Fly Fishing in North Carolina

    Before senior year of college gets going, some good friends and I made a trip out to North Carolina near Scaly Mountain, planning on hiking the Appalachians around there, and staying in a cabin-like airbnb in the mountains. That alone was shaping up to be a great trip. However, a few weeks ago, Adam and I, who are longtime friends and have fished together before, both got the idea of finding a way to sneak in some fishing. He had gone fly fishing before, but I never have; throughout my entire life up to this point, fly fishing was a method of fishing I had always knew I would try someday. It was definitely on my bucket list. So the opportunity to now finally try this distinct, storied method of fishing was something I simply couldn't pass up. We booked a guide named Ryan from Turning Stones Fly Fishing and were ready to go. Before the trip, Adam brought me a great set of waders that his grandfather had no longer needed, which ended up coming in very clutch. Trying them on was pretty exciting, as it turned my anticipation to realize this dream of mine up a few notches. At the last second, Marcus decided to join the trip and wanted to go fly fishing with us. While there were 6 of us on the hiking trip, only half of us wanted to fish - why the others decided to be so lame, I have no idea. I guess some people just don't get it. Regardless, I was happy to embark on the fishing expedition with Adam and Marcus.

    After driving up from Gainesville, stopping at Tallulah Gorge on the way, we spent the first day hiking to Rabun Bald. It was a fun hike with great views, and we spent the rest of the day sitting on the balcony hanging out, watching the rain through the trees and listening to music. The next day would entail a solid fishing trip while the others went hiking, so we went to bed a little early - that being said, it was kinda hard to go to sleep, thinking about what awaited me in the morning. Sure enough, as soon as the morning came, I took a quick shower and we hit the road. We drove to Cherokee, where we were set to meet our guide, first stopping off at a bait and tackle shop to get our fishing licenses. But, when we were talking to the people at the shop, they strongly suggested fishing private waters instead of the public waters we were set to fish. See, in North Carolina (and I know this is the case in Georgia too, and perhaps other places in the southeast), there is a difference between public and privately owned streams. Sections of rivers can be privately owned, meaning they can only be fished on by the owners or people they permit. Because of this, bigger fish in more abundance are generally found in these rivers. Hearing about how grim our prospects seemed at the public waters, we figured it was best to pay a little extra to be able to fish on a private section of a river closer to Franklin. We made the ride down, through the mountains and deeper into the forest until we met our guide at a scenic overlook. He told us to follow his car, which we did, deeper into the woods into private property. The area was beautiful, with rushing water through the trees and mountains. It was a great weather day too, with sun and a temperature in the 70s.

    Eventually, after about 20 minutes of driving, we arrived at a spot to park where we got into Ryan's car so that we could cross a river to keep going until we got to a good fishing place on Buck Creek, a tributary of the Nantahala River. Ryan, who at 20 years old knew these waters like the back of his hand but grew up in New York City, brought a set of waders for Marcus, and we put them on before heading down to the first spot on the river. I got my notes app ready, taking down info from what I was sure to learn from the experience. The spot was absolutely gorgeous, with deep but clear blue water rushing around a bend, set in front of a beautiful forest backdrop. It was like a fishing spot out of a movie. We started with a set up including a dry fly, or a fly that floats on the surface, and a nymph, another type of fly, about 6-8 inches or so under it. This time, the nymph was a "junk fly," or a big fuzzy ball not necessarily trying to imitate anything in particular and more just for the sake of making a big profile in the water. The goal was not to cast far, as the fish were right behind the rocks in front of us, waiting for food to come drifting by. We instead were instructed to cast ahead of the fish, letting the current take the flies right to the fish, ending up "hitting the fish in the face with the fly." As the current took the flies downstream, we had to follow them with our rod tip, ready to set the hook immediately whenever we saw the dry fly, which kind of acted as a bobber, go down. Marcus, who was up first, got a hit on his first cast, missing it due to its suddenness. Ryan noted that because of the rain from the previous day, the water was higher, cooler, and flowing faster than normal - this was a good sign for us. On Marcus' second cast, he properly set the hook. He reeled it in and we brought the Rainbow Trout in with the net. It was a gorgeous fish in a beautiful spot, and we were absolutely psyched to get our day started on the right foot. After we released his Rainbow, I went to fish. After all my practicing in my backyard with a fly rod, it was surreal to be there, knee deep in the water with fly gear in hand, with Trout right in front of me. While I didn't necessarily have to cast as far as I had practiced at home in this case, it was still a really cool feeling to finally be bona fide fly fishing. I saw from the last two where the honey hole was, and casted in front of it, closely watching the dry fly. It went down as it passed by the hole where the fish were hiding, and I set the hook immediately. Fly reels work differently than spinning gear, with a 1:1 gear ratio and the reel located at the bottom of the rod, leaving no grip space below it on the butt of the rod. I held on to the rod, pulling it up to maintain tension, and carefully reeled in the fish until it was in the net. My first Rainbow Trout, and my first fish on the fly, was bagged. I took pictures with it, admiring its colors and taking in the dreamlike sight of a Rainbow Trout in my hands, before releasing it back into the water. What a thrill. That is why we do it. I was ecstatic, and honestly, my trip was already made. Just to catch one Rainbow on the fly was sufficient for me; luckily, however, we had a lot more in store. Next up was Adam, who also found the same success. The fish were biting extremely well, right from the start. We kept on fishing the area, with one person at the original bend we were fishing and one person a bit upstream fishing a different hole. We kept on casting upstream of the hole we knew the fish were in, and following the flies until a fish bit or they drifted past the hole, at which point we would recast. When the fish were so close to us like they were in this case, we maintained a set length of line from the reel and threw the flies to the desired spot, without giving more line on most of the casts. We caught about 8 fish between us at this spot, including a gorgeous Brook Trout by Marcus, before moving out. I was very glad to have caught a Brook Trout; while I had caught the species before, out west in the Canadian Rockies, they are native to the streams in the Appalachian area, while Rainbows are actually native to the mountain rivers in the west.

    Ryan was teaching us tips and tricks from his experience as we were fishing, which really helped as we were curious to learn and become better at fly fishing. He talked about how each spot needed to be fished differently, with decisions like how often to change flies depending on depth, where the fish are in the river, what species you are going for. For example, he said, Brown Trout normally eat bigger fish, so you'd normally have to target them with bigger flies. That being said, a lot of what can be learned on the water simply comes from experience. Ryan had an eye for where the fish could possibly be hiding almost as an instinct, and that comes from just being on the water again and again, learning more about the fish and their tendencies each time. At one point, and actual fly (a bug) landed on Ryan's hand and we put that on a hook, which of course led to one of our biggest catches of the day. Ryan said that stocked fish tend to be more attracted rot junk flies, whereas native or wild fish would be more inclined to take more natural presenting baits. Especially considering the frequencies of our catches, we were all having a great time on the water. We were learning a lot, catching a lot, and getting some real quality fish in. These were about a foot long, some more, whereas the trout we would have caught at the public water would have supposedly been at most around 8 inches long.

    At another spot along the river, we started using a different method of fly fishing called Euronymphing. For this one, we had only one fly at the end of the line, which we would keep in the water at a certain depth, held suspended in the water column by the rod tip with little to no slack in the line. We followed the fly down as it flowed downstream in the current with the rod tip, keeping the fly at the same depth underwater as it drifted. We used the length of the leader to be able to tell the depth at which we were keeping the fly. Watching the fly and feeling for bites, we set the hook as soon as we felt a bite. Ryan told us that the water behind rocks was slower than it looked due to the rock breaking up the current, and that fish would hide there. They would also hide in deeper pockets in an otherwise even floor of the river. At the first spot we tried euronymphing, we each started to get used to the new method, catching a few nice fish. At one point, Adam hooked into a pretty big one that fought really hard. It was a good give and take fight until the fish took a good run out to the middle of the river and spit out the hook. It was the one that got away, as it could have been the biggest we had all day. But on the bright side, at the next spot further along the river, I looked closely for a spot where there was slower moving water next to faster moving water, where fish could be hiding. Sure enough, I had my fly drift into one of these holes and I hooked up on a Brown Trout. It wasn't big but this was my first Brown Trout and completed our grand slam on the river. Ryan said he had never caught a Brook Trout on this river either, so it was his first grand slam on the river and our first in general. I was ecstatic to reach this accomplishment and having brought in all three different species on the river.

    Towards the end we used a little pink worm looking fly, which Ryan said was "like crack to these fish." They worked when the bite otherwise started to due down by midday. We went to these spots under a bridge that he knew from experience were likely to hold fish. That being said, while he had that from experience, you do learn something new about the fish every time you are out on the water. In this case, the exact holes that had fish last week didn't have any this week, although today a few yards down the river had holes that held the fish. Ryan suspected they may have moved because of the fast speed of the water. Regardless, it goes to show how unpredictable the fish could be and how much going out and learning about the fish on the water could work for you. Ryan stressed always trying to change things up if you start to face some kind of adversity, like switching from naturals to junk flies if they don't work. We finished at this one spot trying to get us all to catch 10 fish total, which we did in the end with a final push of about 2 or 3 fish per person to finish. 30 fish between us, 3 species, and an unforgettable experience. We gave our thanks and salutations to Ryan before heading back to the cabin, enjoying the rest of the afternoon and evening in the woods after crossing off an all time fishing trip from the bucket list.

  

  

  

   

  

  

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

Pointing to slower spots behind rocks where fish may be