Fishing With Shakey

 

3-5-05

Chris Golden and Shakey and I had fished Outfitters Shoals the Friday before, decided to try there again because we thought spilling would start mid day on Saturday.

When I got home and checked, I found out that spilling had been delayed until Monday. We met Saturday morning at RF&T, and since we had the whole day, I talked the guys into checking out Little Rock Island.

We hiked the 2-1/2 miles up the tracks, taking breaks liberally. When we got there, we let Chris take a shot at a pool where I had done well last trip up there. He caught 1 and I got a picture of him fishing:



 

 

Shakey and I left him there and moved on up to start fishing. Shakey took the top of a ledge, and I worked down. There's a run there where I caught a nice brown 2 weeks in a row once, so I gave it a try. Got a nice little rainbow.

We saw Chris hiking up the tracks, and he got in at a ledge above us. Shakey and I worked the water some more, he got one and lost one, and I waded out to see how Chris was doing.

He was coming down the tracks, and as we walked down we saw some spoor on the track, pretty good sized, and we wondered what it was. Shakey saw it later and was of the opinion that it was bear poop!

Chris and I got in again at the ledge at the top of the island. I pointed out some good spots across the ledge, and Chris went that way as I worked down. Neither of us found anything, but I reached a point with a little pocket where I had done well many times before, and worked across there.

While I was working across, Shakey worked down to the pool at the top of the island. I got a nice fish on, had to work down below him in the heavy current. 12" rainbow!

I released the fish and looked across . Chris was on over on the same ledge, and he pointed and held up his hands about a yard apart. Looked interesting. I looked back at Shakey. He had a nice fish on his 3 weight in the current, and it was giving him all he wanted.

I worked my way across to Chris. I'd seen him slip a few times, so I explained to him that the brown patches on the rocks amongst the moss were "filamentious diatoms", and they were slick!

Chris had seen Danny's mega brown roll, and it made an impression on him. We didn't see it again. It was around 1 pm. Chris had planned to bail on us about 2, but he decided to go ahead and start downriver, maybe try Outfitters Shoals on the way out. He had done well there the day before, and Shakey speculated later that Chris had probably run all the way down the tracks!

Shakey had worked on down, and I went behind him down the railroad side of the island. Shakey was fishing the pool Chris had started at, and I got another fish from the run above him, just below the 3' drop.

We rested a bit and headed back down to Outfitters Shoals. Shakey worked the best ledge that we had let Chris have the day before, and I moved upstream to one of my favorite little spots. I got one fish, and lost one that flashed pretty good. I picked up one more while wading out. I saw something there I hadn't seen before on the Hiwassee. Any sizable mayfly on the Hiwassee this time of year will be a quill gordon. Early brown stones have been coming off, and they get the fish excited enough to feed in the current. I saw some actually taking quill gordons, and I've never seen that before.

I worked my way down to Shakey. He was halfway across, so I fished out that way. I got 2, and saw Shakey wading out. I headed out, and got my 8th fish as I trailed a fly on the way. We rested a bit and talked, and decided to call it yet another great day.

* Things That Made Me Glad I Went ::::::::::::::::
When we were walking down the tracks I saw a lot of little red maple flowers laying on the tracks, and it reminded me of a little essay Shakey recently wrote:

Sometimes I Stumble

...(This Isn't All About Catching Fish, You Know!)