had a few hits, but kept missing the strike.
My fly (sz16)
There were fish jumping a few feet from me. It's like they were teasing me, and they knew it. I can't describe how many fish were jumping/rising, but as soon as I would cast in the area of one, one would jump over there. So I played the "cast to every fish" game to no avail for an hour or so. Then finally I managed to connect with a little brown that slammed my fly, clearing the water.
That was my only fish, and I didn't see anyone else catching that many either. So, we decided to break for lunch and headed out to try a new spot.
We fished here until dusk, and after getting up at 1am, fishing all day, and being extremely hungry, we decided to call it a day.
Had a great dinner at a place called Cootie Brown's in Johnson City, TN.
Appetizer:
The next day we opted against getting spanked by the South Holston again and decided to try somewhere else. We headed to a river that my buddy grew up fishing in North Carolina.
This is right outside of Asheville, and is where my buddy learned to fly fish. I am amazed at how scenic this river is and jealous that people live so close to this.
So for this stream I tied on a BHHE and caught this little guy out of a pretty fast riffle.
After that fish, I didn't have much luck. So I decided to look around under rocks to see what they might be eating.
Again, feel free to ID these. I have no clue.
Some more scenery:
After lunch we decide to change locations, hoping for better fishing. Again, the scenery was stunning. The fishing, S L O W.
This was more of a mountain stream. Reminded me of the SMNP. It was extremely quiet and peaceful, nothing but the sound of running water. Them all of a sudden, it sounded like a sasquatch was running down the hill. Not gonna lie, I was a little freaked out. Finally, what was causing all the commotion comes into view.
Of course they run right through the nice pool I had been eyeing upstream from me.
I missed a huge strike further upstream. Of course the one millisecond I look away, that's when the fish strikes. We fish up a good ways and I decide to take a break and just watch the water for a while.
I eventually came to this HUGE pool (relative to the rest of this river).
I saw a few risers and never could get a strike on my dry. The only thing I saw was extremely small midges that I couldn't match anyways. I also noticed a nice size brown cruising around. Maybe around 15" or so. I tied on a smaller streamer and had several hits, but couldn't connect. It was getting dark so we decided to hike out and call it quits.
So if you measure success by the number of fish caught, I failed. If you measure it by the experiences you had, lessons learned and sights you saw, it was a huge success. 8)
Last edited by mrl0004; 10-25-2011 at 06:23 AM.
10-25-2011 | 03:39 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,832
Likes: 0
From: in the woods or on the water...
I wish I could find the article online. It was labeled the five types of fisherman, or something along those lines. Essentially it is broken down into categories. In the beginning, a fisherman wants to catch as many fish as possible. Next, the fisherman as many of a particular species of fish as possible. Then the fisherman looks to catch the biggest fish possible. Next, the biggest fish of a particular species. Soon, the fisherman realizes that fish are not what he is fishing for, rather the serenity of the water and the peace that it brings him. Finally, The fisherman fishes to introduce the hobby to others.
This is not exactly how it went, and I am sure they worded it much better. But you get the feel for it.
By the way, you are certainly going about it correctly. I truly enjoy reading your posts because of the dedication and time you put into your hobby. No free handouts, no "what river should I fish in Tenessee", getting a map, meeting the local fly shop, and exploration. The abundance of resources via the internet has not been copmletely better in terms of fishing. It has made many fisherman lazy, which you are not.
Great photos!
This is not exactly how it went, and I am sure they worded it much better. But you get the feel for it.
By the way, you are certainly going about it correctly. I truly enjoy reading your posts because of the dedication and time you put into your hobby. No free handouts, no "what river should I fish in Tenessee", getting a map, meeting the local fly shop, and exploration. The abundance of resources via the internet has not been copmletely better in terms of fishing. It has made many fisherman lazy, which you are not.
Great photos!
10-25-2011 | 06:29 AM
#3
Thread Starter
Fork Horn
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 360
Likes: 0
From: Huntsville, AL
I wish I could find the article online. It was labeled the five types of fisherman, or something along those lines. Essentially it is broken down into categories. In the beginning, a fisherman wants to catch as many fish as possible. Next, the fisherman as many of a particular species of fish as possible. Then the fisherman looks to catch the biggest fish possible. Next, the biggest fish of a particular species. Soon, the fisherman realizes that fish are not what he is fishing for, rather the serenity of the water and the peace that it brings him. Finally, The fisherman fishes to introduce the hobby to others.
This is not exactly how it went, and I am sure they worded it much better. But you get the feel for it.
By the way, you are certainly going about it correctly. I truly enjoy reading your posts because of the dedication and time you put into your hobby. No free handouts, no "what river should I fish in Tenessee", getting a map, meeting the local fly shop, and exploration. The abundance of resources via the internet has not been copmletely better in terms of fishing. It has made many fisherman lazy, which you are not.
Great photos!
This is not exactly how it went, and I am sure they worded it much better. But you get the feel for it.
By the way, you are certainly going about it correctly. I truly enjoy reading your posts because of the dedication and time you put into your hobby. No free handouts, no "what river should I fish in Tenessee", getting a map, meeting the local fly shop, and exploration. The abundance of resources via the internet has not been copmletely better in terms of fishing. It has made many fisherman lazy, which you are not.
Great photos!
ready for my next trip to Cades cove