April 6, 2021
I fished Buffalo Creek, a Rutherford County tributary of Lake Lure that at some time in the past was a stocked trout stream. I had fished it a couple of times before with no luck, but this time I caught a few wild rainbows on nymphs. Next I fished an unnamed creek in Black Mountain, another creek I had previously struck out on. The wild rainbows there were also cooperative on this day, and the creek flows out of Brittin Cove, so I'll call it Brittin Cove Branch.
April 8, 2021
I went to Dupont State Forest to fish a couple of blue lines I thought might contain trout. Tom Creek flows right beside one of the main roads, and then turns and crosses a trail before running into Little River near Corn Mill Shoals. Once I made it through the dog hobble to the creek, it was more open than I expected, and I caught specs. I then hiked in to Buckhorn Creek on the eastern edge of the forest. It was a bigger flow but with a sideways-growing rhododendron canopy, so the fishing was a little tougher, but I caught specs there, too.
On a sadder note, this was the last fishing trip I took with my trusty 2004 Honda CRV. When I traded it in last month, it had 336,000 miles on it. Toy Caldwell put it this way in The Marshall Tucker Band's "Searchin' For A Rainbow":
"This old mare I'm ridin' she's gettin' kinda tired,
but in my heart I know she knows there's just one desire.
She's gonna take me to the end of our road,
Then she'll lay down and die and I'll say, 'God rest her soul'"
