Decided to go check out some of the waters I trout fish in the National Forest and see how Helene changed them.
The floods in western NC were absolutely devasting, I’m sure everyone has seen the pictures, so in this post I won’t show many pictures of the property and lives destroyed, its just too depressing.
There was so much water the entire ecosystem along the streams and rivers has forever changed, I suppose a 1000 year flood will do that. Last year this river was hard to fish using a short spin fishing rod (so much vegetation and trees hanging over and crowding the water) and now you could fly fish from the shore almost anywhere along this 15 mile stretch of water.
So anyway, it looks like a western glacier melt river now, unlike anything I have ever seen along an Appalachian trout stream.
Hope you enjoy the pics. they are taken from high elevation to lower
Yes, frozen solid. And the best part is you own it. Really. I was there all day and saw two other trucks, so there’s that.
You could fit two Francis Marion National Forests into the Pisgah and have lots or room left over to hunt and fish. It’s a pretty cool resource in my backyard.
insane, beautiful, amazing. it does look like a western river landscape… maybe combined with a methy logging operation at the edges. nature’s power on display
the trout that lived through the last year have some stories to pass down through the ages
the color of the water in some of those pools puts me right back in it, thanks for sharing
Last time we took the low road down (pictures above) along the creeks to Lake James. This time lets take the high road, along the rim of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. The big rock formations are called Table Rock and Hawks Bill viewed from the wilderness side.
My plan this summer, probably in June and July, is to do a series of fishing trips down the Catawba in western NC to the Ocean. EF’s mountain to sea trip
It’ll take a month, do a section a day or two and move down. Id like to fish from there,( where your arrow is) in the Linville river, over to the Catawba then down lake James, Rhodiss, Lake Hickory, down thru lake Norman, wyley, Wateree, Marion, Moultie, then the Santee to the sea. The Catawba goes all the way, and catch a few fish in each lake and/or river section.
