Big Brown

 

 

 

 

7-28-02 Hiwassee River Trip Report
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The morning of this day in late July was beautiful, one of those "I feel sorry for Bill Gates because I'm going to the Hiwassee and he isn't" mornings. I couldn't leave early because Beverly was making homemade cinnamon rolls, and she is not an early riser.

After breakfast, I drove up and parked below the railroad bridge at Reliance and rigged up. The water was down, and not expected to rise there until 11. I started fishing about 10.

When someone begins flyfishing one of the things that puzzles them is "what fly do I use?" so this is a good time to talk about that. Everyone has a favorite fly. Mine is a brown hackle peacock, which is a good general purpose fly. If I have no reason to use something else, I use my bhp.

There were no fish visibly feeding, and I saw nothing hatching. I put on my bhp, and made a few casts. I got a couple of short strikes. I could feel a tug when fish grabbed the fly, but they were not getting hooked. I tried another riffle with the same results.

If what I'm using isn't working, I try something else. There was no hatch to match, so I used another approach. When I'm getting short strikes, I change fly sizes. I had been turning over some rocks, and found a lot of stonefly nymphs crawling on the bottom of the rocks. I put on a big perla nymph, the idea being to give the tentative fish more of a mouthful and encourage them to strike harder. I still got short strikes, probably because the low clear water gave the fish plenty of time to look at the fly, and bigger flies are easier to spot as fakes. They work better in fast water, when the fish doesn't have much time to look at it, and has to grab it if it looks like it might be food before it washes away. I then did what I should have done in the first place, and went to a small (size 16) pheasant tail nymph. That produced some hookups, and I caught a 9" brown and a 12" rainbow. Some times "What will they take?" is a better question than "What are they eating?" When the water started rising, I hiked the railroad tracks on upstream.

I stopped for a while at the Rock Garden above Big Island. The water was up, but I know some places where some wading can be done there on 2 turbines. In the summer I like to fish a size 8 isonychia nymph on high water. I used that, and managed to catch one 10" rainbow.

I always light a pipe while walking the mile stretch between Big Island and Little Rock Island where the tracks leave the river. I hope the bears will smell it and stay away! Along the way I found a few blackberries that still had fruit, and quite a few purple flowering raspberries, otherwise known as thimbleberries. When they are ripe, the isonychias are usually coming off.

I entered the river below the twin rocks above the island. Wading out on the ledges, I cast across current runs, and stripped back across, letting the nymph swing. When it got below me, I guided the line into a seam between the current and the eddy, let it hang for a moment, then stripped it back, pausing again before I picked up for another cast. I caught a 12-1/2" rainbow, an 11-1/2" brown, a 10-1/2" brown, and a 10" rainbow. That made a limit of 7 trout caught and released, and I was pleased with the fishing.

I started working my way back toward the bank and waded down toward the deeper water. I made a cast and started retrieving. I felt a strike, raised the rod, and a BIG fish went airborne. The side toward me was shaded and I couldn't see his colors, but I thought it looked like a rainbow. Some rafters on the little island with trees had seen the fish, stood up, and watched the fight. Shortly another group pulled in at the twin rocks to watch.

The fish made a hard run, but stopped short of the ledge some distance below. I hate it when big fish cross ledges and have to be followed, and in this case the water below me would have been too deep anyway. I kept trying to wade to an area of slower water where I would have some hope of landing him given that I hadn't brought a net. I kept getting in deep water and having to backtrack. I got the fish close a couple of times, and could now see the yellow colors of a brown. Every time he saw me he would take a lot of line again.

I finally found a route to a slow eddy, and guided the fish closer. He was getting tired, as I was. He tangled me in a dead branch at one point, but I was able to reach the branch and free the line. He took some line and circled me a couple of times, then I finally got him close. He was tired enough so I could stop his runs, and I brought him near, cradled him in my hand, and measured him against marks on my rod. He was 19 inches. After several attempts I gently grasped him by the gill cover, lifted him, and removed the hook. I held him up for the rafters on the twin rocks to cheers, then turned and showed him to the rafters on the island, and they cheered. Question: Were they cheering me, or the fish, or both? I held him in the water to see how he was doing, let go, and he swam away.

I thought about big fish I had caught before, and what they have to go through to get trophy size. This fish had survived herons, lampreys, otters, other trout, ospreys, rockfish, drought conditions, and eagles. He apparently had whatever skill set it takes to cope with all that. He had also probably been caught and released a few times, and I was grateful to the fishermen who had done so. They had given me a precious gift, and I was hopefully passing it on to someone else. By the way, that wasn't original. A guy named Lee Wulff said that.

This was one of the few trips I had forgotten my camera, so all I had was the memory, but that was all I needed. I killed and mounted a big fish once, and I've always regretted that. Have you ever noticed that live fish make much better pictures than dead fish?

I took a pipe break, and waded down to fish the shoals below. I caught 2 more rainbows, 9 and 10". A storm was brewing, and I decided to call it a day.

While walking out I ate my pbj and tried to decide if I should stop and fish dries at Outfitter's Shoals. On the one hand I had found ripe thimbleberries, which meant I should be fishing dries in the late afternoon. On the other hand, I had fished the day before (caught 21 below the powerhouse), so I was tired, and I had a busy week ahead at work. I stopped to wait out the thunderstorm under a rock ledge, then went on to the car. My trip had been fantastic, and the dry flies could wait for another day. With a little luck, there would be another day. Hope to see you on the river soon.