Maggie valley Trip report.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Day 1 - we arrived around 6pm and got everything unpacked and settled in. The moment I opened the screen Door, a big yellow stonefly landed on it. I took a walk and found a small stream (too small for fish) with a variety of salamanders in it. I caughtbabd photographed a new species for me. Awaiting ID on it now.

 

We went into the valley to check out a few spots on the stream and wet a line. First cast with big yellow stimmie got a hit. I missed it. No more hits the rest of the evening. My girlfriend and I watched a 14-17" brown follow her white sparkle bugger 6 times! He didn't take it though.

 

I talked to a local I saw fishing. He had caught 2 wild browns, 2 stocked brookies, and a wild rainbow all in 45 min. He was fishing nymphs under an indicator just dropped behind rocks. The water is up a bit and a hair fast so they are staying in the slack behind cover apparently. Hopefully tomorrow I can get on the fish. He pointed me to some spots and even tried to give me flies. Super nice guy. It gives me joy to meet people like him on the water.

[vicrider 0]

"even tried to give you flies"... Take them, smile and thank him sincerely, and don't be afraid to ask him how he was fishing them. A refusal of his flies is not being polite but depriving him of a chance to feel good about something he did while on the stream and steer you in the right direction for his home waters. Don't be afraid to use that big yellow stimmie as an indicator for a small beadhead hanging down below which will wash into the pockets behind those rocks quickly and get you some of those natives and stockers. I loved the area around Maggie Valley but I've only been there on motorcycle gatherings with my wife meeting a bunch of friends to ride the Blue Ridge and local roads. Always wished I'd have had some fishing gear with but never did the couple of times we were there.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

"even tried to give you flies"... Take them, smile and thank him sincerely, and don't be afraid to ask him how he was fishing them. A refusal of his flies is not being polite but depriving him of a chance to feel good about something he did while on the stream and steer you in the right direction for his home waters. Don't be afraid to use that big yellow stimmie as an indicator for a small beadhead hanging down below which will wash into the pockets behind those rocks quickly and get you some of those natives and stockers. I loved the area around Maggie Valley but I've only been there on motorcycle gatherings with my wife meeting a bunch of friends to ride the Blue Ridge and local roads. Always wished I'd have had some fishing gear with but never did the couple of times we were there.

Oh no no no I wants refusing his flies because I didn't want them! I tied up enough BH Hares ears to choke a horse! That's what he was using.

 

 

The area is very beautiful.

[mikechell 0]

I am with you, Fisherboy. I would refuse flies from someone if I had no intention of using them. I simple, "No, thank you. I'd really like catching some on the flies I tied." should be sufficient.

 

I am a little disappointed that there's no pictures of the area !!!

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Ok guys! Today was great! I started the day off dipping nymphs and hooked one nice brown but I can't seem to keep them on. I go to strike and the fish lifts from the water, slack forms, fish is gone. That's what happened with about 10 smaller trout today. I did manage to land 4. All beautiful wild rainbows ranging from 4-8 inches. The first fish of the day came from a hole just down from a bridge. I could see a big brown cruising the hole under the bridge so I put on a thunder creek minnow and this beautiful rainbow snatched it up!

 

My girl came up after me with a panther martin spinner, and while I watched from up on the bridge, hooked that big brown (seriously close to if not 20") on the first cast! It broke her 6lb line though.

I tied her some wooly buggers, bucktails, stonefly nymphs, and PT and Hares ear nymphs on jig hooks. She caught this beauty on one of the Wooly bugger jigs.

 

 

The rest of my fish today came on a sz 12 Adams. I only got pics of two. A 5-6" and 3-4" rainbow the other was about the same size of the smaller one. There's a smaller creek feeding into Johnathon's creek full of eager little wild bows in perfect dry fly water. Those pics are on my camera.

 

Oh and Mike here's a pic of one section of the stream. Charlotte took this. I never fished this part. It's down from the feeder creek, and I spent too much time up the feeder dry fly fishing to go down there. Plan to tomorrow. More pics of the mtns and town and hopefully more and bigger fish, to come.

[mikechell 0]

Thank you. Pretty little fish ... beautiful stream.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

There's more to come! Fish and landscapes. I'm just getting off the water. I'll eat and type up today's report.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

Beautiful fish,Fisherboy.Thanks for posting the report.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

Today's action was hot! Fish on dries and nymphs. Most fish came from a BHPTN under an EHC. Started the day off with some wild rainbows and then got into some browns as well. Charlotte didn't get any trout in the stream today. She did manage to land a big chub or sucker of some sort!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those are all from this AM. This evening, I caught my biggest trout to date. It was a beautiful nice sized brown. It rose to my EHC a few times but never struck. Then it made the mistake of nabbing my PTN under the dry fly. It was a heck of a way to start the evening.

 

 

These other 3 fish came from the creek after that one.

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully tomorrow I can get some stocker brookies. I'd love to be able to have caught all 3 here. Today was my first brown trout too!

[spiralspey 0]

Well done! Congrats on the browns and hope you get a brookie. It sure is nice to see some wild fish are available in that part of the country.

Also, getting it done with the elk hair caddis, stimmi, hares ear, and pheasant tail, I like to see that. The classics work everywhere.

[thursthouse 0]

nice report and well done on the personal bests! love the colors on wild rainbows

[islander727 0]

Great report! Good luck with the brookies!

[redietz 0]

Nice report! I'm enjoying your trip vicariously.

 

Also, getting it done with the elk hair caddis, stimmi, hares ear, and pheasant tail, I like to see that. The classics work everywhere.

 

It's interesting how when you started fly fishing changes your perspective. Both the EHC and the stimmi were introduced after I started, and I have a hard time thinking of the as other than "new" flies. (Not that they're not great flies, and can definitely see where someone who started only, say, 30 years ago would call them classics.) The PT almost falls into that category, I'd call Sawyer's version a classic, but not the Americanized version. If I were five years older, neither would be. And to me, a classic hare's ear is a winged wet fly.

 

Again, they're all great flies, and probably deserve to be called classics, it was just a bit startling to hear them called so.

[spiralspey 0]

Maybe I jumped the gun calling those flies classics, but I've been using all of them since at least the early 90's (GRHE in the mid 70's) and they're still staples in my box 25 years later, long after the leadwing coachman, bivisible, and Catskill style dries have disappeared. Maybe they're just classics to me.

 

Whatever you call them, it's still nice to see a young guys having success with flies I used when I was their age.

[FIN-ITE 34 0]

EHC circa 1957

Stimi circa 1980