A portion of the Wilson CreeK near the town of Mortimer NC, was recently made a delayed harvest stream. A friend of mine Johnny Dollar caught this HOG on the DH portion of the Wilson recently. John caught her on a #18 Hetero-Genius nymph tied by Dave Hise of Casters of Hickory on a 9ft, 5X Flurocarbon leader. He used his rod of choice, a 9ft Orvis T3 5wt and reel was an Abel TR2 loaded with Rio Gold Line. Water was very clear and slightly lower than usual.
He did not use a float indicator or any weight as he tried his best at dead drifting the nymph down stream passing close by a fallen tree. Sure enough after two or three casts, she took it and about 15 minutes later he was able to land her.
John said, "During the entire fight and even to the point of netter her, she never faced him and wanted nothing to do with getting caught. I was lucky in getteing a picture as I was alone and the camera was only set to take a timed exposure. She was quickly released and recovered well from the fight without issue."
John has a more than coincidence chance of netting the big ones and you can follow his exploits on his Seven Bridges Road blog.