My son Stephen and I took a trout fishing trip to the Whitewater River in North Carolina. The Whitewater River is a rugged river originating in North Carolina and it subsequently empties into Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. It also contains a beautiful waterfall of over 400 feet in height.
It is in one of the most remote and most rugged area of the state and we wanted to explore it firsthand ourselves and to evaluate the trout fishing there as well as letting Stephen sharpen up his nymphing techniques. We parked along the road and hiked in on a short trail that was not maintained so we needed to crawl over some trees and under some fallen trees, etc. But when we arrived at the stream, we were surprised to find that the trout were not cooperating, so we began to look around.
We looked for boot prints in the sand or along the path, moss scrapped off the rocks, broken stems and broken down grass, all signs that someone had recently been there. Behold we did find some fresh boot prints in the sand so we knew that we should go to another section of the Whitewater River. After scrambling to another section, we caught some nice brown before getting rained out soon after eleven o’clock.
However, the rain did not dampen Stephen’s enthusiasm as he went fishing for another hour and half with some more browns to show for it. We feel that the Whitewater River is well worth the trip as the browns are plentiful and feisty. However it is not for the faint of heart.
I said all that to say that if you are not getting hits or seeing trout where you expect them to be as we were, just look for signs that someone may have already been there. If so, go to another section of the river. Be courteous and allow plenty of river for that angler and respect his privilege of fishing that section.
By the way, I expect Stephen to follow up with a blog about our experiences including some pictures of that beautiful spectacular area. You will enjoy his pictures.