The Trout Bum Times


Fishing Report October 20, 2011

Fall has finally arrived in the mountains, I woke to 39 degrees this morning and warming into the mid-fifties. The cooler weather is sure to get the Brown trout all fired up for the spawn. On the Watauga and some other rivers we are already seeing fish lying on beds or pairing up. On the Davidson we are just starting to see fish pair up. We finally got a little much needed-rain yesterday; everyone that fished through the rain had a great day of fishing. Robbie, one of our part-time guides, snuck out for a quick minute on Tuesday and saw a good hatch of blue wing olives before the heavy downpour drove him off the water. He landed several hungry and aggressive browns on a size 16 blue dun caddis . On Monday he fished the upper Davidson with his 2-weight and got the surprise of his life when a 19-inch Brown inhaled his #14 caddis. Jack Camp took his daughter Liz fishing monday morning on the trophy water and had a good morning. Gonzalo, one of the guides from Andes Drifters, my Argentina operation, is in town and he and I fished a small blue line (wild trout stream) on Tuesday. We had a great day fishing dry caddis with a tungsten bead Dirty Bird, size 16, as a dropper. Monday I guided Nicholas from the Raleigh area and his father-in-law, Dick, from Columbus, Ohio. We fished the East Fork of the French Broad in the morning and then moved to the Davidson in the afternoon. We fished size 16 peacock soft hackles on both rivers. We also caught a few fish on pink San Juan worms and silver Lighting bugs on the East fork. Nicholas and Dick landed 18 fish on the East Fork and another 8 on the Davidson, with a lot of fish lost at the net or broken off. The highlight was an 18" Brown and 19" Rainbow back-to-back on the Davidson.



Davidson River: Soft hackles size 16-20 , BWO size 16-20 , Sassi Solutions size 18-20 , Midges in Black, Red, Green and Blue size 18-26. You will have to use 6x tippet and a 9' leader for success.

Davidson Trophy Water: Soft hackles size 16-20, BWO size 16-20, Sassi Solutions size 18-20, Midges in Black, Red, Green and Blue size 18-26. You will have to use 6x tippet and a 9' leader for success.

Blue Lines (Avery, Looking Glass, Whitewater, etc): Attractor dries like Royal Wulffs 14-18, Stimulators 14-18 for your dropper use Dirty Birds, small Pheasant Tails and Red Fox Squirrel nymphs. You will have to use 5-6x tippet.

Delayed Harvest: The fish are getting scattered out of the pods and acting like normal fish so you will have to fish the entire stream to be successful. Soft Hackles size 14-28 are working great, small wooly buggers size 10-14 olive and white, Tung bead Dirty Bird , Lighting bugs size 14-20 , you can still catch a few on eggs and worms. All streams will get another stocking the first week of November. You will have to fish 5-6x tippet, the lighter the tippet the more bites you will get.

Smallmouth: Still a few being caught on the fly but it is getting tougher with the fronts pushing though and the water getting colder. So break out the spinning gear and small jigs for best results.

We will be at the WNC Fly Fishing Expo November 5 and 6 again this year be sure to come by the booth and check out our sale items.








Go Early....Stay Late....Fish Hard!!!!

Davidson River Outfitters
Pisgah Forest NC 28768
Toll Free 888-861-0111 email: info @davidsonflyfishing.com