Early Spring inShinig Rock

With the upcoming weather (possible snow on Mon. night), Cat excused me from chores and planting to get a little time on the water. We were going to plant the garden this weekend, but we decided to put it off until temps stabilize a bit. It's nice when an unexpected opportunity to get on the water presents its self, and Cat not so secretly wanted to get me out of the house to work on homework, so we both won.

After rounding up the trash to take out along the way, I threw my pack, my 2wt, and Adicus into the truck. Off to hit a stream in Shining Rock that I had been wanting to fish, but always passed for better water. Today is Opening Day for trout in NC, I'm sick if DH stockers, so going wild was an easy decision. I parked and geared up while Adicus romped around the woods, excited as me to get on the water. We moved upstream somewhere about a 1/4 of a mile before getting in the water. I eased down a lightly wooded slope to nice looking pool and stopped to tie up. Weapons for the day, a 6'6" 2wt, 7 1/2 ft 5x leader, a Thunderhead (12), with a Hairy Moose (12) as a dropper. What else would I possibly fish on my first real day on the water in months?

I spent the first few pools working out the kinks from a lethargic winter, barking at Adicus not to get in front of me, and trying to keep from falling in. Ah, the first days of spring, so pleasant and perfect! To my suprise, about 15 minutes into my readjusting, a brown sipped my dry off of the surface, and I had caught my first wild brownie of the year!


The day continued pretty much the same way, me bumbling along, not really in any type of rhythm, picking up a few fish, missing more. To my delight, water levels are about where they should be this time of year, we've had some rain, hopefully it will continue. To my dismay, gnats were hell today! Up my nose, in my ears; poor Adicus was going crazy trying to get em off of him. Despite the difficulties, I was able to manage maybe a dozen or so fish, most brookies with a few brownies thrown in.


I was really impressed by this stream. I can't believe I have never fished it before, there are reasons, but they would reveal it's exact location. I missed probably twice as many fish as I stuck today. So I can't wait to come back a little later in the year. Large plunge pools gave way to small pocket water separated by large chunck rock. An elevated canopy made casting easy, only fly I lost all day was to the stream, so I count this one a a win. It will probably be a while before I hit this one again, but who knows. Maybe I'll get a chance to hit it again after this cold snap blows through. Cat and I are hoping to head down to Fires Creek or the Nantahala headwaters next weekend, so more reports are to come soon.

It's nice when a day comes together. I feel a little guilty neglecting things at I could have done at home, but it was great to get out for a beautiful afternoon. Nothing was really blooming yet, a few Canadian violets were here and there, but nothing really worth taking a pic of. The sun was out, the temps were up, a few fish came to play; all in all, a good day! One of the reasons I love NC, today was opening day and I didn't see another person fishing all day.