First Fishing Day

April 8, 2013 

Got up about 8 am, ate our oatmeal, and drove into town to find a cell signal. We ended up finding the fly fishing outfitters that we couldn’t find yesterday (new location) and Jack was able to buy his fishing license there. We stopped for a cup of coffee in town, then headed back out into the wilderness.

This is a beautiful, wild river, as you can see from the photos of the falls at the bridge.

Jack first hiked down beside the bridge to see if he could catch a trout there, even though it’s fished more often due to the convenience factor, but no luck after an hour or so of fishing. He stopped for lunch, and then we hiked about a mile upstream, on the trail that parallels the river. There are numerous access spots where you can get off the trail to the river bank. He had his waders on and set off into the water,

while I settled down on the bank to watch and read my book. He fished upstream and downstream for several hours without even a strike. I had spread my towel on a perfect white sandy beach at the river’s edge and I stretched out for a snooze and vitamin D production session. Ahhh….

Jack showed up on my beach about 5 pm, somewhat discouraged by the lack of fishing action. He was “nymphing”, which is fishing under the surface with wet fly lures, as opposed to dry fly fishing on the surface of the water. He had tried several nymphs that usually worked for him. I suggested that he try “something crazy” and he decided to change his rig to a bead-head Zugbug with a redheaded pheasant tail dropper; the dropper is a tiny fly which he chose since he had seen some of that size hatching. Sounded crazy enough to me. He got the flies tied on and gamely headed back into the river…while I stretched out on my towel again. I LOVE flyfishing!!!

Not too much later here came Jack back down the river with a smile on his face: “I caught my trout!” he said. It was a brown trout, not a huge one but it certainly qualifies him to check off the Chattooga on his trout stream list! He was one tired puppy after spending all afternoon in the cold river, slipping and sliding over rocks and standing in water up to his thighs at times. (He had on waders but not the insulated kind.) He released his fish, and was ready for a break. We had tea and watched the waterfall for a while in a pleasant, warm glow. A lovely day surrounded by natural beauty.

Now we’re back in the same campsite on top of the ridge that we stayed at last night. I’m going to make beanies and weenies (lowfat turkey weenies, I might add). It’ll probably be another early night. Tomorrow morning we’re going downstream to check out the fishing at a different spot, in South Carolina and Georgia (the right bank is in Georgia, the left bank is South Carolina), and then heading off to Johnson University in Knoxville, to visit niece Lauren.

Jack's Aside: Watch this short video of the falls to get a feel for the power and the beauty of this river.

 

Also, check out the location map where we were fishing. Note that the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are all a part of the Chattooga River.