The fall issue of Southern Culture On the Fly is here! Click the pic to read the zine.

1) First off, THFF is still alive! Yours truly has been caught up in the binds of everyday life, and blogging, while I love it, has eluded me (play me a sad violin song why don't ya?). If there are periods in which THFF seems to be inactive, don't worry about reaching for the defibrillator. Hiatuses will come and go. I can already tell you next weekend will be busy on the blog with the WNC Fly Fishing Expo. Look for plenty of pictures/reports/maybe some video over the course of the weekend. Brad Sprinkle, who is well known for his trash flies (made from trash, but they're masterpieces) will be tying at various times all weekend. Last year I had the privilege of tying alongside Brad. Top notch angler, tyer, and person. You owe it to yourself to sit down and watch him work his magic.

I will be there Saturday from 1-5pm tying several of my patterns. Extended Body Inchworms, Vinyl Rib Stones, and some realistic patterns are on the menu. Looking forward to it!

2) Textbook fall fishing out there! The browns and brookies are in spawning mode. Cast to the lone fish that are not guarding a redd or mating. Always look where you're wading, to avoid wading over a redd. Nymphs in the morning with dries in the afternoon is the way to go. Try a #12-16 Pheasant Tail, Prince, Copper John, Zug Bug, or a Lightning Bug (feel free to broaden your selection, this is just a few suggestions). Once the sun warms the water a bit in the afternoon, try a dry. #18-22 BWOs, Black Caddis, #16-24 Para Adams, are working well. Although terrestrial season is behind us, there are some ants crawling around. Wouldn't hurt to try a small ant pattern under the overhanging vegetation. Other than that, save the vest space and leave your terrestrial box in the car.

3) I broke down and got contacts yesterday. Glasses, while they have their advantages, were just not practical for my lifestyle. This morning, I checked out polarized sunglasses. My previous pair were not polarized, so I wasn't able to ultimately "slice" through the water and detect fish hiding beneath the glare (check out the picture for a comparison). The previous pair were OK for driving and general use, but bad for fishing. So I settled on a pair of Costa Del Mar 400 glass Fantails. I'm absolutely blown away. Oh yeah, and the lifetime warranty Costa offers made it MUCH less painful to buy them. Highly recommend Costa if you're looking for a new pair of shades.

A few weeks ago, I pointed some Florida anglers to some decent fishing here in WNC. Being from Florida, they're accustomed to chasing tarpon on the west coast of the Sunshine State. With that being said, their ultimate goal while in NC was to catch the only native salmonid species indigenous to the SE. Now, 6ft silver kings on 4/0 Tarpon Toads and 6" native specks on #12 dries are 2 completely different ballgames. Some of the brookies you catch around here are almost the size of that 4/0 Tarpon Toad. Judging by their trailer, NC treated them well and then some. Jeff said they're putting together a full movie on the trip. Definitely looking forward to it! Check out the trailer below:


NC trout tour trailer from Jeff Harrell on Vimeo.


Check out Jeff's site, Finatic Design Co where you'll find shirts, stickers, hats, etc. Jeff is an artist specializing in some jaw-dropping fish prints. Check out his Facebook page for more.

NC DH streams are stocked and ready to go! The state doesn't stock all waters on opening day (last Saturday), but they finished stocking over the course of this week. If you're heading out to a DH stream this weekend, the fish are ready to be caught. Don't be surprised if you see (or better yet, catch) a pig. The state has done an outstanding job of stocking larger fish over the past few years. For the most part, these fish are not educated enough to be overly tough to catch. Generic patterns such as Prince Nymphs, Pheasant Tails, Hares Ears, Zug Bugs, Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs (just to name a few) will work wonders. #14 Stimulators, #14-16 Adams, #14 Royal Wulffs, #14 Elk Hair Caddis are great as far as dries go. If you really want to put a beating on the fish, check out Dave Hise's signature Orvis flies. His Squirmy Wormy, Hise's Hetero-Genius, Medusa, and Eggi Juan Kenobi will drive the fish mad. I've found them to be unbelievably effective on stockers (wild fish fight over them too). Check out the rest of Dave's selection here.

Below is the stocking report sent out by the NCWRC 4 hours ago. All streams in the list below have been stocked.

Ashe	HELTON CREEK
Ashe	TROUT LAKE
Burke	JACOBS FORK
Caldwell	WILSON CREEK
Haywood	WEST FORK PIGEON RIVER
Henderson	NORTH MILLS RIVER
Jackson	TANASSEE LAKE
Jackson	TUCKASEIGEE RIVER
Jackson	TUCKASEIGEE RIVER
Jackson	WOLF CREEK LAKE
Macon	NANTAHALA RIVER
Madison	BIG LAUREL CREEK
Madison	SHELTON LAUREL CREEK
Madison	SPRING CREEK
McDowell	CURTIS CREEK
McDowell	MILL CREEK
Mitchell	CANE CREEK
Mitchell	NORTH TOE RIVER
Polk	GREEN RIVER
Surry	ARARAT RIVER
Surry	MITCHELL RIVER
Transylvania	EAST FORK FRENCH BROAD RIVER
Transylvania	LITTLE RIVER
Watauga	COFFEE LAKE
Watauga	WATAUGA RIVER
Wilkes	EAST PRONG ROARING RIVER UPPER
Wilkes	ELK CREEK
Wilkes	REDDIES RIVER
Wilkes	STONE MOUNTAIN CREEK

Enjoy the weekend! It's shaping up to be a good one weather-wise and fishing-wise. Tell us how you do!

Albeit we live in the Southeast, we (NC, especially WNC) see snow on a  regular basis from December through March. When it falls on September 30th and October 1st, it gets a bit a lot of attention. Yesterday evening, I noticed that Brad Panovich, Chief meteorologist for WCNC, tweeted about snow beginning to fall atop Beech Mountain. Being the weather geek I am, I pulled up the current temps at the summit of Beech along with the dew points and radar. Low and behold, the cold air was thick enough to allow snow flakes to fall down to the higher elevations. So, I sat around and watched the live webcam up on Beech Mountain for a while. The snow came down at a pretty good clip for quite some time. Then, Boone received some snow this morning. Plenty of pics/videos floating around. Check out some of the pics/videos over on Brad's blog. Still some flakes falling out there as I type. Check out the live webcam up on Beech Mountain here.

I was tempted to just post this over on the new Carolina Weather Blog, but thought I'd share the news here on THFF. Not a huge deal. I will admit though, it's pretty cool watching snow flakes fall on September 30th.