Fishing - The Rapid River and a kid

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The Rapid River and a kid

I gifted a great friend's 16 yo son. If dad would donate $400 to a program run
by a bunch of kids in my area (they go to Haiti every summer and build houses,
toilets, rec buildings, etc), I would take him to the Rapid for three days of
guided fishing. He has never fly fished before.

We arrived on Monday, bright and early, and headed for the dam for some casting
instructions. He had his fair share of troubles, but surprisingly I had the
patience to stick with it. After lunch, we headed back to the river and tried
to actually catch a fish. He got into a very nice salmon (18-20 inches) that
tail walked across the pool. Steven, with his mouth agape, didn't know what to
do. After much coaching ("Keep your rod tip up, UP."), and just when I thought
the beautiful fish had given up, one more giant leap for salmonkind and he was
off. It took several seconds for Steve's mouth to close and for him to speak.
We finished off the day with a small brookie and three small salmon. Overall a
pretty good day for him and me. I was happy. We were both happy.

On Tuesday, he couldn't do a thing right. Every time I would take his rod to
show him what he should do and to illustrate what he was doing wrong, I caught
a fish. He landed about 8 fish, but never hooked up himself.

After lunch, he went swimming and this tired old man took a much deserved nap.

The next morning, armed with more confidence, and box lunches from the kitchen,
we took the camp pick-up down river to the Lower Dam. A giant aerial blanket
of alder flies hovered next to every little tree by the river. Millions of
flies. The female's had green egg sacks and were bobbing on the water.
However, there was not one rise to either the hatch or when they returned to
deposit their eggs. I tried several patterns, but the big brookies that I knew
were lurking in the deepest pools weren't interested. Nor would they take a
nymph. Very strange. We decided to wade upstream to just below the Spawning
Beds where we saw some rising fish. We managed a small salmon on a Goddard
Caddis.

Back to the dam to fish the water immediately upstream from the first and
second gates. I had rigged up my Winston 5 weight and made a couple of casts.
Steve was into another very nice salmon, but again, had trouble landing it. I
took a very nice 18-20 brookie on the Goddard.

Steve was getting the hang of it. His casting was abysmal (sorta like mine),
but he was getting the fly up-stream and mending his line properly. He took
several more small fish before we had to head back to camp.

I think the bug has bitten him, because that night I overheard his telephone
conversation: "Dad, I've had more fun than our trips to Bermuda."
Sooooo......... here's hoping he takes up the art of the angle. He could do
worse...... or is that worser........

BTW, we had the river to ourselves. Not another person within sight. From July
1 to August 31, the spawning beds and Lower Dam downriver to Long Pool are
closed to all fishing.

Alaska in August is next.....

Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

The Rapid River and a kid

dt writes:

Damn - there's usually still good water two weeks into July, at least.
Why the new rule?

They (who the hell are "they", anyway?) say that the brookies gather in this
water during the heat of summer. The new regs are to protect the fish (???).
Also, the river below the Currents is closed as of Sept 15, rather than the
30th. There was no one at pondy two weeks ago. River flow was 390, so fishing
the 2nd Current was a snap. The big brookies are still there. The flow went
up to 490 and then to 590 the day we arrived (Monday).

Although the lake is low (down about 5 or 6 feet), and the flow skinny (390
from May 13 to a week ago) the river temp is still low - 63 degrees F. The
region has been blessed with some very cold nights during June, and lots of
cold rain.

Still have yet to catch my first bass.
Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

The Rapid River and a kid

daytripper wrote:

/daytripper (thinking about a bigger salt water boat again...)

me too... a 17' bay boat is great for flats and sound fishing, but
sal****er baths offshore are a bit testy. what have you been looking at?

jeff

The Rapid River and a kid

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:20:31 -0400, Jeff Miller
wrote:

daytripper wrote:

/daytripper (thinking about a bigger salt water boat again...)

me too... a 17' bay boat is great for flats and sound fishing, but
sal****er baths offshore are a bit testy. what have you been looking at?

We've definitely outgrown our 18' bow-rider, there's a whole world beyond its
limits. Even the SO has been pushing for a bigger boat, so I got that going
for me :-)

I've been looking at 23'-25' center consoles, large enough to have a head in
the console - a "gotta have" feature for spousal unit buy-in :-) but small
enough to trailer. Whatever it turns out to be it'll have a 200-225hp Yamaha
60° v6.

On the short list if new: Scout 235 Sportfish, SeaPro 238 CC, Genmar Fishhawk
213 CC and 233 CC. I would enjoy any of them. But if a great used deal falls
out of the sky towards the end of the summer I might spring for that...

/daytripper

The Rapid River and a kid

i love my little 17' sea pro bay boat... easy for me to trailer and
single hand...but, i have started easing out in the ocean and there are
some interesting things out there (plus, far fewer humans than around
the inshore areas). it's just around the corner and the gulf stream is
only about 30 miles out. there's a reason they call them "bay boats", so
i'm yearning for another new ride that will safely carry me out into the
yonder...

i'm trying (unsuccessfully so far) to put a group together to buy a deep
sea fishing machine to hit the stream for a few years. i'm focused on a
used carolina classic or albemarle in the 24-28' range, but, for the
trailering advantage, i've also looked at that new "palmetto" 24 (?) by
sea pro too.

the salt water flyfishing along the carolina coast has matured (some of
us say mutated), and the fat albert chase around cape lookout is now
probably akin to that popular kiddie pool on the san juan (hell, even
wally has traveled down to harkers island for the circus g). you can
still find spots in bays and salt marshes that afford a measure of
tranquility, and some nice fish. but, that warm blue stream looks kinda
interesting and my fishing mentor ain't getting any younger. g

do you fish the cape areas up there? how far out do you go and what do
you fish for, primarily?

jeff

daytripper wrote:

On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:20:31 -0400, Jeff Miller
wrote:

daytripper wrote:

/daytripper (thinking about a bigger salt water boat again...)

me too... a 17' bay boat is great for flats and sound fishing, but
sal****er baths offshore are a bit testy. what have you been looking at?

We've definitely outgrown our 18' bow-rider, there's a whole world beyond its
limits. Even the SO has been pushing for a bigger boat, so I got that going
for me :-)

I've been looking at 23'-25' center consoles, large enough to have a head in
the console - a "gotta have" feature for spousal unit buy-in :-) but small
enough to trailer. Whatever it turns out to be it'll have a 200-225hp Yamaha
60° v6.

On the short list if new: Scout 235 Sportfish, SeaPro 238 CC, Genmar Fishhawk
213 CC and 233 CC. I would enjoy any of them. But if a great used deal falls
out of the sky towards the end of the summer I might spring for that...

/daytripper

The Rapid River and a kid

Jeff Miller wrote:

the salt water flyfishing along the carolina coast has matured (some of
us say mutated), and the fat albert chase around cape lookout is now
probably akin to that popular kiddie pool on the san juan (hell, even
wally has traveled down to harkers island for the circus g).

and i plan on comin' down again this fall and chasin' those sweet
darlins' .... them puppies are *BAD*

you know what's funny..... it's been nearly 3/4 of a year since i
was down there.... i don't think a day has gone by when i don't
reminisce about that trip. it was fun to be on the salt again and
i can barely stand it waiting for the next trip.

wally