Lt. Gubna strikes again!

Lost Hogs in Aska

Got to fish for a few minutes this morning outside of Blue Ridge while spending a great weekend with the wife in a cabin a few minutes from the upper toccoa.  Blue Ridge has become an amazing town.  Friday night we had outstanding pizza at Blue Jeans.  Saturday, we spent the day in Blue Ridge enjoying good wine and the best beer I've ever had on tap.  High gravity beers on tap, including a quad ale, are rare in Chattanooga.  We concluded a nice day with dinner at a splendid restaurant on the Toccoa River.  Sunday, we hiked to a nice waterfall. The wife gave me an hour on a small stream which resulted in a couple of gigantic bows.  The perfect end to a wonderful weekend.

SoHo on the Fly

I left Chattanooga at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday night, and arrived at a cabin on the SoHo at around 12:30 a.m.  My neighbor, Double L, had arrived a few minutes earlier.  We woke up Thursday morning and met our guide around 10:00 a.m.  We put in near the Weir on the SoHo, and started fishing around 11:00 a.m.  Double L hooked up with a nice bow right at the beginning: turned out to be a very nice fish on 6x tippet.  Things got slow for a little while, but we started picking up bows and browns on a double nymph rig for the next few hours.  After lunch, the sulphurs started coming off, and I switched to a 4 weight G. Loomis.  The scene was spectacular; browns and bows rising all around us.  Up until that point, Double L was killing me in terms of catching fish, but once the dry fly hatch started, I picked up my game. I started ripping out 60-70 foot casts and sticking browns on the dry fly.  Tons of fun.  I was up to about a dozen fish, and fully satisfied.  The hatch stopped about an hour later, and we went back to nymphin.  Double L started sticking a few fish after the hatch stopped, and hooked into a beast that he fought for at least five minutes. The fish eventually ran down stream and we couldn't do anything about it.  We ended the day with about 30 in the boat, and at least 10 that we lost, not to mention missed strikes.  It was an outstanding day, with an outstanding Guide.  I didn't catch anything really big, but I caught a number of 13-14 inch fish, with the vast majority being wild brown trout on a dry fly.  I can't wait to fish the SoHo again!

Utah Part 1

HI not Dry

EZ and I hit the HI for about an hour on Sunday morning.  The rain was heavy, but we decided a little rain shouldn't stop us.  We got to the river about 9:30.  At cornchuckers corner, there was a school of fish busting the surface.  It was a scene I haven't witnessed in quite some time.  It looked like a fish hatchery tank at feeding time.  We drove a little further up river and pulled over to wade the runs between the boat ramp and corn corner.  The fish were breaking the surface as far as the eye could see.  I started with a bugger, but got nothing.  EZ hooked up with a nice bow on a PT nymph, so I switched up.  I caught a small brown, and a few minutes later, a nice fat 12 inch brown.  I caught a couple more small browns, but wanted to try my luck with a dry fly.  EZ caught a few more bows, and joined me in the quest to match the hatch.  I literally had fish jumping within 3 yards of me, and saw a sporadic hatch of bwos, a few caddis, a couple of cahills, a stonefly, and what appeared to be hendricksons, but could not get any action with a dry.  I tried about a dozen different dry flies and couldn't get a single hit - not even a rejection.  EZ managed to catch a nice bow on a BWO, but it broke him off before he could get it to hand.  A little over an hour after we started fishing, the water came up.  The rain was so heavy it was very difficult to wade.  I couldn't see the bottom, and even though it was only one generator, we decided to get out of the river. We both needed to be home by 1:00 p.m., so the timing worked out well.  It was a good short trip; though frustrating because we couldn't seem to get dialed in with the hatch despite thousands of fish feeding like crazy.  Interestingly, the surface activity completely died once the water came up.  I need to fish the HI a few more times before summer arives.

Doc and Gubna: Inglorious Bastards

As usual, poor planning and indecision plagued Doc and Gubna last weekend.  Thursday night brought a huge rain storm, and Friday morning didn't look too good.  We knew our options would be limited, but we decided around noon on Friday to hit the road.  A few hours later, we were driving towards the Smoky Mountains - 20 Mile Creek.  After stopping at a few gas stations, multiple liquor stores, and a small grocery store stocked with baby back ribs, we conquered the Tail of the Dragon and pulled into 20 Mile Creek ready to fish and car camp.  The Ranger met us as we pulled onto the gravel road.  It turns out, it's about a 3 mile hike to get to the campsites.  We figured what the heck, let's throw as much as we can in the backpacks and start hiking.  As I started to pack up, the Ranger advised we needed to register online for the campsite. Well, no phone service, and the land line at the Ranger's station being dead, we were screwed, and we were losing daylight.  We drove down to Fontana Dam and found a campground below the Dam.  The scene was strange.  Basically, a small area of grass, with a restroom, a coke machine, and a gigantic wall of concrete above the outflow from Fontana Lake.  As we pulled in to the alleged campground, there was a dude laying on the grass, shirtless, with a tarp wrapped around his legs. With some hesitation, we paid the $20, and set up camp.  We fished for a few minutes below the dam, but the water was high, and we saw little evidence of fish.  We built a fire and threw the rack of ribs on the fire, along with some corn.  Four hours later, the ribs were almost tender, and we devoured about 1/2 the rack before accepting the fact that the ribs must have come from a horse - pretty rough.  Good beer and bad stories made for a good night.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day.  Two dudes were a 100 feet away wrapped up in tarps.  Strange, but mildly entertaining.  After getting packed up, we hit the road for the Nantahala DH.  Doc rigged up a bugger and immediately caught a little brookie. We moved downstream and saw some fish rising.  We spent a good 40 minutes trying to match the hatch.  Doc hooked a 15 inch bow, but he came undone.  We were both itching to go elsewhere.
We packed up and spent the next 2-3 hours trying to find an access point to a tailwater in NC that is considered "non-trout water."  We were just about to give up and head to Blue Ridge, GA, when we found the elusive access road.  I had been skunked this whole trip, and was eager to check out the river.  I immediately noticed beautiful little wild bows feeeding on something.  I rigged up a sulphur and caught a nice 12 inch wild bow.  The hatch was pretty good, but we were struggling to figure out what exactly was hatching.  I lost my first sulpher and after trying 5-6 other flies, I tried a sulphur paradun, and proceeded to catch about 10-12 bows.  Doc was using his 8 weight, but still managed to catch a handful of bows.  I have no doubt if he would have rigged his Tenkara, he would have caught 20 plus fish.  The 2 hours we fished on the river, which I will not name, other than to call it "SoHoRemix", was epic.  What had been an awful trip as far as fishing blossomed into a day I will never forget.
After getting home on Saturday night, Doc and I figured out that the hatch we were witnessing on the SoHoRemix was a Hendrickson hatch, mixed with some midges and sulphurs.  I can't wait to spend more time on that river.