In very late December of 2019, I choose to have very major heart surgery. I was told at my age of almost 77, I had a thirty percent chance of not making it through surgery to remove calcium from surrounding my heart. I didn’t like the alternative and choose to have the surgery. A little over two months later, I was released to come home… Read More »It’s Been A Rough Year and A Half
Anytime you cast and catch a fish you can rightfully say that you made a“Perfect Cast”. The cast accomplished its one and only purpose. You cast the flyin such a manner that you were able to present it well enough to fool the fish intothinking it was the real thing. Unless you are competing in a long distance casting competition, the one andonly purpose of… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Fly Casting – Part One Distance
During the late Summer and early Fall, many freestone trout streams becomevery low due to the lack of rainfall. In these cases, it the air temperatures becomevery hot, trout streams can get in bad condition and fishing can become verytough and stressful on the trout when you are successful. As always, the streams to be affected the most in terms of water level are thesmall,… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Fishing Low Clear Water
When you’re fishing a freestone stream, you most likely try to place your fly inevery likely pocket, current seam or any other place a trout could be holding.Even the clearest lie can conceal a trout. If you place your fly in the right spot, atrout may take it, that is, if a trout is there. If trout are not there then youcertainly want get a… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Finding Trout In Freestone Streams
The stream’s volume of water and rate of flow strictly depends upon MotherNature. The amount of water in the stream can vary drastically with the seasonsof the year. Heavy rainfall that usually occurs in the spring months makes thefreestone streams large and turbulent and sometimes flood beyond their normalbanks. In the late summer and fall months of the year, most freestone streamsreach their lowest levels.… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Changing Water Conditions
When the rain and snow falls from the sky it is pure and free from minerals andis slightly acidic. It usually has a pH of approximately six. This can be affected byacid rain. The intent here is to show that the pH changes from the headwaters tothe slower moving water in the foothills and how this affects the aquatic insect life. As the water flows… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Freestone Stream Insects
A freestone stream is born at the top of a mountain as drops of rainwater andmelting snowflakes. As gravity forces these droplets to seep through thecrevices of rocks, soil and organic matter, they combine into small trickles ofwater. These trickles eventually collide and become larger and larger. They formtiny streams that you can step across. The tiny streams eventually join other tiny steams to form… Read More »Fly Fishing For Trout – Freestone Streams
At the headwaters, most eastern freestone mountain streams support native brook trout. In the west, most headwaters support native cutthroat trout. Some of the western freestone stream headwaters also support wild brook trout, or decedents of brook trout that were at one time stocked. These fish are usually small, averaging from four to eight inches because they have less space to live and less food… Read More »Fly Fishing Freestone Streams – Part Two
Generally, trout streams are classified as freestone trout streams, taiilwaters and spring creeks. Of course, there are streams that have various combinations of spring creek water, tailwaters and freestone stream water, In this case, we are only covering freestone streams. A freestone trout stream is born at the top of a mountain as drops of rainwater and a melting snow pack or snowflakes. As gravity… Read More »Fly Fishing Freestone Streams – Part One
Brown trout are much like salmon in that they will travel upstream long distancesto spawn. It’s thought that many of these trout will actually return to the samelocation that they used in previous years to spawn. I understand some testingthat was done in North Georgia showed this to be a fact in the Southeast UnitedStates. To begin with, the trout need to be in excellent… Read More »Fly Fishing for Spawning Brown Trout