Trout on the Tuck

Some things never change. I hadn't fly-fished for a few years before yesterday, but trout still like Woolly Buggers as much as ever. I spent a fun day with western North Carolina guide Alex Bell (http://abfish.org/) on the Delayed Harvest section of the Tuckasegee River, researching and shooting photos for an article on Jackson County's innovative new Western North Carolina Fly Fishing Trail (www.flyfishingtrail.com).
We were also accompanied by a film crew from UNC TV. They needed footage of anglers fishing together, so I followed Alex to a run that he said would hold fish. No doubt, the man knows his river, because we caught at least a dozen brook trout and two browns from that first run, and we left them biting when it was time to change the background for filming and photos. I caught all my fish from a small heavy Bugger with an olive body and and orange tail. Alex's switched between olive and black during the day, and he fished his as a dropper beneath a big bushy dry fly. He caught a few on the dry and twice hooked doubles!