St Jude Fly Fishing Adventure with Pics and Video

[Mudd]

[Guru]

Great stuff bud!!

[rbcorbitt]

Looks like a heck of a good time!!!

[Terry Green]

Joe at the head fishing the off side seam of the same run....

 

Just a side note...we had 3 rods on the stream, and we'd just hand Joe a different one at a run, with a different fly, so he wouldn't have to retie all day long...

   


The next hole...

 

 

This is another run Joe dominated with his casting skills,,,...time and time again, as he moved forward, he cast again and again between the vegetation.  You can see, if you look close, the dead limbs and twigs on the right as well as the live mountain laurel on the left....

At the lower end of this run Joe's 1st cast was perfect as well as the drift and the was the largest dry hit of the day...the commode literally flushed!!!  Joe turned around to see the same look on both Keith and my faces.  Man that was a dandy!!!

 

A stealthy attack at a simply gorgeous section....

 

Supper was calling, ...we'd had a wonderful day on the stream and here's Joe heading back after finally connection on a small but, extremely colorful wild N GA trout...

   Smokin Joe\\'s wild Mountain Rainbow    

Ending on that note...here's Joe heading back for the climb out....

 

[Terry Green]

I'll leave ya with a few more parting pics and comments.

Thanks to Joe for being the winning bidder, it will be a trip I'll never forget for many reasons.

Thanks to Tee Bone of Badger Broadheads and Noontootla Creek Farms for donating the trip and letting me host.  The weather was perfect, but this time of year can be feast or famine due to the heat...and just like hunting....that's fishing.  But, we did manage to get Joe on his biggest fish to date I believe, and the scenery would be hard to match here in the eastern mountains.

And finally, thanks to my great friend Keith for coming and donating his time, effort and knowledge all the while never casting once.

Our last dinner included Keith, and some half pound bacon and cheddar burgers....and of course, along with chips n dips.

Thanks again to all, and I hope to do it again next year......

   

     
 
   

 

[smokin joe]

It was a great time in a beautiful place. The big trout was quite an experience. Terry and I saw the trout from the opposite side of the creek. He was quietly laying in one spot moving from side to side taking nymphs near the bottom. I re-rigged with a hopper/dropper set up. The hopper was about a size 10 foam hopper and the dropper was a 16 bead head sparkle pupa. I had seen a couple of caddie flies flying around the water and thought that their nymphs might be on the trout menu.

I went downstream and found a place to cross without making too much commotion, then I slowly worked into a casting position. On about my third cast the trout slowly moved out if sight and worked his way away from me. I lengthened my cast, made another cast, and got a great drift past where I thought he went. The hopper disappeared and I knew he had taken the sparkle pupa. Fish on. I knew right away that I was into a big trout. He made two long and strong runs upstream. His strength was impressive. After the second long run I managed to slowly work him in - closer and closer. At last I had him in sight. He had a stick about a foot long and an inch in diameter that looked like it went in his mouth and out his right gill. As I got him closer I saw that the leader was wraped around the stich and had it  cinched up to the ride of his head. That was a lot of stress to put on a 4x leader. I worked him up to my feet and as I was wondering how to get him untangled from the stick when he gave one last shake and the leader broke at the stick and he slowly swam away. As they say in trout fishing, "the tug is the drug" and that mighty trout put up an incredible fight - that fight that keeps you coming back to a great stream again and again. It is good that I didn't have to handle him to get him unhooked. He swam away as if nothing had happened. A fish like that one needs to live to be caught again. Unfortunately, the fly he took was the only one of that type in that size that I had. And he took it with him when he broke off. I had found, and then lost, the fly that the big trout wanted.

[smokin joe]

And.... I am determined to be the winning bidder again next year. It is a great place to fly fish for trout.

Yes, Terry, my previous biggest trout was a 23" rainbow about five years ago. Ours was at least a 24" fish and my largest to date. Of course, any trout over 20" is a fish of a lifetime.

Wow. What a great trip.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great Trip Guys!  Good  recap and picture Terry.  I agree, you would be hard pressed to meet a better fella than Joe.

[Rob DiStefano]

just .... AWESOME!!! in every way!!!