[piano intro] There you go, buddy.

Now we're on, Larry.

Good hookup, buddy.

ha, ha, ha Looks like he got the dropper again.

Yep, I think that's right.

Yep.

Another little-- little brown.

Let's see what we got.

That may be a rainbow.

Maybe got us a brook trout.

Do we, or do we?

Yes.

- [male announcer]: The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [female announcer]: The North Carolina Wildlife Rescources Commission.

A fishing license goes a long way towards wildlife conservation in North Carolina.

Over 38,000 miles of managed streams and rivers, and 250,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and ad vice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait and Tackle.

And by contributions from PBS NC vi ewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪ Hello and welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

Well, if you like trout fishing, you are going to enjoy today's show.

Yeah, we've got a fun trip in the mountains fishing the Tuckasegee River, one of the more popular rivers that we've got in the mountains and fishing with a guide, Roger Lowe, who is one of the more famous guides in the mountains, based in Waynesville, uh, and one of the top fly-tiers in the country.

He's written several books on the subject.

We're gonna be fishing the Tuckasegee two different ways.

We're gonna start the morning wading before they start generating, where the current's wadable, where you can get out and work the river and caught a variety of fish.

And then, later in the day, we transition into rafts and a float portion-- floated a portion of the river and caught, actually, some bigger fish.

But had a-- had a good-- pretty much morning-- long morning on the river.

"Geartime" is gonna be interesting today.

We'll go back to the river, and Roger will talk about the fly patterns they used today.

Used a variety based on the conditions and what they were fishing for, so they'll go over that.

Donna's recipe today is smoked trout.

Well, it goes right with what we're doing.

I mean, it's a perfect recipe for a perfect show.

(John) All right, we gotta lot going on, so let's go to work on the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

I know I've fished with Roger several times.

I've always had a lotta success.

I think we're gonna do a float trip this afternoon when the water comes up.

I'm really looking forward to that, so what can we expect, Roger?

OK, I think this mornin', the river's down.

We don't have any generation going on, and should be a good black caddis hatch for us on topwater, and maybe run some beadhead droppers below those caddis flies.

And this afternoon, when we float, uh, generation comes-- a little more water-- should be some good streamer fishing.

Maybe a bigger fish for the afternoon, so I think we're gonna have a good day.

I'm really excited about that floating this afternoon, but I wanna catch some fish this morning.

How we gonna do that?

I think we'll start in some of these good runs, get those caddis flies in the foam line there, and I think we can get some topwater action here.

Just work our way on out a little further there.

You don't mend it?

That's great right there.

These caddis flies actually go back and forth beneath the surface, so they're a lotta-- sometimes you can actually twitch that thing just a little bit like that right there and that'll trigger a strike.

We wouldn't want to do that on a mayfly hatch, but on these caddis flies, it works pretty darn good.

Let's move on down just a little bit more here.

(Larry) Downstream?

(Roger) Yeah, right out in there, that's a good area right there.

Perfect, yeah.

Ah, hah, hah, hah!

All right, fish on!

I believe he's got the beadhead there.

Great.

Fish on.

(Roger) Good hookup, Larry.

Way to get started.

(Larry) What do you think it is?

(Roger) Well, I'm thinkin' maybe a-- (Larry) Rainbow?

It's a little one.

(Roger) Maybe a brown, maybe here.

Yeah.

(Larry) Pretty colors.

(Roger) Yeah, looks like we got a little wild brown here.

He's taken the, uh, beadhead dropper, and, uh, underneath these caddis flies, these little pheasant tails-- these really work good as imitations of, uh, just the nymph form of the little caddis, and that's a good way to get the morning started.

By golly, we're gonna do it!

(Roger) Let's put him back and get another.

(Larry) We're gonna do it; get another one.

That's good.

Uh, come here.

(Roger) Kind of the neat thing about fishing in these caddis hatches also, Larry, is normally in a mayfly hatch, we're just dead-driftin' your dries with absolutely, uh, no drag wh atsoever on the fly.

And, uh, with these caddis hatches, we got, uh, the caddis flies, uh, goin' back and forth beneath the surface to lay their eggs.

So a lotta times, you can kinda skitter the fly along or retrieve it just a little bit.

And sometimes we'll actually get a few hookups as you are, uh, retrieving the fly back to you there a little bit at the end of the drift.

Little too much mend that time, I fear.

Yeah, that's great action right there.

You're startin' to get a couple of fish breaking surface.

You've got some water temps, you know, about 43, 45 degrees, and, uh, as we get those to move on up into the upper 40s this morning, you know, the fish get a little bit more active.

There you go, buddy.

Now we're on, Larry.

Good hookup, buddy.

ha, ha, ha Looks like he got the dropper again.

Yep, I think that's right.

Yep.

Another little-- little brown.

Let's see what we got.

That may be a rainbow.

Maybe got us a brook trout.

Do we, or do we?

(Roger) Yes, swing him 'round here and see what we've got here.

Looks like a nice little brook trout.

(Larry) Pretty little trout.

(Roger) Took the pheasant tail dropper off of the dry, and actually that one took the dropper as you were strippin' it back at the end of the drift.

He's ready to roll.

Now we need a rainbow.

Let's get it.

(Steve) He's a fightin' fish-- hoo-hoo!

(Roger) Very nice!

That guy's puttin' on a nice show for us here.

I love for 'em to jump like that.

All right, let's see if he's about ready to get--whoo-- Goll--low, that's a nice pull.

(Roger) He is.

Lotta fun on lightweight tackle.

Oh, man!

[grunting] I'm amazed that a 26 hook has held that fish for that long.

He must've got a good-- All right!

Oh, looky there, just barely got him.

Let's see; nice fish.

Yeah, I love that.

Got him right in the...

Pretty rainbow.

...upper lip there, Steve.

Just turn him loose, and you got you a nice 10-inch rainbow there.

That's a beautiful fish.

Looks like your persistence with the casting paid off.

Oop!

He's outta here, buddy.

Good deal; let's try that again.

All right, let's try it, yes, sir.

That was fun.

With that 26 hook, you definitely don't wanna try to ho ss that fish in.

Oh, man.

[reel clicking rapidly] All right.

Yeah, that was worth the wait.

That was worth the wait, wasn't it?

Course, we haven't got him in yet, but it's lookin' better.

(Steve) Come on, buddy.

(Roger) He's not gonna like me very much either.

Now we're lookin' good.

(Steve) Oh, naw, he don't like you very much, does he?

Heh, yeah.

Come here, bu d. Come here, bud.

Let's get th at--ooh!

(Roger) Lookin' a little better.

(Steve) That's a strong fish, Roger.

(Roger) He's strong, isn't he?

(Steve) That is a strong fish.

Oh, come back here; come back here.

(Roger) There you go, buddy.

OK, Steve, let's see if we can get this little guy loose here.

(Steve) Now, I'll tell ya, that's a nice fish.

Nice fish--that was a good little battle between you and him on that little light equipment.

(Steve) It's amazing that I can get that fish on such a small hook.

It's a little bitty guy.

Just looks like a little spot on his lip.

Gosh!

He's ready to go back.

(Steve) He deserves to go back after the fight he put up.

Both of you done your job.

Yep.

[mellow acoustic guitar leads soft rock arrangement] ♪ (Steve) Wh at kind of strategy ar e we gonna have for this float this afternoon?

How are we gonna fish these pools and the riffles?

(Roger) OK, this afternoon, we've got, uh, just a moderate generation schedule, and, uh, we're gonna get not a lotta water-- just enough to, uh, get down through the river today.

And most of the time, when we do these, uh, floats on the generations, the dry fly's not quite as good as it is when the water's off.

But they're not runnin' a lotta water.

We can expect some topwater action, uh, on the sides, uh, next to the banks where the water's a little calmer, a little shallower.

And probably most of our fish on our float here today is probably gonna come off of, uh, some beadheads, dead-drifted, uh-- about a size-8 or -10 rubber-legged, uh, Prince beadhead and maybe some of our streamers, like some zonkers, uh-- some white zonkers, maybe some, uh, black wooly buggers.

That should--that should catch us some fish.

(Steve) So we're gonna be kinda floatin' along, and in better holes, we're probably gonna anchor down and fish 'em for a little bit?

(Roger) Yes.

(Steve) All right, good; sounds good to me.

(Roger) Good fish, Steve.

(Steve) Yep--man.

I like this.

heh, heh Good fish.

Good fish.

Another rainbow, it looks like.

(Roger) I think you're right.

OK.

He's got the help of the current right there.

(Roger) Bring him on right over my head here.

(Steve) All right, here we go.

OK--hah, hah!

(Roger) All right.

(Steve) Another nice rainbow.

(Roger) All right, buddy, how about that?

(Steve) Thank you, Roger.

(Roger) All right.

(Steve) Good deal.

Put me right on him.

Good spot.

All right, let's see.

OK, all right.

Good combination.

Oh, there he is!

(Steve) Eiii!

Oh, man, another good fish.

(Roger) Got him on there?

Yeah, this river's full of nice fish.

Looks like another rainbow.

(Roger) Another rainbow, yeah.

Plenty healthy, though.

Nice fish.

Bringing him about over here.

Get him on the reel.

(Roger) Nice fish, yes, sir.

(Steve) Puttin' up a good fight too.

That's the way I like it; that's the way I like it.

Whoa now, let's don't go anywhere.

(Roger) Wild guy, huh?

(Steve) Heh, heh--yeah.

There we go.

All right.

(Roger) Nice, dude.

Larry, I think he's gettin' ahead of ya.

(Larry) Well, he is.

(Steve) It won't take long to catch up in this water; I guarantee that.

It won't take long at all.

Man, that's a nice fish!

Look at how pretty that rainbow is.

Good deal; let him go and grow to be about three times that size.

(Roger) There you go.

OK, Larry, we got you from the back up to the front of the boat now.

Got Steve back in the back.

He caught him several nice rainbows there, and he was usin' the Prince beadhead nymph where you were usin' the dry.

It's startin' to cool off.

Wind's startin' to pick up a little this afternoon.

A little more weight with the nymph rig seems to be more effective.

So it's your turn up front.

Let's see what we can come up with.

Just do it the same way, right?

Yeah, basically startin' it upstream and quite a bit of mending goin' on, and I think we're gonna do good here this afternoon.

Well, let's try it.

There he is-- nice fish.

Wow!

That's a fish.

(Roger) Real good size fish, man.

(Larry) This is the one I've been waitin' for today.

(Roger) That's the one, isn't it, Larry?

(Larry) Oh, yes... oh, yes.

(Roger) I think Steve's in trouble on his size there.

(Larry) Uh-huh, this is a nice one.

I don't think it's a rainbow, though, Roger.

(Roger) He's diggin' the bottom, isn't he?

(Larry) He's diggin' the bottom; he's-- He sure is.

He's huggin' that bottom.

(Larry) All right!

(Roger) How 'bout that, buddy?

There's some fish.

(Larry) We got him in the boat!

That's a good one!

(Roger) All right.

(Larry) hah, hah (Roger) See what we got here.

Got some girth on him, doesn't he, Steve?

(Steve) Now, that's what I call a healthy fish there.

That sucker's been eatin' well.

(Larry) He gave me a tuss; I'm tired.

(Steve) I know you are.

You did a good job landin' that fish.

(Larry) Thank you; he's a beauty.

Nice fish.

All right!

All right!

Joe, that's a good way to change up the day.

Well, we planned it that way.

We planned, actually, to start off wading in an area that, um-- that Roger knew well and, uh, wanted to try that first, and then when they started generating, uh, they--we made that transition to the raft.

So we actually covered more river, and as you saw, we caught a bigger class of fish too.

So it turned out to be a really, really, uh, fun, long morning on the Tuckasegee.

(John) All right, let's go to "Geartime" and learn more.

♪ Guys, I tell ya, it certainly has been a great day-- great day of fishin'.

I really like the diversity we had today.

We started out this mornin' wade fishin' when it was cooler; it was overcast, and as the day cleared up and the water came up, we floated the river, and we caught fish, uh-- uh, usin' both strategies and, uh, both wadin' and floating, and, yeah, this was a super day.

Seemed like the fish got bigger, uh, in the afternoon when we started floating and the water came up, uh.

Course, we were fish-- fishing subsurface, uh, this afternoon versus, uh, on this-- on the surface this morning, for the most part.

Anyway, Roger, uh, kinda run us through some of the strategies we had during the day and some of the lures that we caught fish on.

(Roger) When we first started out this mornin', we had no generation whatsoever, and we started out with the black caddis.

We had a little bit of a black caddis hatch.

It was still a pretty cool mornin'-- mid-40s to around 50 air temperature, and, um, after that hatch kinda subsided, we got in some, uh, little bit of a gray midge.

We actually caught some, uh, rainbows and brooks down there on about a number 26 midge.

This is a small guy... (Steve) Very tiny.

(Roger) .. .right around the edges.

Had to go down on the light tippet to about a 7x, and some of 'em were feedin' very selectively, and we had to, um, make multiple casts, but, uh, we did get hooked up on 'em, and that was fun.

Then afternoon time, uh, generation kicked in and, um, we started maybe with some parachute Adams, maybe some small pheasant tail beads in behind these as droppers.

We were just basically usin' the parachute Adam or the caddis, uh, basically, just as a strike indicator.

And then as the afternoon wore on, uh, we got a little more water.

We had to go little bit, uh, deeper water tactics.

Everything kinda cooled down, and our hatch kinda went away and the old Tuckasegee wooly bugger came through for us, uh.

We caught some, uh, ni ce fish on it with a cone head.

Had a little flash in the tail with the olive body.

Then our best producer, most consistent, was the old, uh, number 8, uh, Prince rubber leg be adhead.

And we fished those with strike indicators and put quite a bit of weight on there-- maybe two to three B, BB split shot.

We got 'em down there good and deep, uh, just tight-linin' 'em and, uh-- uh, you got a couple nice fish, then Larry had the real nice, big brook trout.

Basically, the cooler it got in the afternoon, we just tried to go deeper with our presentation.

It was a great day, and I really did enjoy it.

Thanks, fellows, for that valuable information.

Roger's number is on your screen.

If you'd like to give him a call, he'll take you trout fishin'.

I promise you, you'll have a great day.

Well, Donna--she's standin' by in the kitchen.

She's got one of our favorite recipes.

It's all about smoked trout.

♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, today in the kitchen, we're makin' a smoked trout hash, and it is great.

We're gonna use all these great sweet potatoes.

You can use a mixture of sweet potatoes and white potatoes.

I just really love sweet potatoes, and they just add a great flavor.

This is somethin' you can serve for dinner.

You can do it for lunch or for breakfast, which would be great as well.

So we have our butter, um, melting in our pan.

We're going to add in our cubed, um, sweet potatoes.

I bought mine at the store already cubed 'cause I'm all about some quick and easy, and so I just bought them already cubed for me, So that's a great convenience for you as well.

If you're tryin' to do something quick and easy, why not?

They have it there for a reason.

So I'm gonna let this cook.

This is-- we're gonna cook it all in one pan and serve it in this pan, so that's even better.

So we're gonna sauté our sweet potatoes.

We're going to add one, um, Granny Smith apple with the peels on, so you're gonna get that great color as well as the great tart flavor from the Granny Smith apple... [sizzling] and some onion.

So we're just gonna give that a stir.

You're not gonna wanna stir this too much 'cause you want, really, the-- the potatoes to get nice and crunchy and brown on the bottom-- on all sides, which will add some nice, great, um, flavors as well as textures 'cause that sugar in the sweet potatoes is gonna kinda caramelize a little bit.

And then what we're going to do is add a little salt, a little cayenne pepper-- they're gonna have a little heat-- and some black pepper.

[grinding] You can see all those great colors.

I love it.

So while this is cooking, we're gonna make a little sauce that you can use at the end to top it with.

So we're gonna take some mayonnaise and... some horseradish.

We're just gonna put that in there.

It depends on how spicy you like horseradish sauces.

You can add more or less.

So we're just gonna mix that together and set that aside, and we're ready to go when our dish is done.

Once your dish is, um-- your potatoes have gotten softened and your apples are turning a golden brown, you're going to take some cream, and we're just gonna pour this over it and let it sit and cook without stirring it for about... 10 or 15 minutes, just until everything is nice and soft.

So we're just gonna pour this over it.

I'm gonna give it one stir, and then we're just gonna let it sit.

And we're gonna turn our heat down a little bit.

And then we're just gonna let that cook until everything is nice and tender.

Once it's finished cooking, we're gonna toss in our smoked trout with that, and then we're ready to serve.

We're gonna serve it with a sprig of dill on the top.

As you can see, we have all these great flavors and colors in this pan, and it's a one-pan dish, which we all love-- no clean up or mess.

I love cooking in my cast-iron skillet, so it makes a great presentation at your table too.

I hope you enjoy the smoked trout hash, and I look forward to seeing you next time here on "Simple Cooking."

Another good recipe, Donna, and there are more in our cookbook.

Just go to CarolinaOutdoorJournal.com.

It's waiting for you.

Joe, big day of fishing-- a lotta fun.

We really did.

We had a pretty morning to fish, number one, which is always nice.

I think breaking up the morning like we did to start wading was a fun way to do it.

Put you on the river right down level with the fish.

And then, um, makin' that transition to the rafts and floating down the river, you see more of the river, uh; you get more situations to fish as you go in and just, you know, just cover more ground.

And, again, it-- it seemed, that day, we caught bigger fish too.

Fishing with Roger, he's-- he's been in the mountains for years.

A lotta people know him.

If you want a really good experience and learning somethin' about the art of fly-fishing and how to tie flies, he knows it.

He's written the books on it.

Give him a call and go have fun.

It's good on the table too.

Absolutely.

For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore; thanks for joining us on the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

- [male announcer]: And make sure to visit our website for more information.

- [male announcer]: The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [female announcer]: The North Carolina Wildlife Rescources Commission.

A fishing license goes a long way towards wildlife conservation in North Carolina.

Over 38,000 miles of managed streams and rivers, and 250,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and ad vice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait and Tackle.

And by contributions from PBS NC vi ewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪