Living in Florida is a fisherman’s dream. However, every three months I find myself itching to get out and tear through some mountain streams. This presents quite a hurdle since the closest mountain is over 10 hrs from my house. Anyway, a few weeks ago my brother and I somehow managed to get up to North Carolina to spend some time fishing for wild browns. This time quickly turned into a trip that we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Although this trip ended up going perfectly, it didn’t start that way. Not even by a long shot. Due to work situations we were unable to hit the road till about 10pm. This put us arriving in Clayton, GA around 7am the following morning. That alone put me in a tight spot. Especially since I ended up driving the entire way.

Fishing these waters was pretty tricky. Each location we tried looked like it had to be holding fish. However, after dozens of drifts through some pristine pools without success, we decided we better hike a few miles up river from our launch site. GOOD THINKING!

After hiking up a few miles we were able to finally get into some beautiful wild browns. Hooking up on these guys with a 3 wt fly rod and some home made flies was more than we could have hoped for. Just having the opportunity to get out into God’s country and get lost for a few days was more than enough to make the trip worth while.

Overall we were able to snag 5 brown trout in two days of fishing. I felt like that was really good considering the fishing pressure and the remote locations that we were in. Definitely going to be returning to these spots next spring!

Remember, keep your hearts right and your lines tight.

Take care!