Stung!

Despite being in Townsend for close to three weeks at this point, I have been avoiding Elkmont. This was largely because of the firefly mania that has been going on above the campground. With the road no longer closed in the evenings I decided to head up there Wednesday evening and see how the fishing is doing on that stream. The results were excellent despite some pain in the process.

I casually sauntered up the trail above the campground with a certain stretch of water on my mind where I have caught some decent fish before. There is a lot of great dry fly water on this particular piece of water, and I was hoping to get a nice fish on the dry. Arriving at my starting pool, I found a log to sit on that was the perfect height for a seat and proceeded to start preparing to tie on a fly. Very little time elapsed before the bugs started bothering me, at least that was the first thought that went through my head as I felt a bug brush against my arm. Suddenly I felt a searing stinging sensation on my arm and quickly slapped at whatever was causing it. In horror I looked down and saw bees swarming. Two more stings followed in quick succession, another on my arm and one on the side of my neck. Anyone walking along the trail at that point would have seen me leap of the log and sprint for the stream. If the bees followed me with the intent to cause harm, I fully intended to dive into the water. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary as the bees only wanted me away from their nest. Yes, you read that right…I sat ON the nest which was inside the log. The bees were still swarming around the entrance. I briefly considered venturing close enough for a picture but you’ll just have to trust my description of the event and the bees.

After “The Stinging,” I finally moved slowly up the stream fishing various dries including a Neversink Caddis, a Parachute Hare’s Ear, and a Yellow Stimulator all in either a #14 or #16. I even broke off on a decent brown on the hookset but the fish shouldn’t have broke me off based on its size. Since I was fishing an extremely soft rod that should have been forgiving, I’ll blame my leader to tippet knot since the fish was nice but not really that big…

I managed a couple of better than average rainbows, the best of which was camera shy, but I got a picture of the other one. As I already said, the dry fly fishing was awesome. It doesn’t get any better than spending an evening on a mountain stream fishing dries to actively feeding fish… This weekend I’ll be doing something out of the ordinary which will be some type of backcountry trip. Either one of my crazy hardcore day trips or maybe an overnight trip…I guess I should spend a little time with a park map and decide where I’m going…