Adventures of a Trout Bum
The Blue Line Adventures of Ray Sugg

​​I have been trout fishing since high school and fly-fishing since college. When I got my driver's license back in 1978, I got a book of NC Game Land maps and set out to fish every "Native" stream ("General" streams were not listed in the regulations book back then). At that point, most of my fishing in "Native Waters" was done with a spinning rod, either by cranking a single-hook Roostertail, or by drifting a big stonefly nymph through deep runs (the experts now call that Euro or Czech nymphing) the same way I fished with bait in general streams. Before I had ever seen anyone cast a fly rod, I bought a cheap fly rod at K-Mart and taught myself to fly cast by looking at diagrams in a book. When the flies at Franklin's Rod and Gun in West Asheville went from sixty cents each to $1 each, I decided it was time to tie my own flies, so I bought a kit and again taught myself by looking at a book. When I graduated from college in 1986, I rewarded myself with a Lifetime NC Fishing License and a new Double L fly rod outfit from L. L. Bean (which I still use 40 years later!), and I decided to focus on fly fishing.

 

I went through the same basic evolution that most fly fishermen went through before the internet was invented:

1. Just happy to catch a few on a dry fly

• first rainbow trout on a dry fly - Cane River

• first brown trout on a dry fly - Middle Prong

• first spec on a dry fly - Yellowstone Prong

2. Fish counting - numbers are everything

• first 20 fish day on a dry fly - Shining Creek

• first 30 fish day on a dry fly - Looking Glass Creek

• first 60 fish day on a dry fly - Walker Camp Prong

• first 100 fish day on a dry fly - Nantahala DH

3. Fish will chase a streamer - I learned to roll cast and strip a weighted streamer. You can cover more water just like spinner fishing, and catch bigger trout.

4. Trout will hit nymphs when they won't hit a dry fly - I watched a man indicator nymphing with a girdle bug at the Deep Creek picnic area, catching wild trout in between pods of tubers, and that has become the method I use most often.

5. Size matters - The first question most people ask is "what is the biggest fish you have ever caught?" I chased the big fish for a while, mostly at the Davidson River, then at DH streams.

• biggest wild rainbow - 18" Robinson Creek (pellet pig washed down from club water

• biggest natural wild rainbow - 15" Fines Creek

• biggest hatchery rainbow - 21" Paint Creek DH (TN)

• biggest wild brown - 19" Bradley Fork

• biggest hatchery brown - 22" Davidson River

• biggest wild brook trout - 13" East Fork Tuckasegee River (Panthertown)

• biggest hatchery brook trout - 18" West Fork French Broad River

6. Famous waters - I was moving in that direction when things took a turn.

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While going through these stages, I would still try to fish new creeks every now and then. By 2008, I had fished quite a few, but then I saw an article in the May, 2008 Wildlife In North Carolina magazine ("Grand Achievement", by Jack Horan) about a man named Bobby Kilby who had fished 1,000 creeks in North Carolina. A little while later, while surfing fly fishing sites, I stumbled on to the WNC Fly Fishing Trail. Come to find out, one of the contributors was Bobby Kilby. I gave the site administrator my contact information, and the next evening, I received a phone call from Bobby. We talked trout streams for at least an hour, and made tentative plans for a fishing trip. He was very supportive when I told him I would like to copy his accomplishment, and we have been fishing buddies and friends ever since. He has been my mentor in this quest, but I have also helped him find new streams to fish, and he has now fished over 1,300 creeks. I passed the 1,000 creek mark on June 26, 2021 (see the "Man of a Thousand Streams" post) and I continue to seek out new creeks in North Carolina. 

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Ray Sugg