Hiwassee River Trip Report, I think some time in the summer of 2004
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note: In the summer of 2003 I decided to start archiving some of my trip reports. I remember some from the past that I wish I had archived. I think I can remember saving the original report for this trip somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it. It may have been lost when I moved the site from one ISP to another, that’s happened several times over the years. Anyway, below is the report as I recall it now, 9-29-07. If I ever find the original report, it will be interesting to see how it differs!
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If you haven’t met Toadfrog (Danny Phillips), you’ve missed something. Frankly, he tends to be a bit loud and boisterous, but he has a heart of gold, is really good with kids, has made enormous contributions to our Trout Unlimited chapter, and many of us have become rather fond of him.
Danny likes to float in his drift boat. I like to wade, but from time to time I let him talk me into a float trip. This report is about one of those trips. It wasn’t so remarkable as a fishing trip, but I find myself recalling it a lot, and want to put it in the archives.
One morning sometime, I believe, in the summer of 2004, we put in at the boat ramp, planning to float all the way to the railroad trestle. I’m not sure what I fished with, quite probably a brown hackle peacock, but I think we caught a few fish. I’m not sure we managed to catch a limit on this trip, doesn’t matter. This is not all about catching fish.
Below the island I seem to recall one notable fish. He struck, took off on a run, and just kept going! I thought it was a much better fish, but he turned out to be just 11″.
We made it past Fox’s Cabin, and we usually try behind the island below on the railroad side. There’s a fish there we like to check on now and then. From there, we floated through Towee Shoals, and just above Cane Island we came upon a john boat that was apparently abandoned. It was in a fast run. Apparently they had hung their anchor up on the bottom and didn’t have any way to cut it loose. The boat was totally empty, apparently they took all their stuff and swam out. It had Georgia registration numbers. We cut the rope and tied it to the drift boat, and went on our way.
When we went past Big Bend we saw something unusual on the island below the 4′ drop, and rowed over to investigate. It turned out to be a boat seat that matched the hole pattern in the john boat. Hah!
The next thing I remember is going down the rail side and fishing above the ledge above the really big rock. I don’t think we caught anything, but we got some bumps, and I need to try that area again one of these days. I’ve always been intrigued by that big rock.
From there we cut across to float the line through the stairsteps, and everything went fine until we got just above the last ledge. We bumped, and the anchor dropped! That left us hung in heavy current with water almost boiling over the stern. I was in the back, and tried my best to pull it loose, but couldn’t do much with it. Arthritis, you know. I switched places with Danny, and he grained and strunted, and couldn’t do it either. He kept trying. Danny is strong as an ox, or something, and somehow he managed to get us loose. We really should put the anchor in the boat when floating through places like that. We anchored off and took a good long rest. Danny has a heart condition, you know. I always find out where his nitrile is before I float with him.
We rowed across and fished some runs, got bumps, no fish. We floated on down and tried the run above the twin rocks, again bumps, no fish. I tried to guide Danny to anchor at a spot on down where I had a big fish break me off. Left me shaking, I had to wade out and sit down for a while. We had a misunderstanding and overshot, so we just fished below the next shoals.
Danny got a fish on, our first hookup in a while, and it became apparent that it was a bonafide trophy fish. We had a bit of a problem. We were anchored above the ledge with a john boat tied to the drift boat, and had no hope of dragging a big fish over the ledge and landing it. I was afraid to try to row us down below the ledge with the john boat tethered. Danny is, amongst other things, something of a genius with a pair of oars. We switched places, and I took his rod while he rowed us down.
While we were doing all this, the fish came off. Danny remarked that he was surprised I wasn’t more upset, said Bigga or Stranahan would be beating the rod on the water. I said “Why would I be upset, it wasn’t my fish!” He hit me on that one. Still brings it up now and then.
When Danny calmed down we floated past Little Rock Island and the Rock Garden, shot through the needle, and headed across to try the Christmas Tree pool. I could see weather coming, and suggested we might want to get over to the other bank. We made it just in time to hunker down in our ponchos under some trees by the bank, and watch one of the most spectacular light shows I have ever seen. The flashes were almost constant, and loud, and lit the whole wide world up with an eerie orange light. One of the guides floated by us with some clients, I think Dane. Beverly was waiting for us at the boat ramp, and asked them if they had seen us when they got there. They told her we were hunkered down. When it passed, we finished our trip in the dark. What a day!
