October 24 Beech Flats Prong and Oconaluftee River
I had a whole day off and just needed to catch some trout, so I headed west towards the area of WNC least affected by Hurricane Helene. My original plan was to fish the Oconaluftee somewhere between Smokemont and Collins Creek for wild rainbows and browns. As I drove up 441 beside the Oconaluftee River, I saw cars at every pull-off, and most were fly fishermen. I assumed that word had gotten out from fly shops about how few fish had been stocked at DH streams in October and that the Park is always a good choice. I ended up a couple of pull-offs above Kephart Prong, where the main flow beside the road has become Beech Flats Prong, but the creek is a steep downhill 100 yards from the road. This far up, I had the creek all to myself. I did catch one rainbow and one brown, but I also caught 25 specs (Southern Appalachian brookies)!
There was still plenty of daylight left when I got back to the car, so I stopped to drag a streamer in the Oconaluftee below the Job Corps bridge. I caught a couple of small browns and a big stocked rainbow, up from the Cherokee fly water no doubt.
October 26 Jackson County Blue Line
I can't name this one, but lots of people drive right past it every day. I just had a couple of hours and wanted to catch as many fish as I could in that time frame. This one is a good little wild rainbow trout stream that has never let me down - I caught 30.
November 5 Macon County Blue Line
Lee Creek is a headwater tributary of a tributary of Cartoogechaye Creek located on a small tract of National Forest land. I caught a wild rainbow and a wild brown to make it new creek 1082.
November 9 Panthertown Valley
When Panthertown Valley was opened to the public in the early 90s, Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine did a story about it, calling the "Yosemite of the East." Of course I had to go right away! Back then there was no parking area at all, and the camp at the end of Cold Mountain Road was not there. The first time I went in, I hiked and fished from one end of the valley to the other. I caught 60 total specs, with 30 coming from the big plunge pool below Schoolhouse Falls. On a later trip with my brother-in-law, I caught and photographed a 12" brook trout from the East Fork Tuckasegee, to this date the biggest spec I have ever caught. Later that day I stepped in a hole over my head and ruined my 35mm camera and the film, so that fish lives only in my memory. I know I caught fish in two of the creeks mentioned later in this story, but I had no record of it because I only took pictures of the waterfalls and big fish (pre-digital days), so I when I compiled my list of creeks I had already fished when I started my 1,000 creek quest, I left them off. In fact, before I started my quest, Panthertown Valley was a yearly pilgrimage, and I took at least six different people in for their first trips. On one adventure, I fished the East Fork Tuckasegee from the source at the confluence of Greenland Creek and Panthertown Creek all the way down to the beginning of the private water below Devil's Elbow, and then walked the river all the way back because Carlton McNeil had not cut his trails in at that time. That means going down . . . and back up three big waterfalls and several small ones, and wading up to your armpits to get around some of the holes. It was my pleasure on this day to take Ben Wilson on his first trip into the valley. We took a couple of Carlton's trails to shortcut down to to Little Green Creek, and all I can say is he must have been a short man with a sense of humor. Ben finished the day with six new creeks and I got three, including one from my bucket list.
November 16 Wilkes County Blue Lines
I met Bobby Kilby in North Wilkesboro and he took me to some blue lines I had not yet fished. Bobby is a Wilkes County native, and these trips always include stories about Bobby's childhood friend and NASCAR legend Benny Parsons, and where all the moonshiners lived back in the fifties. I tried two small brook trout creeks with no luck, but I will go back and get them in warmer weather. The third creek we tried was North Prong Lewis Fork, and I caught browns and a brookie to make it new creek 1086.
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