"D. LaCourse" wrote in message
news:2011031814225516807-davplac@aolcom...
Went to see Waldo on Tuesday. It was a three hour drive, but the hills
and scenery were terrific. I arrived in Mornganton, NC before he closed
his fly shop. He looked good. He's lost a lot of weight and still shows
the scars on his face from his tangle with me at the Blue Stone cabin some
years ago. (Actually, Walt fell off a bench trying to hang the Pirate's
Colors on the outside wall of the cabin. He slipped and did a face plant
on the wall.) I bet the mark on the cabin wall is still there.

Walt and Marie joined me for dinner that night, and we ate some terrific
food, both in taste and price. If I had a restaurant like that near me,
I'd eat three meals a day there. Only problem, I was the youngest person
in the restaurant until Walt and Marie arrived. d;o(

I met Scott on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. and we headed to lower Wilson
Creek. Very pretty water. It was the "delayed harvest" area and the fish
were stocked last fall - catch and release until June. I don't normally
fish for stocked trout, but this was different. Perhaps it was the
setting. There's nothing like that close to home here in Georgia.

The place was crowded, believe it or not, with two or three cars at all
the pull-offs. Scott found an isolated spot and we started fishing. It
was supposed to be 65 degrees. It was actually about 45 degrees and I
froze my ass off. Scott had an extra sweat shirt which I managed to get
my 208 pounds into, and I was a bit more comfortable.

This was a different type of fishing to me. I had a dry fly tied on an 8
foot leader, with four feet of tippet tied to the hook and a dropper nymph
at the end with split shot added to sink the nymph. After missing several
takes of the dropper, I finally hooked up with a small brookie, and lost
two or three others by missing the take. (If I fish a dropper, I use only
about 18 inches of tippet tied to the dry, and no weight tied to the
*tiny* {size 20} nymph. After fishing this set-up for awhile, we moved
to a different spot. First cast I hooked up with a decent size brookie on
the nymph. That's when I decided to go to a straight nymphing set up - no
dropper, just a PT soft hackle (size 18), a little weight, and because I
was nymphing at a great distance, I tied on an indicator. I took a few
more fish with this set up before we retired for lunch.

After lunch we moved down stream to a spot that was crowded earlier in the
day. Beautiful water. Managed a fish or two in this water before it was
time to leave.

All in all it was a pretty good trip. I got to see Wally again and meet
Scott whom I know I will fish with again. I wish I could fish farther
up-river for native trout, but from what I hear from Mark, Jeff, and now
Scott, it is a little too difficult for an old codger with a new hip on
one side and a bad one on the other. I enjoyed this trip more than
fishing Duke's Creek which is just around the corner from me, but it is
all I have. Can hardly wait until the last week of May, and the first
three weeks of June on the Rapid. Hopefully I will be in better shape.

Dave

Thanks for the report Louie,

Glad to here you are out and about after the surgery.

JT