Toot or the river?????

[WetPatella]

Jimmy,

what is fishing the best right now given the cold temps. of this morning and Wednesday morning?

I am heading up Wed morning and can't decide to hit the river or Noontootla, or go on up to the Nantahala?

Thanks

[pschlemm]

So where'd you fish and how'd you do?

[WetPatella]

I went to the Nantahala for the first time. I caught around 23-25 trout mostly Rainbows with 3-4 Brookies mixed in. Those trout wouldn't hit anything natural looking? I found that a pink egg type fly worked the best so the y2k and several pink and yellow midge looking flies that I tie worked well.

I was suprised at how healthy these fish looked and how well they fought! Also suprised at the size of the fish in the DH section (16"-20" bows).

Why do our DH fish look so stressed out and beat up????

Only draw back was the COLD! Ice was on nearly every rock that made contact with the water and was also forming on my line and rod guides up until about 1:00PM. I also took a swim at 5:00 to end my day! Dry clothes and car heaters rock!!!!!

[Jimmy Harris]

WP,

I'm sorry but somehow I missed your post on the 6th. Glad to hear you had a good trip to the Nantahala. That's an awesome place. I remember one day fishing there and the air temp was 11! Every rock in the river had an ice shelf around it and the water was clear as the air. Fishing was really slow until I figured out there was a trout holding underneath most of those ice shelves. They had a sense of security under there and if you could float your fly right on their noses under the ice, you got a hookup. It was so subtle you had to watch the fish take the fly to know when to lift your rod but it was a blast. That day all they wanted were tiny pheasant tails.

[S.Trutta]

The fish in the Nanny are usually pretty receptive to a small glass eyed midge in the really cold weather. Fished in january a few years ago with my dad and the air temp was 8 when we started fishing. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground, and didnt really hook anything using egg patterns or nymphs. Dropped a small #20 gun metal colored midge on 6x off an egg and started hooking fish left and right from the tailouts of the larger pools. In general, small and slow is better in the cold.

Rich

[gfra]

like those egg patterns they do. They like torn up hare's ear flies as well, not the real clean pretty ones but the ones that are falling apart and have been stuck to your fly patch for the better part of two years....

[Path_Less_Traveled]

there is a deer hunt Dec. 14-17 in the Blue Ridge WMA.