Some new toothy Friends

After my Sunday long run of fourteen miles (a weekly ritual), Charles called me saying we should drive a ways up highway 74 and go fish Sugar Creek.  I didn't argue.  Sugar is one of the best smallmouth fisheries in the state and has plenty of other fun fish around too. 

We settled on parking at a popular kayak takeout and fishing downstream.  

Immediately after getting there I realized I'd forgotten something important.  Gar flies.

I had tied up some rope flies with the intent of catching some longnose gar, but had left them at home.

We started fishing the holes and spotted an insane number of suckers, quillbacks, and buffalo.  They're so tough to get to eat.  I walked across the creek and picked up two little smallies behind a tree on a squirrel tail clouser, then I saw a gar drifting towards me.  I threw in the hole and got a green sunfish.  By the time I unhooked the slippery little potato-chip sized fish I couldn't see the gar. 

Then suddenly, he crept out from under the log 2 feet from my shins.  I dropped the clouser a foot from him, then he lunged forwards and grabbed it.  After a short thrash about the surface, we were able to grab the fish.  I got very lucky and pinned him in the roof of the mouth with the upturned hook.

Charles picked up a good gar as well.

We continued hiking downstream to a big bend.  We threw our heavy clousers immediately below a tree.  I tried something different and let my fly swing in the current.  I almost got the rod yanked out of my hands on the end of the swing, but didn't hook up.  We kept swinging clousers and picked up a few nicer smallies up to 14".

A fun day to be sure, we revisited this spot a lot during the summer for smallmouth.

Appalachian Adventure

May 24-31

With the coronavirus looming, my summer study abroad in Spain cancelled, and Josh's internship all online, we decided we needed to get out and have an adventure.  We settled on camping around and hiking in the Blue Ridge Parkway area in western North Carolina.  It's a fantastic area I've spent time in before and wouldn't hesitate to go redo this trip all over again.

Essentially, every day I woke up at 6:30, ran 4-6 miles to keep up with my training, and then we would make breakfast and pack up camp.  We drove to trailheads and parks to hike most of the day, then would drive to a different campsite and spend the night.  We repeated this for a full week.  We meticulously planned out this trip beforehand, prepping food and gear weeks in advance.  Thankfully, most of the area had opened up from the initial lockdown, and we were able to stay away from society and other people.

I'll only share a few pictures from the camping and hiking on this trip, but rest assured I could write a post with highlights for each day of the week we were gone.

The best campsite I've ever seen, bar none.  Linville Gorge Wilderness area

View from the top of Table Rock Mountain overlooking Linville Gorge.  Really cloudy most of the trip but we got to enjoy cool views like these.

Dupont State Forest waterfalls.  A hidden gem.  The most spectacular falls I've ever seen with a short but rugged hike to hit 5 different waterfalls.

One last view of Linville Gorge.  I loved this day of the trip

We did get one day of fishing wild trout streams in, and that was supposed to be the topic of this post.

On day one, we camped and drove to a spot I'd been before, called graveyard fields.  This area has a small rocky creek flowing through it full of pocket water with rushing water, boulders, and wild brook trout.  Josh and I spent one day fishing in this area.  I, like a fool, brought my uncle's borrowed 4 weight and my 6 weight for us to fish with.  Really wished I had a short 3 or 2 weight for this creek.  It's tight quarters and small fish.

I threw on guard socks and wading boots and Josh fished in beat up old sneakers.  The water was pretty chilly but no deeper than knee depth.

I stupidly tied on nymphing rigs to start with and then realized that brook trout don't care.  I threw a larger royal Wulff and got an angry, splashy hit that didn't quite take the fly.  I quickly switched to a patriot dry fly in size 18 and the bite opened up.  I quickly stuck two small brookies in the 5-7 inch range.  Not big but fun fish to watch smack dry flies.  

I switched my fly to a purple Adams and gave josh the patriot.  We both started hooking fish in the largest, flattest run by casting tight to the bank and mending well.  Josh picked up the biggest fish of the day and his first trout.  I was pretty proud of how well he casted and fished having only fly fished bedding bluegills once before.

Near the end of the day, I was able to find rock seams in any pool where fish were located.  I saw a seam, set down a dry fly, and got hit.  I wasn't able to hook a lot of fish, so I'll need to work on my sets on dry fly eats.  Otherwise it was a fantastic day and unrealistically good fishing for how little preparation we'd made to fish.  We ended up fishing longer than expected and only taking one short hike to finish off the
day.  

A Long-Needed Update

It's been quite awhile.  In the time since my last post, I've been at school.  I just recently finished my freshman year at the University of Notre Dame.  So far, it has been a fantastic whirlwind of emotions and catastrophes.  We are planning on returning to campus in the fall, but actual plans seem to hinge on the school administration's decisions. 


Over the winter, I went steelhead fishing numerous times with the fishing club.  We have a used Clackacraft drift boat we bought secondhand off a fishing guide a number of years back.  We fished the Dowagiac twice in December and January with little luck besides one of the guys nailing this cool brown on a spinner.

The Dowagiac is a pretty sketchy river to row a drift boat on and we've gotten into a number of hairy situations.  I've had to hop out and pull the boat upstream out of laydowns more than once.  It's been quite the experience.

Hopefully steelhead fishing on this river will be better in the spring and Fall this year, assuming we're allowed to make the short drive to go fish it.





I've been fishing steelhead with a new set-up.  A retired lawyer brought a 9'6" 7 weight Sage SLT into the  fly shop I work at and told Mike to find someone who'd use it.  It's a fantastic rod for swinging larger steelhead flies and drifting nymphs.

I've done quite a bit of fishing this year, so expect more updates.  Hopefully I'll have some free time to write them right now and then post daily after today.

Surprise New Species!

August 20, 2019

After work today, I got a call from Bobby asking to go fish somewhere.  I met him at a local pond that often has carp patrolling the banks.  Although the sky and water were cloudy, I figured I had a shot.  After about 30 minutes of patrolling, we didn't see any carp.  I flipped my fly around for fun and ended up with a few nice bass, but nothing too nice.

After a short session here, Charles called me looking to go fishing somewhere.  I told him he was in luck.  Bobby and I packed up our stuff and met him at another pond for some bass fishing. 

There were few bass active.  I fished a blue boogle bug popper, a favorite of the shop owners, but none of us could find a bass.  I occupied myself with a few fat green sunfish I found bedded up in a corner of the pond.  Their mouths were just big enough to take the popper, and it's always fun to watch fish take on top.

We decided to move once more to another pond I haven't fished before.  Charles tells me there are big bass here.  We arrived close to dark and fished for only about 15 minutes before deciding to pack it up.  As I made my last five casts, I felt a weight on the line and strip set.  Whatever ate cleared the water a few times and I imagined was a nice 2 pound bass.  I pulled in a 14 inch shad instead.  I snapped a picture removed my crayfish jig fly from its oddly shaped lip.  An odd catch on the fly for sure, but a new one for the species list.  Then, we went and enjoyed burgers and shakes at Culver's.

Solo Creek Fishing

August 16

College has been busy.  It's been a long first semester, but football season has ended and I've finally got some time to update.   I haven't gotten around to updating since the summer, so this will be one of a few entries.

I had a free day, and unfortunately Charles had a family event to attend.  So I decided to go to the creek solo.  This turned out to be an amazing move.


I hopped in at the same bridge we usually fish.  I initially wanted to try out a new crawdad fly using Kiley's Exo Skin, a new tying material.  This fly has been a proven producer for one of my guide friends.  It turned out that that fly was not the ticket today.  I wish I would have known earlier.

I started fishing this fly through a few holes, including one which is usually has monsters in it..  I had no luck.  I moved on to a hole behind a small rock that usually produces smallmouth and plenty of sunfish.  I didn't even get a look.  Right here I switched to a small swimming nymph fly.  I immediately caught around 5 tiny smallmouth and a few pretty green sunfish.



I continued moving on to what is typically one of the best spots in the creek.  One side has a gravel bank, while the other is a steep wall cut out of the shale and dirt.  I approached the first shallow pool and within 15 minutes caught 6 more of the tiny smallmouth.  The 8 inchers are tiny, but fight harder than many fish.  Creek smallmouth in my opinion are the hardest fighting freshwater fish pound for pound.  They really battle until the bitter end.  These fish were so much fun.

I continued for a few more minutes and got a fish that actually had a little heft.  He cleared the water twice, and I saw that it was a decent smallie, maybe a pound or so.  This fish tanked me for about 3 more minutes until I lipped him.  After this, I finally started moving down to the more productive end of the pool.

This pool is amazingly good.  At the tailout of the run there is a downed tree by the steep walls which feeds into a pool with one submerged rock.  I fished this pool for two minutes and caught 3 smallmouth right off of the rock.

All were small, about the same size I had been catching, but they were fun.

Then I got a nice one. This fish pulled back line when it bit, so I knew it had to be decent.


After a few absurdly high jumps, some tail walking, and a tough fight, I brought in a feisty 13 inch about 1 pound smallmouth.  Not a trophy by anyone's standards, but so much fun on a 6 weight in a tiny creek.

I continued on to the next hole, a short run next to a downed tree ending in a large, evenly deep pool full of isolated rocks.
I made one cast and drift with the nymph next to the fallen tree.  I hooked immediately into something nice.  It burned out 30 feet of line to get itself onto the reel in mere seconds.  I was almost frightened of the power this fish exhibited.  After 5 seconds of chaos, the fish jumped 2 feet into the air, and I could see it was a smallmouth of gargantuan proportions, surely close to the 20 inch mark.

As I was in awe of it crashing back down into the water, the fly popped out of its mouth.  Dejected, I stripped back in to find my fly, frazzled but fishable on the end of my leader.  Trembling with adrenaline, I checked my tippet then made another cast, this one to the rocks in the pool.  Immediately I pulled a 7 incher out.  I continued this for 15 minutes, casting to an isolated rock and catching small fish.

I made another cast and hooked up with a fish I could tell was big.  It didn't jump, but fought down deep for over 5 minutes.  After the chaotic fight, I lipped a nice 16 inch smallmouth for a few pictures.  This was an especially pretty fish with beautiful dark markings in certain lights and a smooth mossy bronze side in others.  After enjoying the pretty fish for awhile, I released it and made my trek back to the car.

While not the best evening for size,  I did catch a lot of fish end enjoyed a solo evening on the river before my night with friends afterwards.