Devan S.

You guys are right. I think it was just one of those trips I was a bit too aggressive on mentally. I did have fun and saw some cool spots, some waterfalls, put some miles on my feet and caught some fish. What's next happened today @Johnsfolly. Mississippi stocked lake Lamar Bruce Tuesday. Would have worked perfectly if I hadn't bailed early to swing back through on my way home. We conned Mimi into babysitting overnight and the wife and I drove over last night and fished this morning and drove back home today. She got BBQ x2 and I got to fish and we got about 14 hours in the car together without kids. Mississippi Facebook post announcing they stocked had some negativity about stocking trout vs. other species and lakes. However Lake Lamar Bruce sets up really nicely for this. Its a nice little park, nice docks, and great bank access like you can see behind me. They actually heavily stock a very small pond just off the main lake about 2 acres with 1,075 fish. Its littered up pretty good now, you can see the line all over the dock in the picture, hooks, and power bait containers left behind. Really a shame for no longer than its been stocked it sure shows some use but it has potential for something that isn't readily prevalent in this area Sipsey Fork is a couple hours further East and you saw my access issues plus the fish size. We got there early. Fish were actively jumping and splashing. I threw a white zig jig and caught 7 or 8 in about 20 minutes and we headed back west. It looks like Louisiana doesn't stock the ponds in the northern part of the state along I-20 until late in January. Pending the weather, cows, and family that will be my next trip outside of the 4 state area and will likely swing through Broken Bow to check off Oklahoma in the same trip.

Moccasin Creek State Park is bordered on one side by a hatchery. Search "Trout and Moccasin Creek State Park" and you get tons of hits. The section along the park is reserved for kids and handicap and it gets all the fan fair; stocked heavy with all 3 species. There is mention of trout farther up and brookies above the falls. A place where one could conceivable get a Georgia Slam. As I paid for my camping, I asked the park attendant how far up I need to go. He said its steep and dangerous and he would be surprised if I could get above the second falls. He also said fishing is slow right now. I was the only person there. Plan was to hike to Hemlock falls and fish the big pool below the falls. I did and never had a bite, never saw a fish either. Then I packed up and followed a faint trail around and over. There is another set of falls about 1 more mile in. I assume past that is Brookie heaven. At this point, I will never know. The trail disappears after about 100 yards, down trees all over, wet trails, steep inclines, lots of leaves on the ground making things slick. I bailed. It wasn't worth getting hurt. A slip would have likely had me going down 30-60 feet. Not worth a major injury. Most of the trail before Hemlock falls is 30 feet above the river. I hopped around a bit but never saw a fish and never re-strung my rod. I was deflated. When I left, I stopped back by the ranger and asked about an adjacent road that may access the headwaters. It has been closed and FS doesn't have plans to open it. The only real options were 6 miles coming in from the AT....not worth it so I bailed and headed to my backups for Georgia. Warwoman WMA has multiple creeks said to have all 3 species in it. Generally decent road system to get you close to fishable spots. I saw 1 fish and caught that 1 fish. Again a still from the video of the kind of stuff I was trying to get through. My assumption is that much of this debris is leftover from Helene. Or maybe its just always like this? This is the last of the fish pictures....if that's what your here for you can skip the rest. I also managed to break my fly line here. Frustration with being tangled in everything on a line that was probably 8 years old and not been taken care of. I drove a lot of miles through forest service roads and stopped at 4-5 creeks. Bushwacked down.....looked around hit 2 or 4 holes and then head back to the car. I bailed from here and headed to Walhalla SC. I found the cheapest motel in town, I was sore and wet, mentally beat. Next morning I headed to the Chattooga Fly shop. Interesting place. I highly recommend. I reloaded and headed to the upper Chattooga looking for anything. The section between Burrells Ford and Ellicot Rock has a decent trail, at least up until it crosses the East Fork of the Chattooga. Then it gets smaller but not terrible and started to get higher above the river. I hiked beyond Ellicot Rock up into NC. Generally the stream is more open down by the river with more room to cast and far less bush wacking. However my fortunes did not change. On about the 5th or 6th run I fished, on my first cast I had a fish come up and slam my pink indicator. I did everything but bust out a seine to catch that fish but never saw it again. That would be the only fish I saw this day. Frustrated and with the weather looking good at home, I packed it in and drove home.

Well I got home today. I cut my trip short as I just was not having the success I expected to have. MS has not stocked. My first stop was Sipsey Fork, Alabama. I had no idea what to expect did very little research other than its a year round stocked trout fishery. It was raining off/on through Mississippi/Alabama but then it stopped. I am sure there is better access but the only one I found was about a 20 foot drop from the top of the walk way down to the water right below the power house. Unexpected....I'd have to pull them quite a ways on light line but I could see fish. Started with a jig. Bunch of short strikes, I could tell they were small....probably too small to get the jig good so switched to a smaller trout magnet. Hard to cast with all the fencing and light gear, mostly vertical jigging. My first fish came unhooked half way up. Off I go east. I had prepared to car camp at one of the streamside campgrounds along the Tellico River east of Tellico Plains. My plan was to stick to this area for day 2. I just happened to check the radar and saw a pretty good line of storms headed my way in the next 3-4 hours before I bailed off into zero service. Decided to a hotel was a better idea for the night. Glad I did. The wind was bad, tornado warnings just to the south and lost power through the night. Next morning driving into fish and there was a bunch of freshly cleared trees that had fallen in the wind and lots of limbs and litter in the road. The Tellico was a little dingy but I was going higher up into a feeder stream so didn't expect any issues. I did have 2 options to get to my point: Option 1 was a rough forest service road coming in from the top side. About a 2 mile hike. The other was coming up from the bottom, about a 4 mile hike in but paved access. Due to all the trees down and limbs I chose to hike up vs. try the more remote forest service road. Sycamore creek is a fairly well known spot for Brook trout but you have to get to the upper section. The lower couple miles are mostly rainbows but there is a fish block just before it dumps into the Tellico so I presume these rainbows are wild. A very defined trail and moderate climb. No big deal. Once I got to where I wanted I dropped down to the creek. Here I had my first run in with what I think is Rhododendrons. These bushes are thick and their big leaves catch everything. Net, lines, fly rods, backpack straps, you name it they grab it. The leaves are also heavy compared to say our brush locally or out west. It cause problems at every stream I would fish from here on. You can see how thick it is here along just above the stream. In spots it makes bank hoping impossible and right up the stream is the only option. Fighting through it completely blows any ability to be stealthy. Just tough. However every little pool here had multiple hungry fish. Just dipping. This was the biggest and prettiest. I caught a half dozen, hooked and lost or missed another dozen then headed back. Right before getting back to my car I decided to check out the lower river for some rainbows. From here I expected to go another 4-6 miles up the road and cross into North Carolina and fish the upper Tellico for a North Carolina trout. From here on, things went haywire. Access in most of these spots are real bushwhacks. The rhododendrons really choke down on the smaller streams making them impossible to fish and almost every stream required you to go down steep access of 20-30 feet to get down to the creek and then through the brush. I fished another 3 or 4 spots on the upper Tellico and never saw a fish. I assume I either spooked them fighting getting down there or they just simply were not there. I moved on and used the night time to drive to Moccasin Creek State Park in Georgia.

Chattooga is on the list but as a backup. I have a trib. of the Chattooga picked out for my SC brook. Probably going to be a bushwack hike but that's okay. TN. I may fish the Tellico but likely going to end up in a headwater tributary for a Brook vs. the main Tellico. However it does provide a bunch of fishing options and camping. I may use it for my NC trout in the upper reaches. Moccasin Creek in GA seems to be a nice single creek to get my GA slam. Again probably going to hike to the headwaters but that's okay. AL will be Sipsey Fork, MS will be lake Lamar Bruce if they stock in time. KY I have several options but really want to fish below Wolf Creek Dam on the Cumberland. Nice multiple species location with a chance at some new to me species as well.

I will be embarking on a southern Appalachia trout trip later this week. If someone has some excellent must hit/cant miss spots in KY, TN, NC, SC, or GA please let me know. Not just fishing spots but fly shops and/or points of interest are welcome. I will likely miss GSMP just purely to avoid chaos right before Christmas. I have spots already but they are done up with minimal research. Goal is of course a "trout" in each state but would also like Brookies if I can force it reasonably. GA has a trout slam so I will have to catch each there as well. Will do swing through MS/AL going/coming. MS has not stocked yet but I am hopeful.

They said zero stocking since the emergency orders and likely zero for awhile. I'm still seeing some pictures on facebook of guides and the front of the boat "keeper" pictures.

Good point although there is usually other by-catches in the sampling but they were not mentioned. Those browns are all congregated up last time I was down there. Would not surprise me at all if all the browns came from a single 50-100 yard stretch of water. In that second picture, you can see several 6-8 laying in the tank behind the picture of the cutthroat.

Its an interesting species but I don't think you guys have to worry about your urges. There is several fences, even a overhead fencing to hold you back from your urge and even then the access is such that to just drive up, your likely not going to be able to see pupfish. Its quiet a ways down to be able to see fish that are an inch long. Its literally in the middle of nowhere....and really not in Death Valley proper. I suppose you could get in if you wanted too since its so remote but ehhh... Now Shoshone pupfish are in a readily accessible spot in Shoshone right outside Death Valley. Here's the kicker, you can walk right up to the spring and see them directly. Could also fish them, although I assume illegal, you can get actually close enough to see them. I wouldn't promote it but its a pretty open spot and really easily accessible. Death Valley pupfish exist in Salt creek within Death Valley proper. Again easy to walk along and see them.

Yeah I have almost zero knowledge on the trout stocking rate. Considering its a pure put and take deal in a town of ~14,000 people and its the only pond stocked seems slim to me when the limit is 5/person. Also seems wild to haul them 5 hours and dump 275 but maybe they dumped more along the way. My work trip(if it happens) will take me close enough for a detour on the Mad River and to get there I will likely try and hit Brookeville Tailwater in Indiana.

Well checked off Illinois today. I Fish Illinois listed that all stocking locations in Southern Illinois would be stocked by Saturday 10/25. Officially fall trout season opened last weekend but due to temperatures my easy southern targets were delayed. I rolled out of Eagle Rock at 3am this morning. Basically power drove to New Athens to fish Willow Lake outside New Athens in the Peabody River King Wildlife Area and was there shortly after 8:30am. Took a couple work calls and started fishing. Clear water really and could see absolutely zero signs of fish...fished a white jig so I assume fish would see it and at least chase. According to the I Fish Illinois, this was stocked in time for the opener with no delays....water was plenty cool. I wasted 1.5 hours here and never had a bite and I covered water. My backups were in Mt. Vernon Veterans Memorial Park Pond and 3rd option was the Trout Pond at the Saline County State Fish and Wildlife area. I was prepared to come home via highway 60 very late and sleep in my truck somewhere around Popular Bluff. When I arrived in Mt. Vernon, I had a bad feeling. The pond was covered in nasty green slime and very limited visibility. Basically looked worse than my cow ponds. There is half a dozen aerators running. I don't know if this is good or bad. I had zero faith. As luck would have it, a gentleman out walking the path around the lake came up and struck up conversation asking if I had caught anything. He informed me he saw them stocking yesterday. Said the trout had come from Ava, Mo. Said he thought it was wild they were hauling trout that far. I kept my mouth shut...didn't want to explain that I had left better waters to be here, explain OCD and unrealistic goals. Apparently they normally stock a different pond but this year stocked this one and he asked how many I thought they should stock. I figure for a pond this size maybe 800-1000. Its probably 5 or 6 acres. I don't know how deep but with a population of 14,000 this number seems reasonable to me. He advised they dumped 275 fish in....wild to me how low the number actually was....seems like a heck of a long way to drive for 275 fish but who knows. He also told me there was a couple albinos so I assume palomino trout. I set a timer of 1 hour and after 30 minutes I finally hooked a fish and landed it. Checked a box and got out of there as fast as I could. Little over 14 hours for 1 fish. Listened to an audio text book for a Masters class 2x over...hopefully I get a decent grade.

We are closing in on that time of the year. Hopefully, I will sneak off for a longgggg day this weekend to check of Illinois. Will be a stocked location a "check the box" if you will. I have plans(not set in stone) for Mississippi and Alabama in mid-December. Again a check the box if you will. Following those 2, the plans diverge into 2 options: 1. Tenn/Kentucky. Check the box for both. Knowing I will likely get back to a more "wild Tennessee trout later". 2. Georgia trout slam + South Carolina + North Carolina + Kentucky+ Tennessee or any combination or the group. I have the vacation that needs to be burned. It all depends on timing and someone else's availability. The spots are mapped out. After Jan 1, I will probably get my Oklahoma + Louisiana trout in the same weekend. *These are all personal plans. There is an outside opportunity for Indiana, Ohio for some work related travel. Would be nice but not something I am 100% planning on. I am delaying Florida. I haven't received significant confirmation that Rainbow Trout are there outside of 1 single location. That being said I am not sure that counts for me so I have elected to ignore at this time.

Its been awhile and I would have to dig, but I know there was a study done on Beaver tailwaters that indicated the special regulation section had a higher recapture rate of tagged fish for trout vs the rest of the tailwater even though none of the stocking happened within the SRA. Interestingly the SRA on Beaver Tailwaters isn't true C&R and it has some of the worst access above spider creek so it may driven on pressure or habitat. Sure doesn't indicate they stay there but certainly that they move around significantly and at least congregate to a degree there.

I ran up the Norfork from the confluence Saturday and the water was bad nasty. I have no problem with the changes at all. My only argument is that if your not going to stock Beaver Tailwater for the next 6 months, then it should be catch and release only and there should be some level of tackle restriction.

The sage continues....I purchased another control board and yet again still no working. I am at a major loss here...mostly mentally.

So now I am in a real pickle.....I've called around locally. Everyone wants to charge a "diagnostics fee" to confirm my control board is bad and then I'll have to pay labor to have it swapped plus parts. I'm figuring its going to be $400(labor+diag fee + parts). Or I just risk it and buy another board 2X if I have too.