A Weekend of Delayed Harvest

This past weekend, Justin and I decided to go on a last minute trip to the western part of North Carolina to do some trout fishing. I was a little iffy about it because it’s over a 5 hour drive each way and we planned to leave right after work. But the whole trip was a blast and worth every minute of the drive.

We went to Stone Mountain State Park which is south of Sparta, North Carolina. The park is beautiful and clean and the streams are perfect. The East Prong of the Roaring River had plenty of delayed harvest areas with trout that were stocked just 2 weeks ago.

There are a few sections of the stream and a few tributaries that are strictly wild trout. We didn’t fish any of those because we were mostly interested in production fly fishing

The stream was low and clear (small flies) which was to be expected. All the  sections of the stream offered different types of fishing…deep holes, low hanging trees, slow moving pools, etc… All in all it’s a great stream and I’d be interested to see if it gets fishing out in the spring.

Most of the fish were the typical stocked fish size but there were a few fatties which we tried to land but with no luck Maybe next spring… The majority of the fish were rainbows with a few browns and a random brook (we didn’t land any brooks). Justin saw one native by himself in some fast moving water and I saw one mixed in with the other fish but we didn’t land any.

The weather was great for fly fishing…sweating in neoprene waders is never fun. No rain and plenty of sun. We did camp out on Saturday night and it’s safe to say that it was too cold to be doing that…especially when I’m used to this beach weather.

AH I wish I could fly fish for trout more often. It’s hands down my favorite type of fishing. See pictures below!

This weekend Justin and I are going on an inshore, light tackle charter…his b-day present. So be on the lookout for a report. It will be my first fishing charter ever!

Enjoy the pictures!

All smiles for the brown

A little bit of morning fog

My favorite scenic pic of the trip

Overlook from Rt. 21

What we fished with…size 20 or 22?