Remembering the Trout Trek

A Facebook memory reminded me that 11 years ago today, my dining room table was covered with gear that would somehow have to fit in my Ford Fiesta hatchback. My son Asher and I were preparing to drive across the country to fish for trout, shoot photos and blog.

Asher, who was 10 at the time, had never been outside of the Eastern Time Zone prior to the Rebel Trout Track. By the end of the journey, which spanned about four weeks, we had logged nearly 7,000 miles. The farthest we got from home (Georgia) was the Pacific Coast in Olympic National Park in Washington. 

We fished in nine different states, with all except Arkansas being in the West, fishing many types of waters but always with trout as our primary targets. We fished all public waters, fished by wading, on the bank or by float tube, and went with no guides.

We fished iconic waters known best as fly fishing destinations, using spinning tackle and a DIY approach. Each day we blogged and sent a photo gallery for Rebel Lures social media.

Asher and I sometimes revisit the trip mentally, talking about favored fishing stops and various cool things we saw along the way — and of course daydreaming about doing it again. Although it’s unlikely we can ever recreate anything quite as extensive as the Trout Trek, I do hope some day we can fish some of those waters together again.

My daughter Autumn and I fished one of my favorite Trout Trek spots — the Provo River in Utah — a couple of years ago, but that story is probably another blog for about time.

Asher’s Bream

fish from Asher's pond

The fish I caught Friday afternoon were among my favorites from this year, but it had nothing to do with size, species or anything noteworthy about the strikes or fights. It was all about location.

The 10 or so fish I caught — all bluegill or green sunfish— came from my son’s new front yard pond. Asher closed on his first house Friday, and the property includes a stretch of pond bank.

Two of Asher’s siblings and I visited Friday afternoon. We mostly went just to see the house and property, but of course I had my car rod and reel and a few lures handy and had to make at least a few casts! 

I started with a Crickhopper. A few fish pecked at it, but nothing committed. I could see some little fish around the bait, so I switched to an Itty Bit Mayfly on a 1/48-ounce jighead and put it beneath a small float. That was the ticket. Several catches followed in short order.

The other slightly noteworthy thing was the fact that some of the fish were green sunfish, and I hadn’t caught one of those previously in 2026.

We saw one bass, which probably weighed a couple of pounds, but didn’t get it to go after anything. Asher did a bit more fishing over the weekend and has caught some other fish, including a shiner. No bass yet, but I’m guessing it won’t be long.

Upcountry Kayak and Wading Excursion

Asher and I had a big time exploring waters in the South Carolina's Upcountry not too long ago. We fished mostly from the kayaks, but also spent part of a day wading the Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River.

The kayak element was extra fun because it represented somewhat of a test run. It was the first time I had loaded up both Vapor 10 Anglers for an outing to nearby waters since I brought the second one home from Old Town. We hit three different lakes by kayak, meaning 13-year-old Asher and I loaded and unloaded both boats multiple times in a couple of days, and doing so was every bit as quick and simple as I had hoped. Of course, I knew both kayaks would suit my needs well on the water because the new one is the same model as the I already had -- just a different color.

We spent time in the kayaks fishing Tugaloo Lake, Lake Jocassee and Lake Oolenoy, all tucked in the mountains and beautiful, but each distinctive in character. All three yielded some fish to go along with great paddling opportunities. 

We began on Tugaloo, which straddles the South Carolina/Georgia border and is fed by the Chattooga River and by the Tallulah River at the extreme lower end of Tallulah Gorge. We launched on the South Carolina side and spent the morning hitting pockets off the Chattooga River arm. We didn't end up traveling far because we began catching bass and bluegills almost immediately and never had need to do much searching. That said, I want to return some time soon with a whole day available to paddle down Chattooga and all the way up the Tallulah arm to fish inside the gorge section.

Next we visited Lake Jocassee, which is arguably the most scenic lake in the Southern Appalachia. Located at the edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, Jocassee is crazily rugged, steep, clear and deep. Most tributaries enter the lake as waterfalls, and it's nothing to be sitting over 200 feet with the boat a cast's distance from the shore. 

Our Jocassee exploration was greatly aided by Jocassee Lake Tours. Owner Brooks Wade welcomed kayaks, Asher and me onto one of the company's pontoons and took us to a few select areas of the lake that he knew would be extra cool to explore, would lend themselves to great photo opportunities and might produce a few fish. Jocassee Lake Tours

doesn't do guided fishing trips, and ultra-clear lakes can be challenging in mid-summer, so he made no promises on the fishing part. That said, we managed to catch several bluegills while paddling in some seriously beautiful areas. 

The third kayaks stop, Lake Oolenoy, is in Table Rock State Park, and the park's namesake rocky-faced mountain provides a spectacular backdrop to many parts of the lake. Only electric motors are permitted on Lake Oolenoy, and the lake is a nice size for a day of kayak fishing. It's small enough to fish your way around in a modest day, but large enough that there is room to explore and for several anglers to fish it at the same times. The bass bite was good at Oolenoy. We didn't catch big fish, but we caught quite a few bass. Making a good thing even better, the bass were coming up and blasting Pop-Rs on the surface!

We capped off our summer Upcountry tour by wading the Chattooga in a few different areas and catching both redeye bass and trout. Little is more fun in my mind than wet wading a cool mountain stream on a hot day and throwing little lures like Rebel Crawfish on ultralight gear for a mixed catch, so doing just that made for a fine trip finale.

Kayak's Partner

Two Old Town Vapor 10 Angler kayaks fit nicely atop my car and are easy to load, opening an huge number of waterways to fishing/photo outings.

Last fall I got I got a fishing kayak, an Old Town Vapor 10 Angler, and I've been delighted with everything about it. It's stable, comfortable and well set up for fishing, and I can easily load it atop my car. In fact, it's simple enough to tote that I'll toss it atop my Outback for trips to other areas, "just in case," even if I don't know of a specific kayak need on that trip. Owning one has left me longing for a second one, though, and I fixed that when I was in Maine a couple of weeks ago.

Several times since I got the first boat, I've pondered outings to mountain lakes, cypress-filled backwaters, tidal creeks or other waters, but ultimately have decided to stay home. A productive outing to me is one where I get a lot of good photos, so I just can't justify going fishing alone. Selfies and fish close-ups certainly provide some value, but that value is miniscule compared to what can be done with a couple of boats and with both anglers carrying a camera, and it would only frustrate me to hit a good fishing day in a beautiful spot and not be equipped to make the most of it photo-wise.

Cool view, behind the scenes, at Old Town Canoe!

Because I like my first Vapor so much, I couldn't think of anything I would like better than another boat of the same model, and since Old Town, Maine and the Old Town Canoe headquarters are only a few miles from where I would be fishing with Northridge Outfitters, it only made since to plan a visit and pick up the new boat while I was so close. I had explored the retail store at Old Town before. In fact, it was the first stop Asher and I made when we fished in the same area a couple of years ago. This time, though, I got to tour the facilities with Old Town brand manager David Hadden, and I cannot begin to convey how cool it was getting to see all those canoes and kayaks being formed and prepared for shipping. I was super impressed by all the processes used to ensure that every boat a customer buys is exactly what it should be in appearance and performance and that it will remain that way for many years.

The Old Town visit and pick-up took place on the final morning of my trip, and plans were to begin my 1,260-mile trek home when I left. However, I couldn't resist the opportunity to get the new boat wet and run both kayaks together, so Doug Teel and I went straight from Old Town to a spot along the Penobscot River that David Hadden had suggested and slid the boats in the river. We didn't fish long, but we did both catch fish, so the second Vapor had been rightly initiated before I got more than about 5 miles from where it had been built. After catching a few, we re-loaded the boats and secured them atop my car, where they road nicely all the way home.

I left for Florida a few days after returning from Maine and just got back from that trip, so I haven't gotten the two boats out together around here yet. You know it won't be long, though!

The first fish caught from my new Old Town Vapor 10 Angler, caught by Doug Teel of Northridge Outfitters, illustrates perfectly the kind of photo I'm excited to be able to get far more of now that I have two kayaks that I can take out together!

Delayed Harvest Troutfest

Nathaniel, Asher and I had a big time catching trout in the North Carolina mountains last week. With photos being our main objective, we went for easy pickings, hitting Delayed Harvest waters on the Nantahala and Tuckasegee rivers and Big Snowbird Creek. All had gotten an initial spring stocking, so the trout were plenty plentiful, with a few large fish in the mix.

We experienced weather ranging from ice in line guides and snow falling to sunshine and high 50s, and generally enjoyed just exploring the areas. Adding intrigue, the three stream stretches we fished are all quite different from one another in character.

North Carolina's DH waters are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures from Oct. 1 until the first Saturday in June. For folks who enjoy fishing with artificial lures and don't mind putting them back, waters managed this way in several Southern states offer great trout-catching opportunities. Fly-fishermen make the most use of these waters, but spin-fishing is completely fine, as long as each lure in your possession is equipped with only a single hook, and no soft plastics have any scent or flavor.

My boys and I do our trout fishing mostly with hard baits, especially Rebel Crawfish and Tracdown Minnows, sometimes mixing in some small jigs or spoons when the fish want something different. Rebel Crawfish were easily our top producers last week. The most productive specific Rebel Craw model was a Deep Teeny Wee Craw, although Asher got on the big fish really well with a Middle Wee Crawfish one day.

One thing worth noting about DH waters. Because they are so productive, they are also extremely popular. If you decide to visit, do so on a weekday, if possible, and arrive early. By midday during the spring, accessible spots tend to fill up and the fish get much more wary.

Spring Springing

Flowers pictured on a fishing blog mean exactly what you might guess: I haven't been fishing enough. The blooms that are getting ever more plentiful and varied in my yard also remind me that spring is coming on quickly and that fish of various kinds should be moving shallower and feeding readily.

I do plan to fish more soon. Nathaniel, Asher and I are headed for higher hills later this week to chase some North Carolina trout in Delayed Harvest waters. The DH streams, which are open only to catch-and-release fishing with single-hook artificial lures this time of year, always get a fresh stocking the first week of March, so there should be plenty of trout to try to fool. We'll likely hit a few different streams while we're in the area.

We also plan to do a little bit of stream fishing in the riverine upper ends of mountain lakes, just to see if anything is running the rivers. We probably won't spend a huge amount of time doing that, but maybe we can find a f couple of walleyes or white bass up the rivers. Of course, if some fish do cooperate, we might just stick around to more.

I'll let you know what we find!

Sharing Santee Cooper Country

My first Santee Cooper Country adventure was nearly three decades ago with a college buddy, and I remember well my first Santee fish, a bass I caught from near the boat ramp at Santee State Park. That's another story for another time, but it was the start of a major fishing chapter, and one that thankfully continues to be written!

I wouldn't try to guess the number of days I've spent on Lake Marion and Moultrie, which together make up the 170,000-acre Santee Cooper system, but it has been a bunch. I've fished from swampy upper end of Lake Marion to the deep water near the spillway at Lake Moultrie and have spent days catching slab crappie from brushpiles, wrestling flatheads out of submerged timber, drifting for heavyweight blues, pulling bass from cypress knees, slip bobber fishing for giant bluegills and shellcrackers, chasing striper schools and more.

I've also gotten to share Santee Cooper's wonders with my son, Nathaniel (now 19) and a few other friends, and this week I get to do likewise with my 13-year-old son, Asher. We leave dark and early tomorrow for Black's Camp, which is the basecamp where I have spent the most time at Santee Cooper over the years and is one of my favorite destinations anywhere because of the fishing, the food, the fish camp atmosphere and especially the people.

The event officially starts tomorrow at dinnertime, but Asher and I will leave way early so we can have part of the day free to explore fabulous backwater areas in kayaks before kickoff. On Wednesday and Thursday we'll fish with guides, and both weather and the recent bite will dictate species targeted and approaches. I attended the same event a couple of years ago, and schooling stripers and blue catfish served up fabulous action. On Friday morning, we'll venture out in the kayaks one more time before starting toward home.

Of course, between time on the water, we'll enjoy great meals with many fishing industry friends and simply enjoy getting to spend time in Santee Cooper Country.

Well Traveled Fishing Car

Folks sometimes like to tally of how many states or countries they've visited or something more specific, like the number of states where they have caught a fish. Not long ago, my 12-year-old son Asher wondered aloud how many states our Ford Fiesta has traveled through in the 2 1/2 years since I bought it used. Asher has helped me log a lot of miles in quite a few states in the Fiesta, so it makes sense that he would think about that question.

I tried just tallying in my head, but that got confusing pretty quickly. So I printed a simple map of the states and starting thinking through travels and coloring in states. When I was finished, I had colored in 39 of 50 states. Two of the blank ones, not surprisingly, were Alaska and Hawaii. Also uncolored was Rhode Island, which is one of two states I've never visited. (The other is Hawaii.) The remaining blank states were in clusters it the upper Midwest and the Southwest and included some states where I've spent plenty of time -- just not in the Fiesta. Maybe someday.

I've admittedly been looking at bit at something with 4WD or AWD, more clearance, a bit more space, and a roof better suited for toting a boat for fishing expeditions, so it's hard to say weather the Fiesta will find it's way to those other regions. That said, the practical space it offers for being so small is astounding, it's comfortable to drive, and I sure like that 40 MPG when I'm logging a load of miles.

Ozarks in Autumn, Round 2

Having taken the same basic trip at the same time with the same group (two of my boys, a friend and me) two years in a row, I supposed it could have been dubbed our second annual Autumn Ozarks Adventure. Whatever the name, we made the trip a week or so ago, and much like last year, enjoyed some excellent fishing and had a bunch of fun.

We spent most of this year's fishing time working the Buffalo and White rivers, hitting both rivers in several spots. My 12-year-old son Asher also got to spend a delightful day catching trout from Dry Run Creek, which is a wonderful youth- and handicapped-only, catch-and-release trout stream. The other two explored a bit on the Norfork River during part of that day, but didn't find much to their liking. I just followed Asher and stayed busy taking photos.

The Buffalo was mighty low and a bit slow. We did catch some fish, though, and the Buffalo is such a beautiful river that wading along its edges or floating it is always delightful. We started fairly far up the river and hopped from access to access, walking river banks and wading. The White yielded plenty of trout, including a few truly fabulous flurries.

This year's trip also include stops at a handful of disc golf courses, including one in Mississippi that we visited along the way and four in Arkansas.

We split our nights between camping and cabins and enjoyed both in different ways. Best meal, by my take any way, featured cheap steaks cooked over coals beside the White River.

Nantahala Play Day

It had been far too long since Nathanial, Asher and I had spent a full day together trout fishing, so our recent day of work and play on North Carolina's Nantahala River was extra fun. We left home dark and early, got to the river just about the time daylight was finding the gorge, and spent the day hopping from spot to spot to catch fish and take photos. Photos were the work objective, so we each kept a camera handy all the time.

We caught a bunch, and all three of us got a slam of rainbows, browns and brook trout during the day. Beyond the catching, it was just a fun day spent together by the river.

The catch-and-release season on North Carolina's delayed-harvest streams just opened a couple of weeks ago. What that means is that these stream sections are well stocked and the trout haven't gotten too educated. Fooling fish isn't an amazing accomplishment, but it's a barrel of fun. We like the Nantahala a lot because it's a beautiful stretch of river with a lot of variety in types of water, and it's just big enough that at any given pull-off, it is practical for two or three people to spread out a bit or even to fish side-by-side. It's also nice because a road parallels the river, so you can fish an area for a while and then move to another pull-off.

We're far from alone in liking the Nantahala, and it can get kind of crowded. However, the many pull-offs and the configuration of the river make it pretty easy to find a spot where you aren't fishing in a crowd. Arriving early also helps. We had the river to ourselves when we arrived, and we got to hit a few spots first. Fishing on a weekday helps a little. Maybe the best thing that can happen for the sake of less company is to have horrible weather (not the case last week), and in truth, wet, nasty days sometimes offer the best fishing action.

Whole Lot of Packing Going On

Asher and I are in full packing mode because tomorrow we leave on this summer's biggest adventure. We're pointing the car north this year, instead of west, and headed for New England. I suppose the primary targets would have to be the beautiful brook trout that live in the ponds of northern New England, but we'll be hitting a variety of waters in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine for brook, rainbow and brown trout, along with smallmouth bass, pike and whatever else wants to cooperate, and we'll even spend a day or two saltwater fishing on the Connecticut coast. If you followed last year's Rebel Trout Trek, this one won't be quite that grand. We were gone nearly a month and traveled all the way to Olympic National Park just outside of Seattle on that trip. I think we'll end up being on the road a little less than two weeks on this summer's trip.

At one point I thought we'd fly and get a rental car, but the more I thought about all the junk I wanted to tote and the scheduling freedom that comes with driving, the more I became convinced that the hours behind the wheel would be well invested. Now I just have to decide which wheel. My Ford Fiesta has been a mighty fine "trout car" and handled last year's cross-country trek, and it is the most likely choice. I need to check logging road conditions in one area of Maine, though, to make sure ground clearance won't present a problem. If that's too iffy we'll spread out more in the Expedition, and I'll just have to spend a little more time squeezing gas pump triggers.

I'll be sharing stories and photos from the trip on the Rebel Lures website and Facebook page beginning Aug. 1, which is around the time we'll likely be returning home. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll post a few travel updates here, on my Facebook fishing page and on Instagram and Twitter (@jeffsamsel on either).

Seasons Shift so Quickly

It seems so terribly recent to me that Asher and I were trudging along snowy creek banks and contending with high water. Yet last week we fished from float tubes without waders, and the water felt really good. I leave today to fish in Texas, and there isn't even a sweatshirt in my bag. Before I know it, though, colorful leaves will be falling and soon after we'll all be complaining about the cold, instead of the heat.

Minimalist Trout Slam

You could say that Asher and I were very efficient yesterday. We managed a "slam" of the trout species that are normally found in Southern Appalachian waters (brook, brown, rainbow) with our first three fish of the day. Unfortunately, my snake-like rainbow trout that completed the slam was also our final fish of the day. Yep. Three fish total. One brown trout. One brook trout. One rainbow trout.

My favorite of yesterday's catches was the first fish of the day, because with it, Asher continued an interesting streak. He and I have fished the lower national park portion of Deep Creek yesterday for the third time. Each time, we've taken the short spur trail to Indian Creek Falls, and each time Asher has caught a fish from the big pool at the base of the waterfall. The first time it was a beautifully marked rainbow. The most other times (yesterday and last week), he caught a nicely marked brown trout. All the fish in that area are wild.

Smokies Trout Run

Asher and I made a run for the higher hills a couple of days ago to see if the trout wanted to play. To our delight, the wild fish in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park seem to be digging this winter's high water, and they were pretty active. We didn't catch oodles of fish, but be we had a nice amount of activity and caught some really pretty wild brown trout.

Naturally, the big one got away. I hooked a surprisingly big rainbow in park waters and had it on the surface and within a few inches of hand's reach when the hook came free. It was a rouge-banded, 15- or 16-inch, thick bodied male that even had somewhat of a hook jaw.

Because of a mix of photos I wanted to get, it was somewhat of a sampler day. We briefly hit a couple of sections of the Tuckasegee River, including a new delayed harvest stretch I hadn't looked at yet, and two different streams in the national park. That kept us from fishing anywhere as long as would have been ideal, but at least we were fishing.

I say "we" caught fish, but in truth Asher did most of the catching. I caught one fish, which took a Rebel Hellgrammite. Asher caught all his fish on a Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow. All our lures were rigged with single barbless hooks.

Less Traveled Waters

I admit that I tend to gravitate toward delayed harvest trout waters this time of year. Because of heavy stockings and the catch-and-release requirement, the fish are normally there, and sections of several rivers are sufficiently familiar that it's easy to set a plan. I'm far from alone in that, though, and those same waters get a lot of attention.

Yesterday Asher and decided to fish well upstream of the delayed harvest section of the Chattooga River, mostly because the river was still quite high from this winter's rains, and I felt like the character of the upstream section was better suited for wading along the edges. It's also a section that holds a lot of brown trout that are typically tough to catch, and I thought that high flows on a dark January day might make the browns a little feistier than normal.

Both things turned out to be true, which of course is a good thing, but an added benefit was that we never saw anyone else in the river. Once pair of backpacking anglers were unloading their car when we were, and we saw their campsite and passed them on the trail once. We also greeted one solo angler who was gearing up as we walked from the car to the river. No one in the river, though, and we worked about a mile upstream and fished for probably six hours.

I guess I can't say this for certain because I wasn't there, but I'll bet it wasn't that way in the DH section, even with the high flows. I wasn't really thinking about getting away from crowds when I picked our spots, but I have to say that it was refreshing, and I'm going to be more intentional about thinking about some of those "other waters" for future cool-season outings.

Trout Gear Loaded

Rain scheduled to come in tomorrow night suggests that tomorrow day will offer the closest thing we'll have to settled trout streams for several more days. The forecast also calls for warmer temperatures than we've had for a few days and plenty of cloud cover. All those conditions suggest tomorrow as a good day to chase trout, so that's what Asher and I intend to do.

Whether we'll catch 'em,.. well, we'll see. We're going to try,though. In fact the rods, reels, waders and tackle boxes are already in the car and the warm clothes are piled up on a table.

Local rivers are still fairly feisty from all of winter's rain, so our plan is to begin in a stretch of river where brown trout sometimes grow shoulders and too see if they are in ambush mode, given the high-water conditions.

If the river is too high for Asher and me to wade comfortably or if the trout don't cooperate, we might try a smaller stream or even a small lake. That's getting ahead of things, though. The hope is that Plan A work well and there's no need for a Plan B!

Fishing Adventures Near & Far

If you glance at this page from time to time, you likely know that last summer I spent most of a month on the road with one of my sons, Asher, trout fishing in the West and sharing stories on the Rebel Lures website and Facebook page. Asher and I also made a few spring trips that we called "spring training" to collect similar content and I did some related work from closer to home through the year.

Beginning with the new year, I'll be doing that kind of content gathering full-time. That means I'll be fishing a bunch, probably even more than before, and traveling to a lot of different places. Some fishing will be local, but I already have plans brewing for several larger trips, including a few to coastal waters.

I know I've been pretty slack about posting on this blog of late, by the way, but I hope you'll keep an eye on this page for the latest fish stories!

Related, I caught my first fish of 2016 a few hours ago. Asher went to the pond this morning, and when I went to pick him up I roamed the banks and cast until I managed to land a bluegill.

2 Favorite Catches from 2015

I tried to pick a single favorite fish from 2015, but the best I could do was to narrow it to two. Each had unique appeals, and I can't  quite decide. Both were big trout that I caught and released, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

The first, a brown trout that grabbed a Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow, came early this summer from North Carolina's Linville River. I was on my way to a writer trip farther north in the North Carolina mountains and had time for a quick detour. I actually wanted to explore Linville Gorge, but the river was high from recent rain, and I decided that hiking down into the gorge alone would neither be prudent nor productive. Instead I settled to fish around a single river bend in a section of easily accessible hatchery supported waters on Blue Ridge Parkway land. I expected there might be a few stocker-sized rainbows around (which there were). What I didn't expect was to feel a crushing strike and then see a thick band of yellow at the end of my line. I was alone, with no net, so you can guess that I was a bit tense until I managed to land the fish. Next trick, of course, was trying to get a photo. I took a few quick close-ups to make sure I got something and then set up a single self-timer photo with the camera on a rock before I let the fish go, hung my lure back on my rod and continued on my journey.

The other, which is pictured at the top, occurred later in the summer, while Asher and I were on our Rebel Trout Trek out West. I think it was a Snake River cutthroat, although it might have been a rainbow. I wish I could say for sure. Whatever it was, it was a good one, and it hit a Rebel Wee Crawfish while Asher and I were wade fishing in the Delaney Butte Lakes in Colorado. Big trout are no surprise in those waters, but summer doldrums had hit when we were there, and it was the only bite we had in probably six hours of fishing. That catch had some landing drama of it's own. We had a net, but the first time Asher tried to net it, he realized it didn't fit very well. "The net isn't big enough!" he yelled as the fish flopped out and surged again. When I got it close again, he had to carefully scoop it tail-first so it went into the hoop tail-to-nose instead of being across it. He did a fine job getting it in the net and getting photos before we let it go.

Bank Beating Boy

Asher has been pounding the pond this week. For the past couple of days, he's gotten to spend a couple of afternoon hours per day walking the bank and slipping a cast everywhere he can squeeze between the trees. If Asher is fishing, he is happy, but to make a good thing even better, the fish have been pretty cooperative. I believe both days produced five or six fish, and yesterday's catch included one 15-inch bass. (He toted around a cooler lid that had a measuring rule on it.) He has caught a few bluegills, but most fish have been bass.

Asher's approach has been simple. He has stuck with a Lindy Watsit Grub and mixed swimming it and hopping it along the bottom. Normally we have to vertical fish in the deepest part of the ponds to catch much during mid-December, but the weather has been so mild that the fish are still acting like it's mid-autumn.

The Hold 'Em Hole

Asher and I had caught a half a dozen or so trout in a half hour or so and had missed several others, so action had been decent. The hole he is fishing in the picture above made the afternoon, though.

We'd make a couple of downstream casts and had worked our baits back through the current without bites when I cast my Road Runner Marabou downstream and across the current, let the lure sink in the eddy until it caught the current, and then held it still while it swang out into the current. I was holding the rod tip motionless when a fish smashed my lure. I battled what I thought to be a really big fish initially because of the current and landed a solid rainbow.

After releasing that fish, I told Asher that I hadn't been working my lure when that fish hit and then repeated the cast to demonstrate. Just like it was scripted, as I told him I was "just letting it swing out into the current like this" another trout slammed my bait in the same place.

As you might guess, I hadn't even landed my fish yet when Asher mimicked the cast with a Lindy Watsit Grub, and before long he was fighting a trout of his own. And so it went. I think we ended up catching releasing nine from that run before they finally quite biting.

We fished a bit farther downstream and had a couple of other strikes, but the afternoon was fading so we soon had to call it an afternoon and begin walking toward the car. I'm curious now whether the fish were just ridiculously wadded up in that one hole or whether we simply didn't discover the right "non-presentation" until we got to that particular hole. I guess we'll never know!