Nantahala Fly Fishing

We headed to the Nantahala gorge to fly fish Friday afternoon. The fishing was horrible. Oh, there were fish. I just wasn't catching any. A guy that looked like he knew what he was talking about said that they stocked the river that day, and that the fishing would be better tomorrow. I just nodded and assumed that getting dumped from a big tank truck into the river turned them off for a while.

As I have said before, I don't like fishing for stockers as much, but when you get skunked as we did last week they are good for a pick-me-up. Except, of course, when they skunk you too. When that happens you are willing to cling to the flimsiest excuses. Like the river having just been stocked. With hungry, stupid fish straight from the hatchery who don't know the difference between a Light Hendricksen and a Pale Morning Dun.

In western NC you don't get as many opportunities to watch trout rising. The water is much more "broken" and there are less long still runs. But we watched a smug little trout rising in one place, picking tiny bugs off the surface as they floated by. I put a fly over him a couple times and he rose to inspect it, only to refuse it go back to his place. Christy tied on some sort of tiny black fly (technical term) and I floated that over him he took it. Of course I managed to screw that up and didn't get the hook set before we spotted the fraud and spit the fly (or whatever they do). On a brighter note we saw a couple water snakes and the one I came really close to was at least as scared of me as I was of him. He ducked below a rock when he saw me, but wouldn't you know that I needed to stand right beside where I knew he was to fish one section of promising little water? I know that he wouldn't try to bother me, but just the same I kept looking down at my feet every few casts. Maybe the bear encounter still has me wound up.

The Nantahala is a beautiful river. It's name is Cherokee for "Land of the noon day sun" and it's easy to see why. The river runs through a stunning gorge for miles. There are two sections that are popular and are the areas that people are talking about when they say the "went to Nantahala". The first is the upper section which is delayed harvest trout water. From October to June you can't keep any fish. What this means practically is that only fly fisherman are on this section of water during that time. Drive this section on the first Saturday in June and you will see nothing but five gallon buckets of fish, Toby Keith hats, and beer cans. Then when every fish in sight has been pulled out of the river (by legal or illegal means - limits be damned), things get quiet again. The second section of the river is the white water section and is known all over the country for rafting and kayaking. Nantahala Outdoor Center is the main outfitter on the river. The state record brown trout came from this section, but rafts and kayaks are king on this section.

I thought there was sort of an unspoken deal that the fisherman had the upper section and the rafters had the lower section. But as we were leaving Friday we saw three kayakers paddling the falls in the upper section. It was fun to watch since I had already left, but I bet they met up with some folks that were less than pleased with them. People drive from all over the east to fish the Nantahala and I doubt they are pleased when a kayak comes splashing into the pool they are fishing. Keep in mind the river is 20 feet or so wide through this section and you can't see very far down the river. So when they plunged into a new section of river there could very well be someone right there waving a relatively fragile $600 graphite stick.