Four of us left Bryson City around 10:00 a.m. and headed up to a small creek in the woods. We saw a lot of bear hunters, but not a single fisherman. I got out of the car, walked to the creek and saw a 18 inch bow scatter. I knew it was going to be a fun day! The four of us worked up and down stream. I caught a few bows and brookies fairly quickly, but they were of standard size. I made my way down stream scouting for big fish. I came up on a small pocket of water under an overhanging tree, and much to my surprise, I saw two large rainbows feeding. I got low in the water and started casting with short roll casts and bow and arrow casts. I got the big bows to bite the fly 2 or 3 times, but couldn't get a hook-up. I finally went with a big fly. On the first cast, the fish bolted. I exited the stream and went up river to fish. After fishing for a few more hours it was about time to go. I decided to take one last shot at those fish. I went back to the spot and the two bows had returned. The rain started coming down hard and the other three in my group got in the car to leave. After a few minutes I finally got the fish on - it was a heck of a fight on 6 x tippet and no net, but I finally landed the 18 inch female bow. I tried to get a picture, but with the rain and trying to handle the large fish, I couldn't get a good picture. Nevertheless, a hell of a day. Between the four of us, we managed over 100 fish. I didn't care about numbers - catching the big bow was all I needed!
Four of us left Bryson City around 10:00 a.m. and headed up to a small creek in the woods. We saw a lot of bear hunters, but not a single fisherman. I got out of the car, walked to the creek and saw a 18 inch bow scatter. I knew it was going to be a fun day! The four of us worked up and down stream. I caught a few bows and brookies fairly quickly, but they were of standard size. I made my way down stream scouting for big fish. I came up on a small pocket of water under an overhanging tree, and much to my surprise, I saw two large rainbows feeding. I got low in the water and started casting with short roll casts and bow and arrow casts. I got the big bows to bite the fly 2 or 3 times, but couldn't get a hook-up. I finally went with a big fly. On the first cast, the fish bolted. I exited the stream and went up river to fish. After fishing for a few more hours it was about time to go. I decided to take one last shot at those fish. I went back to the spot and the two bows had returned. The rain started coming down hard and the other three in my group got in the car to leave. After a few minutes I finally got the fish on - it was a heck of a fight on 6 x tippet and no net, but I finally landed the 18 inch female bow. I tried to get a picture, but with the rain and trying to handle the large fish, I couldn't get a good picture. Nevertheless, a hell of a day. Between the four of us, we managed over 100 fish. I didn't care about numbers - catching the big bow was all I needed!
