Three generations of us headed up to Stone Mountain State Park today to hit the well-stocked Delayed Harvest water. Early October is a great time to do this, as the catch and release regulations have just gone into effect, and the stream is chock full of trout (and, sometimes, fishermen). Also, the weather was outstanding, and Drew was even able to try to catch some of the falling leaves.
We started the day in the picnic area just below the parking area for the Stone Mountain trail. There were 20 or so trout in one of the pools, all hovering together, just like they used to back in the cement pond they came from. They were'nt the least bit interested in anything. Down below, Drew reeled in a nice brookie on one of our slate drake nymphs.
As we headed back across the footbridge, I cast down from the bridge and saw about an 18-20" rainbow try to whack Drew's spinner, but no luck. We had several hits in the next couple of pools, but weren't able to land any there.
Next, we moved the car downstream, and finally found a nice, surprisingly long stretch of creek that didn't have any fishermen, but was still stocked well with a trout or two in most every pool. We had several hits and caught on more trout up through this section on a bead head nymph, since I lost my last remaining slate drake nymph in a tree. I have to say that it was nice to see the park rangers out checking fishing licenses. In 20+ years of fishing, I've only been checked a handful of times for a license. Later, we headed up Garden Creek (Wild regulations) just a few hundred yards, but saw no trout.
On the way back, surprisingly everyone had cleared out, or was clearing out, of the big pool where Garden Creek meets the main river. Once again, the trout were stacked up in this pool, and it looked like they were tired of having been cast to, though I did manage to fool one of the trout with a dry fly. However, I had a bad case of buck fever and set the hook too hard, breaking my line.
Finally, we hit a couple of pools in the upper portions in an out of the way pullover, before heading out. Using Drew's spinner, I had a large trout come out of nowhere, strike the lure, and break my line. All in all, we had a great day - lots of action, beautiful weather, great company, and a greasy cheeseburger on the way home.
