Summer and Fall Fishing Trips

Ray Sugg
4 days ago
3 min read

A logging railroad trestle used to cross Middle Prong right here - now it's a wilderness area!

I have been very busy with school and soccer since my last post back in August, but I did manage to squeeze in a few fishing trips. I caught trout in five new creeks (one from my bucket list) and I got a chance to fish with four of my favorite fishing buddies. In addition, I made several short trips to home water and an old favorite and caught lots of wild trout.

June 24 - Beech Flats Prong (GSMNP) - lots of specs on dry flies

They could not resist my parachute Hazel Creek!

July 24 - Jonathan Creek - lots of wild fish and a nice stocker on a green weenie

beautiful color for a stocker - the rounded dorsal fin is the tell

August 4 - High Country Creekin' with Ben Wilson

I mostly played guide for Ben, who got several new creeks, but I did manage to fool some more wild trout with my bluegill spider. I have now caught all three species of trout in NC on a bluegill bug!

September/October - lots of quick trips to Jonathan Creek - great nymph/dry fly fishing!

The stretch of Jonathan Creek in Maggie Valley upstream from Campbell Creek was only slightly damaged by Hurricane Helene compared to the rest of the creek. It fished like a GSMNP stream this fall, with lots of wild trout, and the bonus of a few holdovers from the last stocking at the end of June.

Great water level for October means great wild trout fishing right beside the road.

wild browns

wild rainbows

stocked brookies and browns

colorful stocked rainbows

October 4 - Caldwell County with Jason Jefferies - a bucket list creek, plus two

I saw this book on Amazon a few years ago and had to have it. At least four of the fishermen profiled in the book listed Racket Creek as one of their favorite places to fish, so it has been on my radar since I read the book. Access at the lower end is blocked by private property, but most of the creek is on public land, and Jason figured out how to get in by a hike from the end of a public road. We met up near where Racket Creek flows into Gragg Prong (the one in Caldwell, not Avery), and fortune smiled on us. We met the owner of a posted stretch of Gragg Prong and Jason got permission for us to fish it when we got back from Racket. The hike in starts out easy, but the last 200 yards is a little hairy, mainly because of fallen trees. The creek is beautiful, and eventually the fish woke up. We both enjoyed catching wild trout on dry flies in a beautiful setting, but it really made me appreciate the area where I live. I hope this doesn't make the fly fishermen of Caldwell County mad at me, but I can drive 30 minutes north, west or south from my house (or 1 hour east) and be in a creek just as pretty, but with more wild trout. On the way back we stopped at Woodruff Branch, a tiny tributary of Anthony Creek, and I caught equally tiny rainbows. We finished the day at Gragg Prong, where I caught a nice brown on a purple haze.

Mark Racket Creek off the bucket list - new creek number 1109!