Jim fishing the Davidson

 In mid September, Jim Hatchell called me to say he had a weekend seminar to attend in Brevard, NC and if I wanted, he could come a couple of days early and we could harass some fish on the Davidson River.  Well, always ready to harass finny creatures, I agreed to meet mid-week before his classes and see what we could find.

We met around noon on Wednesday and flogged the water until nearly dark.  About the only action was in a honey hole above the hatchery where we each bagged a smallie and tied into one of the hundreds of monster trout living there.  We discovered that these trout don’t eat, they just grow and ignore flies.  I’m not sure which is more painful, fishing where you don’t KNOW there are fish or watching fish ignore your fly.  Both are painful. A few brews and a Chinese Buffet that evening sent us off to dream of the big ones we would catch on Thursday.

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Day 2 was Hot and long and virtually fishless.  We got an early (for us old geezers) start and fished the lower Davidson, the upper Davidson, the Davidson you have to climb the mountain to get to, Looking Glass Creek, Avery Creek and again the honey hole.  A few bumps, a light hit and a snagged trout in the honey hole.  Got back to town about dark and ended up in Mike’s Deli eating too much pizza accompanied by too much beer.  We contemplated taking up a sensible hobby like bungee jumping or stunt car driving but decided on a good night’s sleep instead.

Jim fishing the surprise

Friday morning, stiff, sore and a bit hung over from the excesses of Thursday night, we decided that another day of fishing the Davidson was just not going to yield different results so we would explore the area to the West of Brevard for a possible future trip.  Jim had to start his seminar Friday evening so we wouldn’t be able to fish all day anyway.

After consulting our maps, we decided to go West on Hwy. 64 to 215 and follow the North Fork of the French Broad looking for Nirvana.  As we approached the junction of 64 and 215, we spotted a Headwaters Outfitters sign and decided to stop in for a chat and some advice.  The folks there were most gracious and helpful.  We asked if there was someplace in the area that didn’t see 100 fly fishermen a day and which might have a few dumb fish the likes of us might catch.  They pointed us to a wild trout stream that flows into the North Fork several miles up 215 (stop and ask, they’ll give directions if it hasn’t been fished too heavily that day).

Well, the directions were great and we found ourselves in a fantastic stream with a few cooperative native trout.  I caught a beautiful 10″ Rainbow – possibly the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen.  What a great surprise and a fantastic end to another great trip with Jim.

Jim fishing the Davidson