Spring Break Fly Fishing!

by Lee Whitehead

For my spring break I headed up to North Carolina to do some fly fishing with my good friend Mike Dennis. The first day of the trip we went to the North Mills river. Mike could not go so I went with one of his friends, Doc. We caught 30 to 40 fish between us on tiny 20-22 BWO’s, thread midges, and Parachutes. I caught the best fish of the day which was a 16 inch Brook.

On Tuesday, we headed up to the Davidson river. I caught a lot of little ones and then a decent brown and bow. The fish were feeding on tiny 22-24 emerging midges … which we didn’t have. I caught the bow on a 20 zebra midge and the brown on a 14 stimulator (in other words, my strike indicator).

The “Purina Hatch” (where thousands of pellets come floating down the Davidson river, making the trout go crazy and making the water look like its boiling) started at 1:00. Mike’s friend, Bill Owen, caught a nice brown during this feeding frenzy.
On Wednesday, Mike and I went to Laurel creek with Jeff Curtis, owner of Curtis Wright Outfitters in NC. I caught one brook and four bows on a fly called a blueberry which is just a sparkly blue nymph. Jeff caught one brown on an olive woolly bugger.
On Thursday, four of us went to Cherokee trophy water. We fished the bridge by the high school. The day started off slow with me picking up two brooks on a Y2K egg pattern. Finally after hours of fishing, we found out that they wanted orange. We put on some orange nymphs and started catching fish. Josh, who works at Curtis Wright Outfitters, caught four nice bows. I caught one 15 inch Rainbow, then on the last cast of the day, I hooked, landed, and released a nice 22 inch Rainbow.

On Friday we went on a float trip with Ian Rutter in one boat and Tim Doyle in another boat with two of Mike’s friends. I left my camera in the car so I don’t have any pictures. We had a great time with lots of jokes. I caught twelve nice Rainbows and had a great time.  Lee

Lee is 16 years old and graduated from Last years Rivercourse.  How great is that kids and adults alike can enjoy this great sport.  Contact Curtis Wright Outfitters for your next Fly Fishing Adventure in the Asheville, North Carolina area.