The Rumble is over and the team of Paul Thompson and Kevin Howell have taken home the top prize. The N.C. Flyfishing Team and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation did a great job hosting the two day event.
The new Cherokee catch and release water was stocked full and was a big hit with the competing teams. Just to give you an idea how full of fish the stream was, the winning team of Thompson and Howell landed 112 scoreable fish in a three hour session. They were fishing a beat that had been fished just three hours earlier.
Due to lack of Internet access, all we were able to post were crappy camera phone photos during the event. However, don't worry I have about 400 better quality photos of the event and will be posting more shortly.
2 comments:
Jamming the stream with trout - to the tune of 100+ fish in three hours - might be yet another sign of the apocalypse.
It made for some twighlight zone moments. These were certainly big pellet fed pigs. The stream in particular is part of a historically put and take fishery that the tribe used for income (pre casino) $7 a day gets you your limit of fish. However, even the put and take part of the fishery was neglected since the casino opened.
Catch and release is a new concept for them and I feel like the loaded the river up in a couple of spots in anticipation of the comp. The choice of beat was given based on casting performance and there were two beats that appeared two have been stocked heavy. The section I judged during the first session "only" gave up 21 trout in the three hours.
To be sure all of the competitors said it became not so much about the fishing as about getting you fish to the judge and tagging your parter quickly.
I am hoping that once things sort out and the poaching gets under control they will manage it more like a normal fishery (albeit a stocked one).
That said it made for exciting spectating. One bridge had about thirty people lining it watching the team USA guys pulling fish out of the water one after another.
They did outlaw egg or pellet flies but no one was using size 20 BWO's either.
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