This Sunday

[Buzz]

Well, I got to the north end of Hickory creek a little before 8:00am and Chief Greybear and his son showed up not long after. After introductions, we tried the handicapped area for a little while and caught a couple,but the wind was to much for me so we moved upstream to get out of it. The fish were still there but were pretty tight lipped. I still ended with 19 fish with one 15 in. and one 16 1/4 in. I went through most of my bugs and caught the biggest and the most on an orange thread jig.

Chief had the big fish, a 19 in. male with brilliant colors(the same fish I caught on Christmas Eve, The pic. is posted on the Shoal Creek forum), I've posted his catch here. He can tell you about it.

Overall not a bad morning. The quality of fish is better than in the past. I just hope we get one more stocking before the end of Feb.

Kyle

[ollie]

I saw your truck down there. I wasn't going to do any fishing until my neighbor talked me into it. We parked and walked downstream. Not to exciting I can tell you that. I caught four downstream, but if you enjoy looking at all the trash then it's the place to be I guess. Poor Hickory, after each heavy rain it looks like a giant toilet bowl down there. We almost decided to fish upstream until we saw about 6 vehicles parked around yours! The neighbor did manage to land a smallie around the 12" mark though, that was about our only excitement.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Well, it wasn't as bad a day to fish as I thought it might turn out.

Thanks for posting the pic of the trout. That is to date the largest trout that I have caught. I have seen him in Hickory for about a month but was never able to get him to bite. Kyle and I both fished for him this day and as usual, he wouldn't bite. I tried a couple of different crankbaits on him before he succumbed to a Shad imitation cranked slowly. One look at that and he was hooked. Literally. Thanks for helping out with this tiger Kyle.

The coolest thing of this day was that as Kyle and I were rigging up, my son Dylan had gone ahead of and went up stream to get started fishing. He quickly came running back and told me that he saw a Bald Eagle. He kept trying to get me to come look at it, but I didn't because I figured it would be out of the area before I got there to see it. So after a few minutes Kyle and I were ready and headed up the creek. And then Dylan pointed him out. There he sat low in a tree, majestically eyeing a trout breakfast just below him. Kyle attempted to get a pic of him, but after just a little of our intrusion, he lifted off. His colors were so brilliant that morning against the surroundings that no wordsmith could accurately describe and do justice.