Day 5 - On the stream

Today was an odd day. When I woke up this morning, I felt pretty lazy. While the plan to go fly fishing was there, it was more like a good idea versus a desire. I guess the events of the last few weeks have shaken my nerves.

After lounging around the house this morning and watching TV, I finally managed to get a shower and motivate myself to take the 1 1/2 hour trip to Stone Mountain State Park (in North Carolina). I managed to hit the road around 11:30 and only had to stop twice on the way for food and gas.

I didn't really have an idea of where I was actually going to fish, so Stone Mountain State Park was the default location as I had already been there last week. While I drive pretty aggressively (read fast) today I felt like I had no particular place to be, so I enjoyed the drive. During the trip over, I started feeling the familiar feeling of the world stopping. I managed to find my way back to the park (I used the GPS last week) and pulled into the parking lot around 1:45.

After talking with a gentleman in the parking lot for a few minutes, I found myself in the water with flyrod in hand. The fly rod I was using was a 9 ft 4/5 weight made by Scierra. It has a European action (slower action) which suits my casting style. I almost brought the bamboo rod with me today, but I was purposely going to nymph fish today, and the bamboo rod that I have doesn't suit the nymphing style.

Now everybody has a go to fly. This is the fly that no matter what the weather, or stream conditions are you just feel good about the pattern. I'm no exception. My go to fly is the pink squirrel. Normally its a spring time fly, but I felt that this was where I needed to start. Call it intuition.

I have been doing a lot of research lately on euro nymphing, and I had a couple of hits last week with this style. Unfortunately, the stream I was on only allowed one hook, so I wasn't able to rig the dual hooks. But, I still managed to weight the fly and drag the fly through a couple of pools. I must say, when the electric jolt hit my rod I wasn't ready for it. I missed the hook up, but it continued to reinforce the idea of catching fish close to you.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sun, scouting out new pools, and just praising the Creator. I told you that fly fishing is like church for my soul.