Reflections

  I don’t really remember where the love for the field became the stream. As a child, I remember my brother subscribing to the magazine, Field & Stream. I fell in love with the notion of sitting in a cold duck blind either on upland waters or in a 6x8 box on stilts somewhere in the Core or Pamlico Sounds. When my son was too young to remember, I’d haul off to Hyde County which at the time was the eastern flyway mecca of waterfowl. We’d sleep in dives, get up at 4 am, wader up, and walk into impoundments of flooded corn aka cocaine for ducks. Unlike deer hunting, waterfowl hunting is a social sport. As my son, Lewis gained in years, his first love was deer hunting. He reached the local pinnacle of a nice 10-point buck at our family farm. However, as the taxing duties of climbing a deer stand, sitting on a cold seat, still and alone waned, Lewis was introduced to The Duck Commander where he learned the tricks of the duck call and later was led to &saving faith by Phil Roberts...

What a great way to spend post-thanksgiving! My son, Lewis and I took off to the mountains of North Carolina for a couple of days. We both had a small backpack, a flyrod and waders. Our goal was to find trout. We headed to the NC Trout capital, Bryson City, NC. Chasing the NC Wildlife map, we happened on Alarka Creek. Alarka is a hatchery-supported creek that begins in the Big Laurel area of the US Forest Service land and meanders it’s way thru rocky knolls, farms and woods finally ending at Fontana Lake. This classic NC mountain community is beautiful. We found a pull-off, wader-ed up and got right to “work” in the stream. Lewis quickly connected with a brown trout using an Elk haired caddis. The Elk Hair Caddis imitates an adult caddis fly or a small stonefly which is right down a trout’s alley! We fished a couple spots along the Alarka and then decided to go to the Deep Creek which flows through Bryson City.  Celebrated not only for its fishing, Deep Creek has several hiking l...