CFFC Fly Fishing Chronicles
Diary of club outings and fly fishing stories as they actually happened...OK....maybe not 100% accurate, but close!
January 2010: Toe River NC
CFFC Club Ice Breaker trip to the N.Toe River "Mountain Heritage Waters" in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. A hearty group of 15 fly fishing club member Vikings & their guests braved the mid 30F degree temps and stiff wind on the riverside on Saturday, January 23rd. 2010. Club served up some piping hot chili, coffee and hot drinks. Fishing was surely slow this chilly Winter day... however a few of the experienced nymph fishers caught their fair share of holdover Brown, Rainbow and Brook trout. The recipe for success was tandem nymph rigs drifting on the bottom into slow deep holes, woolly buggers with various droppers of hares ears, scuds, San Juan worms, and egg patterns..lots of split shot on line and close attention to strike indicators did the trick. Wilkes homemade Apple Pie was the hit of the day. One group from Project Healing Waters hit Big Rock Creek in Bakersville for some private water action while another group tried their luck at Cane Creek in Bakersville...the "Nightcrawler" was the only lucky one on the Cane that day. Skunk was the word for the other 3 of us on Cane Creek.
February 2010: Wilson Creek NC
The club February Wilson Creek outing was moved back a week due to heavy mountain snowfall and frozen river. I recall a very picturesque drive up I-40 gazing off at the snowcapped Pisgah Forest mountains off in the distance. February 20th was a balmy 48F degree NC Winter day and daytime temps warmed slightly the higher the sun crept into the sky and hit the river. The first stop on Wilson Creek was the old Mill site, plenty of holdover fish to watch, difficult to catch though....trout were hugging the bottom in their deep holes and not moving very much. Greg Pizzuto and Ben Bishop had the best secret strategy ( no real secret here-small streamers on the bottom... olive & brown woolly buggers). A group of about 14-15 hearty fly fishing die hards and a couple of friends from Project Healing Waters with delicious Venison Stew met up at noon at Mortimer picnic shelter with us for some of Ben Bishops hot chicken bog...it was just about perfect too! Stick to the ribs good. Afternoon fishing was a bit slow for all, picking up, catching and releasing occasional occaisonal holdover Rainbow or Brook on those bead head nymphs bouncing off the bottom. Good day, good fellowship....and a good lesson learned about the importance of fly fishing with a partner and keeping within eyesight of each other! Use the buddy system...help your buddy net his fish quickly, take the trophy photo and release the fish quickly as not to harm the fish.
March 2010: Raven's Fork Oconoluftee, Nantahala, Deep Creek NC
March 5th, 6th and 7th trip up to Chestnut Lodge in Bryson City North Carolina was a great trip with a great bunch of fly fishing friends...it just doesn't get any better than this. The scenic drive up gazing off in the distance at the snowcapped Great Smokey Mountain National Park was inspiring. Club members, Bob Villers, Charlie McDaniels, Charles Campbell, Cameron Binnie, Ben Bishop, Mark VanDonick, Chris Roche, Tim Jenkins and Steve Patterson all came away with renewed enthusiasm for the past time and sport they love...fly fishing. Kudo's to Steve "Nightcrawler" Patterson for his efforts to organize this outing....great job! Friday fishing at Cherokee trophy waters provided some memorable trophy Bows(see pics below). The day ended with a 5 gallon pot of hot and hearty beef stew, cold beer & "stomp" served up by the somewhat roaring fire....thanks to Kingsford starter fluid. A nice cigar, another hit of "stomp", a fart or two, some more BS stories and off to bed Friday night. Saturday several folks hit Raven's Fork of the Oconoluftee River in Cherokee for some trophy action...Patterson, Jenkins and VanDonnick ruled the day with their steadfast nymphing techniques...yeilding several bows. President Bishop had a good day on the Nantahala River with holdover fish eating his properly presented dry flies on the sunny 60F degree day. The day ended at Chestnut lodge with a hearty Low Country Shrimp Boil...8 lbs of Jumbo shrimp, Andouille sausage, redskin potatoes and corn....more ice cold beer and "stomp"....a cigar, some more BS stories, a minor Democrat vs. Republican spat or two then back to something we can all agree upon....fly fishing. Sunday provided more good weather and great fly fishing in Cherokee....Deep Creek proved to be more challenging doing die hard recon for wild Brook trout. Great trip...graded a 9.975 out of 10.
April 2010: South Holston River TN
Aprils long weekend outing to the Southeast U.S. premier fly fishery, the South Holston river in Bluff City Tennessee. We were blessed to have such a wonderful host, James Cornett at Holston Castaway's. A private 80 acre farm on the banks of the South Holston was the perfect setting for some pristine water and wade fly fishing. The weather was perfect, sunny and high 50F to mid 60F degrees and sunny all three days....what a great spot. A great small group of gents, Dan Grose, Jim Sweitzer, Chris Roche and club guest from Mills River, North Carolina, Paul Andrews. The fly fishing was superb, Paul, Dan and Jim all caught their fair share of beautifully colored Brown trout and healthy Rainbows....all caught and quickly released.The recipe for success was #20 & #24 Black Zebra midges with a small amount of flash, lead on your line, strike indicator 36" above the lead, some success was had as well with #18 Pheasant Tails and soft hackles bouncing off the bottom. All trout were healthy fighters with gorgeous color. Chris finally had success Friday evening at 7:00PM on a dry # 22 BWO trailed by a #24 BWO emeger 5" in tow on top water. Watching the large trout take top water...that's what its all about. Dinner was grilled 2" NY Strip Steaks with Paladin's salad, cold Newcastles for dessert. Saturday fishing was superb once again, all caught several fish and once Paul gave Chris an #18 Pheasant tail he started lighting it up with the rest of them. Saturday dinner was Low Country Boil- 3lbs #21-30 jumbo shrimp, Andouille sausage, potatoes and corn simmered in a fume de' poisson of Clam juice, Bay Leaf, Vidalia Onion, Clamato, spicy V-8 Louisiana Louisiana crab boil seasoning....ice cold Newcastle Ale desserts & cigars. Great house on the riverside, Sunday was a repeat of Friday & Saturday. What a lousy time we had....NOT!!! LOL....that's right-you should be jealous!
May 2010: Helton Creek NC Kid's & Dad's Weekend
April 16-18 was the annual Kid's & Dad's Camping outing on Helton Creek. This has grown to be quite a large gathering.This year again there were nearly 50 kid's, dad's and granddads who made the trip to Helton Creek Camp Ground in beautiful Ashe County, North Carolina. CFFC club member Aaron Christensen amazed all with some outstanding home style pork BBQ that has become a tradition for this trip...step aside Bobby Flay. The weather held for the entire weekend, no rain and moderate temps during daylight and at night. All the kid's caught fish, played in the creek, got dirty and wet....Oh, and had WAY to much sugar and stayed up WAY past their normal bed times. All the dads enjoyed the fellowship. The camp obsession for adults was again the Corn Hole Tournament (Horseshoes with bean bags). The best and most important part of the trip is always dads spending some quality time with their with their kids.
May 2010: Beaverdam Creek, Wautaga, South Holston TN
PFF v21
Shady Valley, Tennessee
What a trip!! Several members of the CFFC joined 35 other “Psycho Fly Fisherman” from around the southeast for a weekend of fly fishing and fellowship in beautiful Shady Valley Tennessee. The fishing was tremendous with most everyone catching a good number of fish. Club member Dick Handshaw fished a wild stream and reported his best dry fly bite ever landing several dozen wild rainbows. Club members David Alred and Tony Aldridge also reported great success on the Beaverdam. For Tony, this was his first trip to the area.
I also fished the Beaverdam, a known wild brown stream and had caught so many fish by 4.p.m on Friday, that I was tired of catching fish. I stopped counting after 70. It was an incredible day of fishing with the best fish both topping 17 inches. I lost a brown trout that head was as big as my hand, I did not realized I had hooked it, as I thought I snagged some brush in the creek, I lifted the rod to see if my fly would pop loose and behemoth this behemouth out of his lair. Once it realized what was happening, the fish simply rolled and slapped its tail on the water and it was gone after a dazed moment, I realized what had just happened.
The weather was comfortable, the water temps were good. Saturday’s fishing on the South Holston became a little hot in the late after noon as the temps had climbed to around 85 or so. It felt good when I actually sat in the river while I re-rigged a new leader.
Late evening brought an absurd Sulpher hatch that had 18-20 inch fish rocketing 2 feet out of the water to snatch escaping bugs. Big fish of the trip went to club member Jule McDowell’s oldest son who hooked up with a 25+ inch brown trout that he battled for 10 minutes before being broke off. Then he proceeded to hook up with its cousin.
Late evening weather in Shady Valley brought several severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, heavy rain and powerful lightning displays. In all 4 tents were ripped, shredded or blown away, the “big azz cook tent” became air born even with 3-4 guys hanging on to it. Basically, it was a normal PFF.
The fall PFF trip is going to be held on some private land right on the banks of the South Holston. October on the Holston is hard to beat. Hope to see some of you there.
Bob
July 2010: South Holston TN
Back to the cold, gin clear, South Holston in Tennessee in July for an extended weekend, Thurs thru Sunday. The riverside accomodations provided at the Cornet family farm were just about perfect. The weather was nice for most days...temps in high 80's to mid 90's with constantly temps consitently in the low 50's, perfect trout waters. The Cornett farm provided a great base location for wade fishing behind the farm and worked well from a logistic standpoint for great access to variety of spots on the river. The lesson learned; if the TVA IS NOT generating do not try to float the river....if TVA IS generating there's enough water depth and flow to float via kayak, pontoon or canoe and fish those hard to reach locations. Tony Aldridge and I floated approx. +/-4 mile section of river above Bluff City down to the farm. The sheer numbers of quality trout in the river is amazing. Great recon, now we know a few locations that hold the greatest numbers. Just about all club members had various degrees of success landing nice 8" to 16" Rainbows and colorful Big Brown Trout by using #20-#26 Zebra & stripper midges, small Pheasant tail nymphs and emergers in the fast water runs and riffles. I had success landing several trout late afternoons, on slack water under overhanging trees on dry flies topwater taking #18-#22 Sulphurs, BWO's, King River Caddis....6x fluorocarbon 7x flourocarbon tippet held up on the small fish....the big fish snap the 7x like nothing when you start to put on the pressure, takes patience and a delicate feel to land the big boys in the faster moving water on 7x, the trick is to slowly move the fish to slack water to land em'.
The most memorable moment for me all weekend was not catching trout. It was standing on the bottom of a slow moving pool in ankle deep water, gazing downstream through a slight fog 4' off the water surface, peering 80 yards downstream watching Charlie McDaniels throwing perfect false cast loops, every one of the fifty or so casts-exactly the same rhythmic a rythmic succession. Perfect timing-almost like watching a slow motion movie, laying his fly and tippet gently on the water surface in seemingly slow motion, light as a feather. Perfectly presented flies. I stood there watching these perfect casts for :20 to :30 minutes, I totally forgot to fish...I was in total awe of the anglers patience and perfection.
What a great group of fly fish angling enthusiasts to spend the weekend with, Tim Jenkins, Rick Meeks, Dave McBurnie, Charles Lamm, Ben Bishop, Charlie McDaniels, Tony Aldridge, Dan Grose and two guests Ben Reinhold and Greg Qualls. Special thanks to our two special guests and their skilled tying of various #24 & #26 stripper midges...wow did they work tricking the trout!!!
August 2010: Madison River, Gallatin River MT, Henry's Fork of Snake River ID
West Yellowstone MT/Island Park ID CFFC club week outing. Attended by club members Wilke Tebbens, Jim Fletemier, Mark Van Donnick, Glenn Kellis, Joyce Sheppherd, Glenn Davisson, Bob Villers, Steve Hanna, Tim Bemisderfer, Tony Aldridge. Special thanks to Bob Villers for all his time and effort that went into planning the trip. Also a thanks to local MT guide Mike Spence for his expert guidance and for putting everyone on quality fish. Mike is a top guide and knows the importance of being in the right place at the right time...right river on the right days. Looks like Mike caught plenty of fish!
It was a beautiful week in the Yellowstone neighborhood. The mountains were glorious, the veiws spectacular, the cabins were good for weary and excited fly fishers. Mornings and sometimes late evenings were spent strategizing on the next moves....which rivers to fish, where to start the day, where to end the day, who's floating, who's wading and where. Evenings were spent winding down and eating great home cooked meals. Wilke Tebbens made a great deal with local MT guide Mike Spence for the week for guided floats. Mike was a great guide and put us all on fantastic fish. I know it looked like Mike caught all the fish in the photos, but we really did our part. Wilke & Jim and Tim & Steve went off the beaten path to ("secret") streams for real Montana & Idaho back country fly fishing. Others of us traveled back into bear country to fish the not so traveled branches of the Madison River and deep into Yellowstone National Park. Picture me singing a "doe a deer a female deer" as loud as I could. Startling bears, buffalo and tourists alike.
It was a good thing Jim & Wilke carried bear spray as they had a close enough encounter with a grizzly. We even got a little worried about them one night. Don't know what happened to those hoppers everyone was talking about before we left. I've got all sizes and colors and nowhere to use em'. Would you believe woolly buggers worked? Go figure.
The water was cold where it was supposed to be cold, warm where its supposed to be warm and beautiful big water wherever we went.
Bear Spray $50...A week with good men, great cameraderie and fantastic fishing - priceless!
Joyce S.
