New Friends, Good Float

I met Ken at a meet and greet last spring and was enthralled by his knowledge of the upper Tar and Neuse basin flows as we chatted by a campfire.  We've been trading messages for weeks planning to fish a small flow just outside the triangle during a trip back to his native lands. However, the targeted river wasn't in such great shape due to recent rains. We began discussing a float I'd done several times, that Ken had never seen. I think I got him siked up with visions of striped bass on a fly rod, so he agreed to try my plan instead.

The target was largemouth and striper. Ken, his 11 yr old son, and I launched on this large flow around 8 am in very nice ambient temps. High pressure was moving in, as well as some decent winds, but we made the most of it. Even though I encouraged Ken to take a spinning rod, Ken stuck to his guns and fly fished all day.

My 2nd fish of the day was my personal best striper taken on a Bomber walkie talkie (low pitch) in a gold/black color. Not sure if Bomber makes these anymore, but you can get them online.  These spook type lures are intended for saltwater, large, and a tad heavy (1 oz). I can chuck them a mile with my abu 4600 baitcaster. This bruiser (8 lbs) exploded on the lure after just two twitches, and it was on! Great fight.



A little later, Ken's son hooked a nice largemouth on a torpedo, only to have the line come unraveled. 30 seconds later, that same bass jumped and shook the lure out of it's mouth! I'd never seen this before. Since the torpedo is a floater, I quickly scooped it up and tied it back on for him. Ken's son had a few other strikes here and there, but couldn't put one in the boat. He did, however, manage all the rapids with considerable skill and ease. You can definitely tell Ken has trained him well on the NC footfills flows surrounding his current hometown of Elkin.

Ken landed several nice redbreast and a few small largemouth on the long rod as we made our way into some nice shoals. I was burning a black buzzbait over the swift/shallow water and hooked up with this healthy 4 pounder. It also put up a great fight.



After lunch, I stuck with the buzzer and landed several scrappy river largemouth, mostly in swift water eddies and shoals. This river has a fair amount of thick heavy grass in the summer, creating current breaks and terrific hiding places for fish. With so many places to hide, you can virtually catch them all over the river. Here are a few, there's Ken in the background ...




Ken did let me give fly fishing a go. I quickly learned that fly fishing from a canoe/kayak, particularly in swift water, is very difficult. I did land this colorful redbreast on a popping bug. I was contemplating a fly rod purchase prior to this trip ... I think I'll put that on the back burner, at least for now.



The weather was exceptional on this trip.  Cooler nights have arrived and great fall fishing is just around the corner.