I vacumed the house and cleaned the bathrooms yesterday in order to get a whole day on the Jackson River. The Fall colors turned out to be a little off-peak as I drove southeast, but the sun shined brightly and the temperature at 9am was maybe 48.
Here's the Ingalls overlook as you crest the ridge of the Alleghenies. The ridge in the far distance is the site of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Here's the dirt road as you drive along the Poor Farm ROad access to the Jackson.
Finally, the River. A bit swollen from rains yesterday.
The high water made the fish harder to find, but this little guy came to hand by 10am.
Here's my student (and advisee) Colin, who joined me for the day on his first ever fly fishing trip. I'm trying to convert him to our cult from
spin-fishing. He's working my favorite pool.
But Colin can't learn how to set the hook. So I have to catch all the fish.
Yours truly, with a typical fish for the Jackson. This is a special regulation area with a 2 16"+ fish creel limit. In my experience fish longer than
16" a pretty rare with 12" being an average fish. However, I have caught a 15" brook trout on the Jackson.
Colin had given up and was on his way back to Bridgewater College to do his homework when I handed him my Granger and encouraged him to try one more pool.
The magic of the bamboo gave Colin his forst ever trout on a flyrod. Look at that smile!
One more fish as the light fades...
Here's the same overlook that we began with as the sun sets. Can't you just smell the slightly spicy aroma of the fallen leaves mixed with the smell
of wood smoke as the temperature drops? It was a great day. Now, I just need to run the gauntlet of deer and get back home to read a bed-time story to my 7
year-old daughter.
