Fall is without doubt my favorite season of the year. The mountains are one of my most favorite places to be. Chasin' fins is one of my favorite things to do. So, when I found myself with a free day today, guess where I was aheaded... Yup, the upstate SC Blue Ridge.
I almost felt a little guilty, in that I kinda wanted to call some of my SC NANFAns, and a friend of mine in Travelers Rest, to see if they could join me on short notice. But I really needed some solitude, so even though I felt a little guilty as I passed a couple of their houses, I kept today a solo date.
Not that SC NANFAns Dustin and Rob (Killier here on the forum) weren't on my mind a good chunk of the time. I revisited sites I had been to with Dustin in February and Rob in May.
First stop was the North Saluda River at SC 11 and Old Settlement Rd. This was also the most productive spot of the day. Water was much lower than it was in the late spring when Robert and I were there. I was hoping to find some more greenfin shiners, but they had disappeared. What did turn up was darters- in spades! Kick seining runs and riffles almost couldn't turn up an empty net. I saw more seagreen darters than ever. Most were small, maybe young of year, but there were a few splendid bulls and cows still around. Carolina fantails were also very common. They were all smallish, but their signature dorsals and bad-butt head profiles were obvious. Especially when compared to the seafoams in the net with them. Bluehead chubs were common, especially very small ones. One un-ided Lepomis and a large margined madtom also found their way into my net. Lots of fishfood (aquatic nymphs)but no crayfish.
Second stop was the South Saluda at US 126 and SC 11, another place Rob and I had hit in May. I was hoping for fieryblacks, but none showed. What did show was plenty of greenhead shiners, a couple of which still had very noticeable traces of their red breeding color left; as well as seafoam darters. The occasional bluehead chub and and a pair of crayfish also turned up.
These first stops were in the foothills, but the next two stops were up in the mountains on the Eastatoe River. I planned to stop at a pool Dustin and I seined on a very cold February day, but it was swarming with deer hunters so I toodled on up the mountain a quarter mile and set in. Plenty of vigorous effort yielded only one juvenile rainbow trout (quickly released) and a bluehead chub. After half an hour of this futility I headed back downhill, happy to find the hunters had cleared out. This pool was too deep for me to work comfortably by myself, especially considering I had come close to drowning myself there in February. (Thanks again for catching me, Dustin!
) But I could work the run and riffles and plunge pools under the bridge and upstream. Lots of fast water work yielded two rainbow trout, one about seven inches and the other about four, both of which were quickly released. The only other fish to show was a striped jumprock. I marveled at the first rainbow, it turned up in a plunge pool about three feet square that was absolutely getting pounded by the fast current.The water at each stop was warmer than I expected, and low but still flowing at very respectable levels. I wore waders, but would've been fine without them.
So, it was a happy day; bright fall sun, mountains with a good bit of fall leaf color to them, and pretty fish. I'm a lucky man!
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