the swelling has gone down enough to write a few lines and post a few
pics of my meanderings in the nc and tenn mountains and lakes. it's a
blur now, but, as usual, the kindness, humor, and camaraderie to be
found among the friends i've discovered in roff remain the highlight.
thanks to each of them.

spurred by a bout of insomnia and the anxiety to test my new lightweight
one-man tent, thermarest pad, and sleeping bag, i left greenville nc on
may 10 at 3:30 am heading west for an upper creek camping-redux with
mark. i decided to take the gheenoe, 2.5 motor, and two...gasp...
spinning rods since some nc and tenn lakes were in the plans for the trip.

met mark in lenoir around 8 am, and after outfitting ourselves with
sufficient candy bars for medicinal purposes (snickers and m&m's are my
preferred cure), we left my truck and gheenoe at his place, loaded our
packs in his truck, and headed to walt's flyshop (wilson creek
outfitters) in morganton as a brief detour on our way to upper creek.
wally is in the midst of reconstruction/remodeling a building for his
new shop, but met us the weather was concerning, with severe
thundershowers predicted. because the greentown trail plan involved a
mile and a half hike down (and, more importantly, back up) steep
terrain, the probability of a serious downpour and drenching forced a
change in plans. as i'm not an experienced or devoted camper, i didn't
feel like spending two days camping in the rain or damp campsite and
tent, with the prospect of an ass-whip wet puppy hike up the greentown
trail...so, i decided we should go in downstream at the main campground.
we hiked up about a half mile and set up camp at one of the two existing
sites near the end of the main trail, far enough away from the
campground to assure some quiet but an easy hike back to the truck in
the event of heavy rains.

lower-middle upper creek has some nice water beginning in the area of
our campsite, with some large and deep plunge pools farther upstream
amidst incredible geography in the tight valley and substantial rock
faces. it's a "wild" trout stream that gets hit hard in the lower
reaches around the campground, but maintains an ample number of typical
small nc trout 6-8", with some 12-14 inchers. i've seen a 16 inch brown
caught on a prince nymph, but my best fish from the creek has been about
13". it's a fun, scenic creek to fish, made especially challenging by
the waterfalls and difficult terrain in the middle stretches around the
cable-crossing and in the upper falls areas. we planned to fish from our
campsite up to the chestnut falls during the trip...lots of good water
and eye-popping scenery.

after the usual stumbling and fumbling, mark and i began fishing. in the
first pool, mark caught several fish on one of his homemade fly
designs...a bizarre looking cross between a humpy, a caddis and
hopper...i call it a hump-dis-hopper. anyway, the fish seemed attracted
by it...for a short while. the first day, we fished up to within 100
yards of the cable crossing. we caught a lot small rainbows, a few small
browns, and a bunch of chubs. the second day, we made the cable
crossing. thanks to mark i was able to suppress my vertigo and get
around the cable rock ok. i've posted some photos on abpf.

the largest trout i caught was about 9-10"...but all rose to a dry, so
it was loads of fun. there were a good number of bugs flitting about,
though scant in comparison to pennsylvania or montana standards. we have
few real hatches in nc, at least as i think of the term...you know,
those that cause the fish to focus their feeding and rises. however, i
saw more bugs in the air and on the waters of all the streams i fished
during this trip than i recall ever seeing in years past. the dominant
bug was the sulphur, with some yellow sally in the mix. yellow... i
dumped the parachute adams in favor of a parachute sulphur and a yellow
foam caddis creation i got from walt. both produced well. on the second
day, i think mark obstinately refused to change to yellow and suffered a
drop in his catch rate.

though we'd planned a 3 day trip, an overnight shower on friday night
caused us to break camp and head back into morganton saturday morning.
on the way, we stopped in at greg's campground on hwy 181. (mark...i've
forgotten the name...can you give him a plug here?) greg's place is an
excellent campground and a good basecamp for more civilized daily forays
to the numerous streams in the area. he also maintains a pleasant trout
zoo for kids and other miscreants (including flyfishermen who might have
overindulged) in a large pool where steele creek and upper creek join.
greg is also an interesting "character" with a lot of deepsea fishing
experience in the caribbean (including cuba) and latin america pacific
areas. on this trip, he showed us a marlin he caught off panama in feb
2007 - 836 pounds. he kept it only because it died during the 2 hour
fight after sounding and then coming up too fast. however, all of the
meat was distributed among two local tribes living in the coastal forest
near the bay where he was moored at the time. except in tourneys, marlin
are usually released with excellent recovery rates.

serendipitously, wally called while we were at greg's and offered a
float down the catawba tailwater system above morganton. mark didn't
want to do it, but i was`in a mood for a relaxing day rafting down a
river. it was overcast and the dam was releasing water from one wheel,
so the prospect of catching a 24" brown was pretty good. with mark's
help, wally and i put his raft in at the lake james dam and began our
float. it's a nice river system, with some nice fast water mixed among
long spans of more quiet water stretches. though we had fly rods, the
preferred means of enticing a big brown - endorsed by a local guy high
up in the tu hierarchy and one of the initial proponents of the fishery
on the catawba - is a spinning rod with yozuri crank baits. it was
wally's recommendation as well, so we began chunking at the banks and
holding areas much as i'm accustomed to doing for bass. we caught 15 or
more nice browns and one rainbow. it was a bunch of fun... being able to
travel down a river with a cooler full of chilled drinks and to anchor
in choice spots, savoring the scenery with the friendly chit-chat while
teasing some big fish, well, it was a damn fine and relaxing time.

this leg of my trip was as good as i could have hoped for, and served as
a good opening for what proved to be one of my best fishing treks thus
far. good company, outstanding scenery, sufficient cooperative fish,
and unhurried days and nights. the camping was a good experience as
well, making me a bit surer and more knowledgeable about my future plans
to solo camp in the smokies. it was also good to fish a bit with wally
again, even with spinning tackle. years ago, we used to flyfish together
in the boone area almost monthly...a habit we discontinued as he
expanded his business and when i sold my cabin on elk creek. i've
missed those trips.

and mark, thanks for the patience and hospitality. i think we've
established an annual tradition i hope we'll continue. ... next year,
let's do upper upper...

....sunday, i was on the road to watts bar reservoir/lake near kingston,
tenn. (to be continued)...

jeff