Fishing the Davidson River in North Carolina:
Recently my buddy Pete fished the Davidson River in North Carolina. Pete and his wife Linda stayed in their RV at Davidson River Campground inside the Pisgah National Forest on route 276 about 3 miles outside of the small town of Brevard. Brevard has a population of only 7,600 people and is known as the “Land of Waterfalls”. Pretty country.
The Pisgah National Forest is a hardwood forest of over 500,000 acres with peaks ascending a mile high in elevation assuring the Davidson River with cool, clear trout waters. North Carolina regulations the river under its Mountain Trout Waters program. The best fishing is in the artificial fly only catch & release area between the Davidson’s headwaters to Avery Creek, excluding Avery Creek, Looking Glass Creek and Grogan Creek. That’s where you’ll get a shot a true trophy. Below that it is a hatchery supported put-and-take fishery. And as you can imagine those waters get heavily pounded.
Pete caught two nice brown trout on spinning. That’s great. Linda cooked them up and he enjoyed eating them. Cool. Glad he got them. Still it’s high time Pete took out his fly rod. Long overdue. Keeps sidestepping it. Keeps using the spinning rod as a crutch. Not enough confidence I guess. Yup no matter how many times I suggest he break out the fly rod it remains locked up in the RV. I can hear that rod crying from here. Pete you’ll never learn to fly fishing at that rate!