Tips for Fish Cold Mountain Streams during the Fall
Hello everyone, hope you all are doing well. Just had some questions on on fall mountain fishing. Just a little background on where I am fishing at. I live in far western North Carolina. Lots of fast moving, shallow, and very cold creeks and streams. I fish mostly Snowbird and the Slick Rock/Joyce Kilmer area. Big Snowbird being a very popular fishery and is known for having some of the best, if not the best, trout fishing in the state. There are hatchery supported, delayed harvest, and wild tout sections of the creek. A highly pressured area, especially during the summer. Somewhat high elevation also so the water is always cold.
Today I had little luck. Had one bite next to a rock as soon as my spinner hit the water but the sucker shook off immediately. Had a few rainbows trailed my spinner but other than that no luck. I tried both fast moving and slow moving areas. I was using a size 2 panther Martin with a bronze blade mostly. I only spin fish. Tried using power bait, trout magnets, Fireballs (which are bright red imitation eggs), waxworms, you name it. All to no avail. During the summer, the fishing is fantastic. I have no problem there. The water is cold year round.
It was around 55 degrees today and overcast. Just finished up a light rain. So I don’t know if it was just too cold or what the issue was. The water had have of been 40 to 45 degrees, don’t know if that’s just too cold for trout but I could be wrong on the water temp. I did manage to catch a 8 or 9 inch brown a couple days ago in similar conditions.
So I’m just looking for any advice you guys could give. What time of day to go, what conditions, what lures to use, retrieval methods, what colors, what brands? What part of the creek should I be fishing? Farther up stream or does it matter all that much? Also should I be looking for fast moving areas, eddies, around rocks, in the shallows? Any and all information you could give me would be much appreciated. Also I don’t care what species I catch just love to fish.
I’ve found out every thing I know about fishing through the internet and trial and error. I won’t give up until I catch a monster come hell or high and cold ass water. Sorry for the super long post, and if you’ve read the whole thing, thank you for your time and have a blessed day.