Headed up to the D on Sunday to sell those Cloudveil Boots and figured since I was in the area, why not wet a line...
Love the ride up to NC through Clayton... Beautiful blue sky day...
Ended up running a little late etting up there, but I was on the water by 11:30 or so. Met up with my new buddy, Riparian, and after my slow butt rigging up we hit the water. Not as many folks there as I thought, but we were definitely not alone.
We headed down to Frustration Hole and Rip proceeded to hook and land a fish before I could even shake the cobb webs of my cast. Managed to nearly step on a few massive trout, but no takers.
I moved to the top of the hole and proceeded to miss two fish in a row on a top secret midge pattern S.Trutta told me about. Fished the top of the run a few more minutes with nothing... Guess one shot is about all you get with these fish.
Continued to move upstream, solo, with a 2 fly rig consisting of a 16 PT SH and a 22 midge, with 2 small shot. Got to a promising looking run and pulled out 2 small browns, one on the SH and one on the midge. Pretty fish, but not what I came to the D for!!!
Moved back downstream to find Rip, who was giving an impromptu guide lesson to a kid... A guides job is never done... And the kid connected in Frustration Hole before I did!!! Must be good guiding...
Decided to reassess the situation and decided if they didn't want small, I'd give them big... Tied on a huge Pat's RubberLeg pattern and started throwing stack mends to allow the flies to drift downstream... It eventually paid off and my thingmabobber dipped under!!! Connected to something decent finally!!! After a brief fairly uneventful fight, minus some deep head shakes I was holding a thick 17" or so Davidson River Rainbow!!! That's what I came for!! No pics as the fish came unbuttoned as I tried to hand Rip my camera.
Oh well...
We moved downstream to sweeeeet run underneath a log... And again Rip was into fish before I could get situated. I moved downstream and he moved into my spot and proceeded to show me up and land a nice Bow right where I was just fishing... Nice fighter too, got airborne a few times and finally came to hand...
I then moved up to the top where Rip was... Fishing the 16 PT SH with a 20 PT SH off of it... Sitting there talking to Rip letting the SH swing at the end of the drift and WHAM!!!! Fish on!!! Thought it was the same fish Rip just had, but it turned out to be a nice spunky brown. Here is a little video Rip got...
VIDEO
Ended up moving downstream to Coontree and picked up a few more little browns on the sz 20 PT SH. And on the last fish at Coontree, I got the fish to my feet and then my rod fell apart so I thought... Turns out it snapped 3 in below the ferrule!!! Only thing I could think of is that there was a stress fracture and those 2 bigger fish weakend it to the breaking point and that little fish finished the job!!! Sage 3 piece SPL is now a 4 piece!!!
Met back up with Rip and drove back upstream. He ended up taking off but I strung up my 6 ft 3 weight and went back up to Frustration hole hoping for some risers... And risers I got!! Managed to pick up another pair of little browns on a para adams Rip gave me and a small olive RS2... And then it happened... Or almost happened...
I started casting to a big fish that was rising, he was at least 22". I made the perfect cast, the perfect mend, and got the perfect drift... And I see this log come up and tail back at least three feet following the fly downstream... And he smashed it!!!! And I pulled the fly right out of his mouth!!!! NO!!!!!!! :bang::bang: I put the fly right back to where he was and he came back up again... Tailed back with it again... And decided one taste is enough... And he sunk back down.
That is why they call it Frustration Hole!!!
Overall had a blast and met a great fishermen... Managed a few decent fish and learned afew new tricks and a few new spots...
Appreciate it Riparian, we'll have to do it again soon...
--alex
Hybrid Mode
