[mill4023]

So "near" is a relative term. I know we've got to go at least an hour and a half to two hours.
But I'm looking to take a day trip with my 10 yr old daughter, so I don't want to drive 3 plus hours to the far west of the state.

We've only been to Jacob's Fork and Wilson Creek. At Jacob's Fork, all we caught were a couple of sunfish, but it was late summer, so I'm not sure if it's a different story this time of year.
At Wilson Creek, we saw a lot of trout, but only managed to land one small one. That was also in late summer. I'm not sure if it was the time of year or my worn out oversized equipment and rusty skills that were the problem. I hadn't been fly fishing in years and was using my old 7 weight rod with 20 yr old floating line that didn't float anymore and didn't cast very well.

I just ordered a TFO 5 weight rod and some new line, so I'm thinking about making a trip next weekend. My daughter will be fishing flies on a spinning rod (with bobber or split shot). I've got waders, but she won't, so someplace that can be fished effectively from the bank is important.

I've thought about going back to Wilson Creek, since I'm somewhat familiar with it, but I'm not crazy about the gravel road drive and didn't know if Jacob's Fork might be better this time of year or if there is someplace else we should think about going.
I've also read a little about:
East Fork of the Roaring River in Stone Mountain Park
Mitchell River

Any suggestions on someplace with a good chance to catch some fish that is easily accessible, suitable for fly gear and fishing a fly on a bobber, and not much more than 2 hours from Charlotte?

Thanks

 

[BrushCreek]

The Davidson fly only section by the hatchery?

 

[BrushCreek]

The fishing will be slow if you get up really high and the hatchery supported water is off limits in March.

 

[mill4023]

I probably should have mentioned that I was thinking of delayed harvest areas and going in a couple weeks, after they've been stocked.

 

[Chiefly Fly'n]

I think Stone Mt. is certainly your best best. Fish are stocked in the DH section the first week of the month and there are plenty of places she could fish from the bank, rocks etc. And, of course, there are the handicap access piers as well. The closer to the stocking (i.e. in a day or two...) the better the fishing. However, it should be good all month...and it will be stocked again for DH the first week of April. A lot of bright colored stuff will work well....egg patterns, san juan worms, green weenies...and standard flies like wooly buggers and nymphs....any single hook artificial (crappie jigs...)...get 'em deep.... It's close...only 1 hour from downtown Statesville. Wilson you are familiar with. Mitchell will have some bank access but not nearly as good as Stone in my opinion.

 

[mill4023]

We went to Stone Mountain on Sunday and tried the Roaring River. When I went to pull out my wading boots Sunday morning, I found out that foam soles and glue disintegrate after 20 years of not being used, so we were both limited to fishing from dry land.
We started at the bottom of the river where it leaves the park. We tried a few spots by the first pull off, where the outhouse is. Then headed upstream and spent quite a bit of time under the first footbridge, where we could see a lot of fish from the bridge. Tried eggs, san juan worms, buggers, copper johns, hares ear, prince nymphs. No luck at either spot. Under the bridge, we could see the fish approach the flies, then swim away. After that, we headed further upstream, looking for likely places and fishing a couple other spots. In the morning, the water was super clear, but by around noon, it turned pretty muddy. I assume that is from snow melt at higher elevations?

After the water turned really muddy, we headed over to the Mitchell. It was pretty crowded, and without waders, we only managed to try a few spots and didn't have any luck there either. I was really expecting to catch something, so my daughter was pretty bummed.

We probably spent way more time walking or driving around looking for good spots, and not enough time fishing. I tried to explain to my daughter that part of fishing somewhere you've never been before is scouting and figuring out where the good spots are. But she's easily frustrated and seems to be convinced that if you can't see fish in a spot, there are no fish there.

I'm thinking of investing in waders and boots for both of us to make it a little easier to just pick one spot to park, then work our way up or down the stream next time.

 

[Chiefly Fly'n]

Regrets that it was not a better day for catching. A customer just left the store and he also fished Stone and saw the water muddy. He had pretty good success on a black wooly bugger when it got dingy...then traditional flies when the stream began clearing in the afternoon...but fished deep....on the bottom. Most of Fish we caught on a different stream Sun. and Monday were also deep...bouncing flies on or near the bottom.

Waders will certainly make access to the stream easier....but often you can spend a lot of time and energy working your way up and down stream thru a lot of dead water....and possibly encroaching on other anglers on crowded DH streams. So hop-scotching by vehicle is what a lot of folks chose to do

If you do pursue waders, Redington makes some in childrens sizes.

 

[BrushCreek]

I bought my daughter a pair of cabelas lightweight waders about 3 or 4 years ago when she was 5 or 6... They still fit her, and I feel your pain about her frustration. My family has some land not too far from stone mountain and the Mitchell. I would never recommend those streams for a fun day out with a kid. Send me a PM and I'll tell you about a few better spots for Kids. The good thing about Waders is that she can get in the water and turn over some rocks and look at the bugs and cray fish. My daughter likes looking at the bugs and "searching for gold" in the streams almost as much as fishing. February and March are hard fishing in the hatchery supported and delayed harvest streams. I'd suggest waiting a few weeks until opening day on the hatchery supported streams and let her spin fish for stockers with bait (worms) or powerbait. She'll catch plenty and if you want to catch and release, you can pinch the barbs down on a very small #12 hook and let them go without doing much harm. Save the fly rod for her for the days in the spring when the trout take a dry fly. You should also consider taking her on the new in a kayak or canoe in June for small mouth and sun fish. .... Keep it fun...

 

[mill4023]

I know what you mean. I was thinking of the lower stretch of the roaring, where there isn't a lot of heavy brush. Seems like if we parked there, we could walk pretty far upstream (on the bank, not in the water) and cover a lot of water.

Now that you mentioned fishing deep, I realize we didn't lose a single fly on the bottom all day. So maybe one of the problems is that we weren't getting deep enough.

Regrets that it was not a better day for catching. A customer just left the store and he also fished Stone and saw the water muddy. He had pretty good success on a black wooly bugger when it got dingy...then traditional flies when the stream began clearing in the afternoon...but fished deep....on the bottom. Most of Fish we caught on a different stream Sun. and Monday were also deep...bouncing flies on or near the bottom.

Waders will certainly make access to the stream easier....but often you can spend a lot of time and energy working your way up and down stream thru a lot of dead water....and possibly encroaching on other anglers on crowded DH streams. So hop-scotching by vehicle is what a lot of folks chose to do

If you do pursue waders, Redington makes some in childrens sizes.