Autumn Farewell

My phone tells me it's 21 degrees outside my house, and yesterday's rain knocked off many of our late-clinging leaves. Seemingly, autumn has fled North Georgia, and days that have that wonderful autumn-like feel and appearance won't return for another 11 months or so. 

I'm glad to say that on Monday (the day before the rain arrived) it fit well with work needs for me to slip out to one of my favorite Georgia streams to do a bit of fishing and lure photography. I didn't venture far from the care or hit the fishing super hard. Various lure pics were my main priority. Even so, the trout were cooperative enough that I was able to catch and release several pretty little brown trout. Rebel Teeny Wee-Craws and Tracdown Ghost Minnows earned all the day's catch credits.

The stream was low and clear, and the steep slopes that bound it sported the rusty colors that define late autumn. Making a good thing even better, I had the stream to myself, despite fishing very close to an easy access point.

Time to start thinking about winter fishing!

Firing Up Autumn Fishing

I haven't fished an enormous amount over the past few weeks, but that's about to change in a large way. Plans for the next month or so include quite a bit of time on the water in various places and fishing for a nice mix of species. The leaves are also changing, and that change usually correlates with cooler temperatures and hotter fishing action.

First in line is the Tennessee River, where I'll spend a couple of days at Lake Guntersville and a few at Pickwick. Autumn is when the grass mats typically come alive and the best frog bite of the year often develops, so I'm hopeful for some explosive fun. Stop one may actually involve more interviewing, filming and photographing than fishing because TH-Marine has a great group of pros assembled, and it will be a fabulous time to learn and gather videos and story material. Pickwick will likely involve a lot more fishing.

Soon after the Tennessee River run, I'll be going back in the same direction, but farther, on an Ozarks adventure with two of my boys and another friend. We'll focus on rivers and target smallmouth bass and trout, including big tailwater brown trout. Other autumn plans include visits to Oklahoma's Fort Gibson and Tenkiller lakes for bass, crappie and white bass and South Carolina's Santee Cooper lakes for big cats, crappie and more. Much to look forward to, for sure!

My hope is that I'll post regular reports, tips and product information from the travels ahead. I won't promise, though, because I've learned too many times how days can disappear and how a lack of wifi or decent phone service can make such things nearly impossible. I'll only say that I'll try and that I'll try and that I hope you'll check in to see how the fall fishing is going!

Autumn Creeping Our Way

The first official days of autumn typically don't seem much different from the final days of summer in North Georgia. September normally ends hot, and while w all try to pretend we're turning a corner, it doesn't normally feel that way and we really know better. This year has been different. Several damp, dark cool days have made it really feel like autumn has arrived, and we're even getting hints of color change in our dogwoods and a few other trees and bushes.

It makes me antsy to do some fall fishing. Asher and I did slip out to the pond yesterday afternoon, and we caught 10 bluegills and bass, but I'm eager to do stuff that's really driven by the season -- frog fishing on a grass lake, fall run brown trout, fall flathead fishing...

The fish that have been most on my mind of late have been the salmon, brown trout and steelhead that run up out of Great Lakes into rivers throughout that region this time of year. I've been watching a few reports and doing a bit of vicarious fishing. Looking at deadlines and other travel plans, that's probably as close as I'll get to that stuff this year, but you never know. I always keep an eye on bites and watch for windows of opportunity on the calendar.

Existing fall plans do include a trip to Alabama to fish Lake Guntersville and possibly Pickwick, so I might get to tap into at least a little frog fishing fun. I'm also going to Santee Cooper in November, so if the flathead bite happens to be happening...

Of course, I always look forward to do at least a little October and November fishing in the trout streams of North Georgia and western North Carolina. The fishing tends to be good at that time, the river are beautiful, creating outstanding photo opportunities.

Autumn's Bug Collection

Autumn's bedroom got some new décor yesterday. Not typical décor for an 8-year-old girl and her 2-year-old sister, but a style that suits Autumn's interests well.

The jigs she love to tie were busting out of their boxes, so she decide to hang them where they weren't all mushed together and the could look at them more easily, and where she and I could select the right ones for the job when we go fishing.

It has been fun watching Autumn's "bait making" skills develop. Early ones all looked like salmon flies -- big and bold, with bright color and feathers going in many directions. The ones she makes now use more olive and other natural colors, and she tries to tie baits she believes will catch fish. Many will, I'm quite certain, and I look forward to a little warmer weather so we can go fish our hand-tied jigs together.

In the meantime, the bug collection will continue growing. In fact, I think it's growing right now!

Winter Travels

When I planned mid-November travels to Alabama, I envisioned a late autumn sort of trip. I anticipated cold mornings, but it looks like I'm heading full force into winter. That's not a complaint. I'll never grumble about fishing and writing fish stories for a living. I just think it's interesting.

At the moment it's 41 degrees and raining in Rogersville, Alabama, which is where I'm headed, and there's a winter weather advisory in effect. Seems there could be a spits of snow tomorrow morning, and lows for the next couple of days are forecast to be in the low 20s, with strong northwest winds.

I'm well packed for the weather. In fact, seems every time I look at an amended forecast I add another layer of clothes to the pile. I haven't gone as far as grabbing the ice-fishing suit (yet).

It will be interesting to see what the fish think about the weather. Keep an eye out for reports.

Birthday Fish

It seems I might have told Autumn a story on her eighth birthday. You see, I told her she had caught a warmouth, a species she'd never caught before. Having looked at a couple of comparative photos and habitat descriptions this morning, I'm pretty sure she actually caught a green sunfish. Either way, it was a kind of fish she'd never caught before and her first fish as an 8-year-old. She caught it on a Rebel Teeny Wee-Craw after seeing fish movement near the bank and casting in that direction.

Birthdays are often fishing days around here, and yesterday was no different. Autumn went to Moccasin Creek State Park, stopping to feed the giant trout at Mark of the Potter along the way, and fished a bit in the creek, Lake Burton and the catfish pond, which is next door on the Lake Burton Fish Hatchery property.

The catfish pond produced a few hits, but no hooked or landed cats, which is rare. It's late in the season, though, and I don't think they keep a lot of fish stocked in the little family fishing pond when there aren't many people fishing.

We started at Moccasin Creek (her fishing; me watching), which is a youth/senior citizens stream within the park. We didn't linger long, though, because as is usually the case, camping senior citizens were camped out in the most productive areas, leaving little opportunity for an 8-year-old girl to catch a trout on her birthday.

She caught her sunfish, which was our lone fish, from the lake itself, close to the mouth of the creek.

Autumn finished her time at the park on the playground, and then we wrapped up the birthday fishing outing with sandwiches and sundaes at McDonald's on the way home.

Fall Colors Quickly Changing

A beautiful autumn morning on Big Snowbird Creek in North
Carolina's Graham County.

Having spent most of last week in the mountains of western North Carolina, I was struck by how much the colors changed in the short time that I was there.

Nathaniel and I fished on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and Friday's photos are noticably more colorful than the others. We were admittedly in a different stream, a little farther up the mountain. Still, the entire landscape change from green with hints of yellow and red to one with more warm colors than cool ones.

The change was even more notable at Fontana Village, where we stayed, because we looked at the same mountainsides every day and could see the color creeping down the mountain and filling the forest a little more each day, and the drive home was so much more colorful than the drive there.

Of course the fuller color didn't quite follow us home. Gray skies, a fair number of leaves on the ground and hints of color do create an autumn-like appearance when I look out the window, but we're still two or three weeks from the nicest fall color in North Georgia.

October

A good thing happened while I was sleeping last night.

October arrived.

I guess there's nothing really that different about Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, but somehow it just feels different because I know it's now October, which is my single favorite month of the year. I'm an all-season angler, and there are things I like a lot about every month of the year. October tops my list, though.

Maybe it's the normal delightful October weather. Maybe it's the changing of colors (although in Georgia, our prettiest color really comes in early November). Maybe it's autumn fishing. Maybe it's the fact that my wife and I (and two of our six children) have October birthdays, so I get to eat a lot of cake this month. Maybe it's the opening of North Carolina's delayed harvest season, the abundance of fall festivals, pumpkin flavored hot drinks...

In trout, I suppose some combination of all those factors, and more, makes October my favorite month.

I'm looking forward to enjoying a few of those things -- the beginning of the DH season, the wonderful weather, and the first decent hints of changing colors -- next week when I fish the Nantahala River and then spend a few days at a conference at Fontana Village, which looks is right across Fontana Lake from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I'll likely also do some fishing in the park, in the DH section of Big Snowbird Creek and/or in the little lakes just downstream of Fontana while I'm up there. Those plans aren't settled quite yet.

I might actually have to sneak out to the pond today. I have some photos I'd like to shoot. More importantly, I just want to do a little October fishing!

Pond Play & Child-Friendly Rigs

Three of my children (Asher, 9; Autumn, 7 and Eli, 5) often go with my wife for an hour or two of afternoon pond play, usually with swimming as the primary focus. On Monday, I decided to tag along, and of course I toted a few fishing rods. I rigged simple hook/bobber rigs for Autumn and Eli, and we dug up some worms before we left home. I gave Asher a 4-inch YUM Dinger, rigged weightless and nose hooked with a 1/0 Daiichi Circle Wide Bleeding Bait Hook.

Next time, I might rig all three with the latter, especially if the bass are still up shallow. The worms produced some gills, but bobber rigs get twisted around the ends of rods pretty easily and hooks require nearly constant rebaiting. As long as weeds or brush aren't too thick for an open hook point, it's tough to go wrong with A Dinger on A small circle hook. a child can cast out a Dinger, and whether he simply lets it sink, reels it back or hops it, a bass it apt to bite, and with a circle hook, by a child realize a fish has hit, it usually is hooked.

Pond Play

Rain is coming tomorrow, followed by more cold, but this afternoon warmed up nicely and we had a little time, so it was a good afternoon to visit the pond with three of my children. Asher, Autumn and Eli all like to fish as often as they get a chance, and there really haven't been a lot of good chances so far this year.

It was a simple outing, walking the banks. Eli, 5, and Autumn, 7, both fish with worms on ice jigs under floats. Asher, 9, mostly threw a Lindy Watsit Grub. Eli had the hot rod of the pack, managing his first bluegill and his first bass of 2014.

I cast when I could with a little Road Runner Original Marabou, but I spent most of my time pulling hooks from branches, grass and shirts, re-baiting lines and undoing knots. No complaints there. That's all part of the fun. We also left a couple of float rigs out of reach from the shore in bushes. Nathaniel and I might have to retrieve them with the johnboat one day this week. I suppose we'll have to make a few casts when we do!

Favorite Fishing Days

When I consider some of my favorite fishing days from the year that's about to depart, they seem to have something in common. I just can't pinpoint what that something is.

A couple of days that come quickly to mind occurred on a pond near hom. One was on Eli's 5th birthday, when he went to work catching birthday bluegills while sporting the colors of Cheetos and Powerade on his face. Another was with my 7-year-old daughter Autumn, when she not only helped with the fish-catching duties, but she did a fine job taking pictures of a surprisingly big bass I caught on a little lure.

Another pond outing of note was with Nathaniel, my 15-year-old son, but on a different pond. The fishing was crazy good that day, and we caught bluegills, bass and crappie. I don't recall the tally, but I believe we concluded that it was as many fish as he and I had ever caught together in a day, and it all occurred in only a couple of hours.

A few other favorite days took place on streams. Two were with Asher, my 9-year-old, both on the same stream. One yielded his first trout, a pretty brook trout. The other, which was a dark an oddly warm afternoon only a couple of weeks ago, resulted in his first brown trout. Two of my other favorite trout outings were with Nathaniel at the Nantahala River in North Carolina. One was in May and one was in November, but both involved him systematically targeting extra big trout and succeeding in finding what he was seeking

Ponds, streams, bluegills, bass, brook trout, brown trout, warm weather, cool weather... I just can't quite put a finger on what all those favorites fishing days in common.

Jig Tying Allure

"Can I make a bait, Dad?" My 7-year-old artist daughter Autumn keeps asking. I haven't let her loose with the vice and thread yet, but I did show her a bit of what I know (which isn't a lot) as we built the jig above together. She picked the materials and told me where she wanted them to go. I just cut, pinched, wrapped and tied a few knots.

I understand the appeal. Ever since I brought the vice up form the basement I've had a hard time walking past it without adding some fur or feathers to a hook, and when I'm not tying a bug, I'm often thinking about designs, materials I'd like to have and places I'd like to try some of the jigs I have tied. I've even been thinking about ice jig patterns.

"That look like good jig material," I said the other day, eying some sort of shiny household product. At the moment I don't remember what it was.

"Everything looks like jig material to you right now," Nathaniel pointed out, and I can't deny that he's right. And once I let Autumn starts tying jigs, I'll bet she starts seeing everything around the house the same way!

Fall Fishing Excursions

Autumn on the beautiful Tennessee River in North Alabama.

Not long ago, my fall calendar looked oddly barren, with only a couple of things set in stone and plenty of days between plans. As seems to happen late in the summer, though, that has changed in a hurry. In fact, as things stand now, it looks like I'll need fishing licenses from about eight different states to cover September and October adventures. Destinations are spread from Oklahoma to Louisiana to West Virginia, and fishing trips range from a float in a raft for a river smallmouths to a day in flats boat trip for seatrout. One trip in early October will last the better part of two weeks and will include fishing in three different states.

In truth destinations could have been even more widespread. I gave hard thought to continuing west after fishing in Oklahoma to do a little trout fishing in Colorado and Wyoming. Trout streams in the Wild West remain only places of dreams for me at this point, and one day I'll make it out there. I decided, though, that this fall was not the right time.

Considering the variety in the fishing I'll be doing, I should have the opportunity to add to my 2013 list of species caught. It's currently at 15 species and somewhat sadly hasn't grown since June. Last year, I had caught 25 different species of fish by the end of August. Of course most of my fishing this summer has been with my children in local ponds, where we mostly catch the same few species.

The number of miles logged and the days away from home will get wearisome, and I'll have to be efficient to get all my writing done between fishing days; Still, if I'm going to get extra busy with fishing trips for a while, fall is a mighty good time to do so. The fish tend to feed well (often on top!), the weather typically is nice, and many rivers and lakes put on their fall attire and become as pretty as they will be all year.

The run of travel begins in a little more than a week. I guess I'd better get some fish stories written!

Sunday Evening Suprise Bass

Autumn, 6, got called to camera duty yesterday evening when the fish that slurped down my Rebel Crickhopper Popper turned out to be far bigger than what normally shows up in the pond where we were fishing. Although, she'd never used the camera that was around my neck when the fish hit, I think she did a fine job of taking the canoe transfer, figuring out which buttons do what and composing a nice photo of me and my catch.

Autumn and I had determined to make a quick lap around the pond before it got dark. She had only fished from the bank before, so just casting from a canoe was a new experience for her. She caught one bass on a 3-inch YUM Dinger and had a few other strikes. Unfortunately, the one Autumn caught slipped away before I could return the photo favor.

Nathaniel looked at the photos after Autumn and I got back home, and we believe it's the same fish he's caught two other times from the same pond. We call her Melody, after his big, goofy dog. Most bass in the pond, which only covers a couple of acres, weigh 1 1/2 pounds or less, and we've fished it enough over the years that we think we'd know it if there was more than one extra big fish. Assuming it is the same fish, she's notably thinner than either time Nathaniel has caught her before. However, our spring came so late and our water has been so high that I think she might have the post-spawn sort of look a bass normally has in around May around here. She didn't look unhealthy. Just much more slender than in previous photos.

Melody or not, that fish, which I landed on an ultralight outfit and 4-pound test line, provided a big surprise and a fun bonus for our Sunday evening outing.

Pond Fish for Everyone

The plan had been that Asher and I would make a lap or two around the pond in the canoe while Autumn and Eli played at the beach with my wife. However, soon after Asher and I launched the canoe, the skies turned black and some strong wind gusts began sweeping the pond. Wanting neither to get flipped by a rogue wind nor caught on the wrong side of the pond if a thunderstorm suddenly came upon us, we pulled out the canoe and fished from that part of the shore, landing a few bass and bream.

After finishing there, we drove to the beach side of the pond to visit with the others and make a few casts from the dam. The second part of that got Autumn's and Eli's attention, and soon there were four of us walking the banks, three rods going and bream and bass being caught by everyone. Autumn caught one bass completely on her own, casting a weightless worm from the shore, working it back, hooking the fish when it bit and landing it. Asher then jumped in and took over unhooking and coaching his little sister on how to hold the fish. Eli and I tag-teamed efforts with a Road Runner Original Marabou to catch a couple of big bluegills and his first bass. Asher worked solo and caught several bass on the Asher Rig.

Nathaniel wasn't with us because he was fishing other ponds with a friend, and apparently they caught about 20 bass and bream between them, including a couple of pretty good bass. Sarah was kind enough to stay home with little Holly, who needs to at least start standing before she can fish, so everyone else could play.

Fall's Forgotten Final Days

October must be better than November at public relations campaigns. Most North Georgia travelers seemingly think that fall begins Oct. 1 and ends Oct. 31. Many people visit the mountains in early October and are disappointed to find minimal color. In early November, when our hillsides are blazing, few folks come to visit. The first week or so of November is actually my favorite time to hike waterfall trails and otherwise explore around here because the landscapes are spectacular and I can pretty much have a trail to myself.

By now, more leaves have fallen than remain on the trees. I'll acknowledge that. Those that remain attached have almost all changed colors, though, and some of the deepest reds and oranges seem to come late. The ground is also covered with leaves -- some bright and some brown. Landscape vistas offer beautiful blends of Crayola-bight colors and muted bronze tones.

In another couple of weeks, virtually all the leaves will have fallen from our deciduous trees, and those still clinging to branches will be brown. That creates an openness and a rugged, stark beauty, but by then it no longer looks like fall. Right now it still does, but most folk will miss it because they believe autumn ended with the turning of the calendar page.

Autumn's Arrival Occuring in Georgia

Finding a leaf-littering roof upon returning from the road and seeing a 10-day forecast with no highs over 80 both suggest that fall really is arriving. Autumn color changes won't occur significantly in Georgia for a couple of weeks, at least, and our brightest hues remain more than a month distant. Still, change is in the air, and the homemade apple pie that helped welcome Nathaniel and me home from our travels truly did fit the season.

I'm glad to get to enjoy a week or so of early autumn at home before traveling again. Beginning early next week, things get busy again, beginning with a trip to Johnson City, Tennessee to hunt squirrels, fish for trout or smallmouths and attend a Southeastern Outdoor Press Association conference. Johnson City is well north of here and higher in the hills, so maybe there will be a few hints of color there.

The next trip takes me in the opposite direction -- well South of New Orleans, in fact -- and I don't expect fallish temperatures in the marsh. That's OK. The fishing for bull reds is supposed to be red hot during early October. Reds are seriously fun to catch, and I have high hopes of catching some "eater size" reds along with the heavyweights and bringing home a cooler filled with delicious fillets.

I suppose I'd better quit daydreaming about days ahead, though. I have lots of fish stories to write this week!