Family fishing is my favorite fishing and today was as good as it gets. I had the privilege of guiding this awesome grandfather, father and son/grandson trio for a busy day on the stream. We caught variety, quantity and as you can see, some serious quality. When you land a beautiful trout like the one above, everybody should get in the picture! Thank you guys for letting me join in on the fun.
What better way to spend time with friends than in the outdoors? Combine good company, fall colors and few cooperative trout and you’ve got a perfect tenkara morning! That’s exactly what we had yesterday when one tenkara angler decided to introduce a bass fishing buddy to the fun and simplicity of trout fishing with tenkara. As you can see by the smiles it was fun for everyone. Now that’s what are friends for!
It’s been a while coming but it would appear that autumn is finally arriving here in the mountains. Yesterday it was 39 degrees when we waded in with our tenkara rods. The fall colors were breaking out and the fish were biting. Our hatchery supported streams have all received fish and some of them are pretty good size! The day did warm beautifully and we hiked up to brook trout water in the afternoon where we found good numbers of local natives ready to grab a dry fly. Good company, lunch in the warm sun and a low overflight by a bald eagle rounded out what was pretty much a perfect fall day here in WNC. I can’t wait to get out again.
If you follow my posts you’ll know I respect the effort it takes to find and catch our elusive native Brook Trout. The angler pictured above and below is a great friend of mine and definitely deserves special recognition. He came all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand to get the beauty pictured below. Okay, maybe he didn’t come just just to catch a Brook Trout…but he did that, too! If you’re wondering, no, I don’t typically guide barefoot. It’s a long story I’ll tell you the next time we go fishing.
I spent the day yesterday up in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park volunteering with their tremendous fisheries team. The GSMNP is a model nationwide for it’s impressive, science based management of it’s cold-water fisheries. Yesterday we were doing a stream survey using electro-shocking technology. Fish are momentarily stunned, identified and logged to monitor the biodiversity of each stream. Yesterday we found Brown and Rainbow trout, as well as Central Stone Rollers, Mottled Sculpins, Long- Nosed Dace, Black Nosed Dace, Crayfish and we kicked up some pretty impressive Stone Fly Nymphs as well. Next time you’re out trout fishing, don’t forget to pause and appreciate the many other wonderful creatures that make up a healthy stream. If you have a chance to volunteer with local conservation efforts, do it! You’ll find it an incredible learning experience, as well as a chance to help take care of our precious outdoor resources.
If you’re a reasonably sane person you might wonder why I seem to get so excited about fishing for native Brook Trout. After all, they’re tiny when you compare them to some of the fish we catch fall through spring. You don’t catch as many and it seems like a lot of effort by comparison. For me the appeal comes from three things:
I was always taught that things that easily are often undervalued, unappreciated or taken for granted. The things you prize are the things you have to earn. That is the ultimate appeal of angling for Brook Trout…every one is earned.
I suspect Emily Dickenson wasn’t talking about Brook trout fishing when she wrote about luck…but maybe she was! It certainly is applicable and the photos above and below are ample evidence of the value of effort in determining an outcome. These gorgeous, native Appalachian Brook Trout were some of our reward for 5 miles of tough hiking, a day of rock scrambling and hours of patient fly casting. In Brookie fishing fortune’s smile must always be earned, and when it is…it’s contagious.
