an old friend of frank c & a trip report

well, saturday being such a beautiful morning, my buddy kim and i woke with
but one thing on our mind- fishing. after filling our bellies with enough
food to last into the afternoon, and filling the cooler with snacks and
drinks, we eagerly piled into the truck and headed out. unsure of our exact
destination, we decided to head from morganton toward asheville. how could
we go wrong with the nearly unending streams that flow through western north
carolina. our "plan" was to drive until we came upon the area that most
enticed us. this adventurous (read unprepared) method of stream searching
took us through some beautiful country. we saw stately old homesteads and
handsome log and wood homes. while checking out a road leading into the
pisgah national forest, we eyed about 20 wild turkeys milling around in a
field surrounded by the woods. we got out of the truck and watched them
until they flew into the forest.
by now, we had entered the forest, in the old fort area, and decided to
fish curtis creek. course, we had spent a lot of time driving, which was
fun in and of itself, but we only had a couple of hours to fish. we parked
the truck, got out and proceeded to don our wading gear. 'bout the time we
were ready, a ranger pulled up requesting our licenses. naturally
everything was in order, and the swapping of fishing stories began. after a
few minutes, i recognized the ranger as being a young fella that had
"pulled" frank church and i last summer when we were fishing in lake james.
i asked him if he was working the lake at that time, and he said yes. he
said he thought he recognized me as the woman that was fishing with the
"older gentlemen." i replied by saying "well, yes, he was older.... SEG .
i reminded him that he had asked frank and i if we were married, he turned
red and affirmed that he remembered that too ;-)
remember that trip, frank?
anyway, being the social animal that kim is, he enjoys conversation.
finally i put his rod in his hand, (stop thatg) and he got the hint. the
ranger said that i apparently had come to fish and was ready to go.
affirmative. we headed to the stream. it was late afternoon and the sun
was sparkling on the water. the air smelled fresh, and the water gurgled as
it flowed across the rocks. i immediately found the spot i wanted to put
in. it was a bend in the stream, with some very nice riffles, and some
smooth flowing water along the bank. i cast my yeller hammer into the
water, with great accuracy, i'm tickled to be able to say, and began to
slowly bring it back in. two casts later, i had a tug on my line. kim
became almost as excited as i did, (this was the first time i caught
something in "my element" while fishing with him). anxious to see what was
on the other end, i commenced to bringing in my catch. unfortunately he, or
she, got off just as i brought it to the surface :-( i didn't get to see
what it was, but i can say that it wasn't real big. probably about 5
inches. but, damn it felt good to get into a gorgeous stream, and feel
something on the other end of my line. and to be reassured that there are
fish out there. it'd been so long since i caught something, i was beginning
to wonder :-)
we continued to fish until dark, and then climbed the bank to the road. we
drove back to morganton and ended the evening with some pizza and a couple
of beers. great ending to a great day.
i'm sure glad i got out when i did, as i sit here looking out my window at
the snow falling......