got up early last friday morning, and headed out, with my buddy kim, to the
big mountains of north carolina, and anti-clave headquarters. in a road
trip filled with anticipation, i imagined the waters i would soon be
fishing, and entertained various scenarios surrounding a first time meeting
with some of my fellow roffians. any nervousness i was experiencing on the
way out there immediately vanished, as wolfie, becky, jeff, and rachel made
me feel more than welcome. during a dinner of pizza, garlic bread, a
wonderful salad put together by becky, and wolfie, and some wonderful wine,
much laughter was shared by us all. great music led to a little dancing,
with both humans and canine, and the good times just flowed. after a
wonderful evening at jeff and rachel's cabin, it was off to the motel to get
a good night's sleep for the big day ahead.

saturday morning found me with a huge grin on my face and an abundance of
exited energy. i felt like a kid waiting for santa claus. jeff, walt, and
a friend of his met kim and i at the motel, and we followed them to the
lake. when we arrived we were met by some clouds, and a lake with mist
rising so thickly from it, that one might think it harbored a fire beneath
it's surface. the fellas got the boat un-hitched, and we were soon on our
way. the early morning chill, combined with the wind from the ride
invigorated me even more. when we got to the part of the lake that provided
access to the trail leading to hazel creek, we dropped kim off, as he was
planning on spending his day bass fishing, and headed to hazel. i nearly
had to pinch myself- it seemed to good to be true. after hiking for a
little bit, walt and chris made their way into the water, while jeff and i
headed further up-stream. but none of us entered the water before being
visited by the sight of a bear walking the trail on the other side of the
stream! very cool. while making our way to the water, jeff schooled me on
the demeanor of hazel's trout, saying that these trout are among some of
the spookiest in north carolina, and they are tough to catch. he also told
me that fewe people fish hazel within their first year of fly fishing, so i
really felt good about being there. i entered the water hoping to hook at
least one nice one, but would have been happy not to spook them all. ;-)

by now the sun had come out, jeff and i got in the water, and he kindly
showed me how to find the best spots to work. he also showed me how to mend
my line, and achieve a more natural drag. he was very helpful. we weren't
in the water too long before he had a rainbow, and then a short while later
got another. about 45 minutes in the water, i had a nice strike, but missed
it, and about 20 minutes later, another fish splashed at my fly. although i
tried to set the hook, i didn't make it, but i had to feel pretty good about
actually getting a couple of those bad boys to rise to my fly.
after about half a day of fishing with jeff, we met up with walt and chris,
and switched up. i spent the rest of the afternoon fishing with walt, which
also proved a very pleasant adventure. walt showed me how to nymph with
split shot and an indicator, which was pretty cool, and not nearly as
difficult as i thought it would be- actually, it was a lot of fun. while
walt and i were nymphing, he landed a really big one, and after struggling
with the fish for a couple of minutes, it decided it had had enough, and
relieved walt of the struggle;-). it was a nice fish, though.

after a while, walt and i decided it was time for a beer, and so we headed
back to the boat to join kim. walt proceeded to make short work of a couple
of beers, while i tried my hand at some bass fishing. walt kindly spent some
time teaching me the roll cast, and i think i caught onto that pretty quick.
jeff and chris showed up shortly after that, and we got back into the boat,
and headed back, with plans to meet up at a chinese buffet in town.

back at the hotel, a hot shower was a welcome treat, and by the time i got
out of it, i was feeling pretty fatigued, and was beginning to feel the
effect of maneuvering that stream! this getting old **** sucks!
anyway, kim and i got ourselves together, and met up with walt and chris at
the restaurant. several days of working those streams had finally caught up
with jeff, and he begged off for the evening. chris donated a good sized
rainbow that he had landed to the restaurant. walt, kim, chris and i spent
the rest of the evening gorging on chinese food, and crab legs, while
sharing great camaraderie. a wonderful, almost magical day was followed by
an evening of good food, good company, and hilarity. a great combination.
and even though i didn't catch any fish, i am quite satisfied that i didn't
spook the **** out of them, and actually got a couple to rise to my fly.

i got up the next morning to reluctantly head out of town, with a sore
body, (i did take a couple of spills) and satisfied mind.

thanks jeff, walt, wolfie, rachel, and becky, for showing me and my friend
a great time. i look forward to doing it again.

snakefiddler