Harper Creek "NC's Best Kept Trout Fishing Secret"
This is a shared article from our friends at www.nc-flyfishing.com/ Bill Bernhardt. Take a few lessons from Bill and NC's Best Kept Trout Fishing Secret will be yours to enjoy and pass down to your kids and best fishing buddies.
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| Learn how to hunt trout |
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| Hidden and protected streams |
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| Crystal clear streams |
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| Native trout a challenging prized catch |
When most people think of fly fishing, the famous trout streams of the Northeastern and Western United States immediately spring to mind because those are the streams that authors most like to write about. However, if remote backcountry access, wild trout, and picture perfect scenery are your passion, then North Carolina has probably been keeping an important secret well hidden from you. Here in western North Carolina is NC's Best Kept Trout Fishing Secret, we have the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains which are a sub-chain of the Appalachian Mountains (the oldest mountains in the world) and some areas here get as much as sixty to eighty inches of rainfall per year! In turn, this excessive rainfall produces an extremely profuse, jungle-like, hardwood forest of Oak, Maple, Birch and many other species of trees along with many species of understory trees as well. In addition, the granite bed rock that forms the spine of the Blue Ridge mountains is riddled with rich deposits of limestone which dissolve over time to create a vast, mineral-rich, aquifer which gives rise to a countless number of springs which then combine to form some of the most beautiful Spring Creeks/Limestone Streams the U.S. has to offer. In turn, these creeks then flow through a fairy-tale setting of intensely green Temperate Rainforest that cradles and protects both the stream and the angler alike. Plus, the large deposits of limestone combined with other dissolved minerals in the water create a base for an exceptionally rich food chain of aquatic plants, aquatic insects, and fish as well as other animals that depend on the stream for sustenance such as Beaver, Mink, Martin, and numerous bird species.
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Brown Mountain Lodge
Creekside Cozy Cabin |
In addition, we also have four different species of wild trout inhabiting our western North Carolina streams consisting of Brook, Brown, and Rainbow Trout as well as a sub-species of the Brook Trout called a Speckled Trout (known locally as a Speck) which is unique to the southern Appalachians. So, while the fish here are considered small by some standards with twelve inches being considered a good fish here and sixteen inches being considered a trophy, they are so numerous that a fly angler will rarely experience a dull moment during a day of fishing. In fact, it is not uncommon for anglers to land ten or more fish in a day depending on their skill level and the mood of the fish. However, because the fish are wild, they are also very wary and catching them can be challenging. Thus, the angler who hooks and lands a wild trout has pitted his skills against a very worthy opponent on his one ground and won. Plus, there are so many different streams here to choose from ranging in size from big water to tiny Brook Trout streams that an angler could literally spend a lifetime exploring them and yet never be able to fish them all. See pictures below of NC's Best Kept Trout Fishing Secret lodging.
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| Creekside Cozy Cabin |
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| Outdoor Lounge by the Estes Mill creek |
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| Newly re rocked old time fire pit and gas grill for evening chillaxing |
For the best lodging in our area Brown Mountain Lodge and Creekside Cozy Cabin cabin rentals can be seen at: www.brownmountainlodge.com/main.asp and are mere minutes from NC's Best Kept Trout Fishing Secret.
