Toms Branch is a tributary of Hurricane Creek (pronounced "herrakin") in Haywood County. If you have a four wheel drive vehicle with high clearance, you can drive right through it where it crosses Hurricane Creek Road, but most people probably wouldn't want to fish it. It is open for about twenty yards, then becomes a real bear to fish, with laurel, dog hobble and fallen trees making upstream progress difficult. I had fished it a couple of times before and had missed fish. This time around I caught two small wild browns on bead-head nymphs.

To get to the next tributary upstream, I would have to walk past some of my favorite water on Hurricane Creek, and on such a gorgeous April Day, I just couldn't pass it up. I got in a little ways upstream from the old bus and fished upstream to the end of the field, catching a dozen wild browns.

After my little diversion, I headed upstream to the next tributary, Hurricane Gap Branch, which also flows right across the road. Even though most of Hurricane Creek is on National Forest Land, there are some small tracts of private land, and the lower part of Hurricane Gap Branch flows through one of these. Just before you get to the creek, there is a rough road that turns left and goes to a huge mud hole where the four-wheelers play. The last time I was up there, it was posted, but this time there were only "for sale" signs. As a prospective buyer (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it) it was only right that I sample the fishing. I caught two small wild browns to make it new creek number 957.

It took me almost an hour to walk back to the cabins, where I had left my car, but I caught wild browns, got two new creeks, and got a little exercise as a bonus - what a good day!