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| Micah Groeber hikes in to a favorite fishing hole - North Carolina |
A wild trout stream is the one thing that competes for attention with my camera. When the fishing is good it's impossible to pry a fly rod out of my hands. I won't eat, I forget to drink water; I'm like a labrador chasing a tennis ball. While working as a fishing guide in Wyoming along the North Platte River I once watched a bear cross the river twenty feet in front of me and climb atop a rock, dripping wet and backlit in golden light and my camera sat idly in its bag all because a trico hatch had brown trout slamming my fly after every cast. Fly fishing is the ultimate vacation. Sometimes I can't even force myself to take pictures because I hate the idea of missing even a few moments of good water.
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| Micah fishing a favorite stretch of stream - Photo © Mac Stone |
Recently I've gotten better at balancing the two and it's mostly by force. In the smaller streams of North Carolina there's simply not enough room for two people to fish side by side. So when I head out for a day on the water with good friend Micah Groeber, I get to be both angler and photographer. Plus, he gladly helps carry my underwater housing so long as I get photos of the action.
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| Colorful brown trout - Photo © Mac Stone |
Lately, we've been getting into some really good streams. While most serious anglers head west for big fish, Micah and I have been finding some of the heartiest and most colorful native browns I've ever seen in the Blue Ridge. When you're pulling 20'' browns out of three feet of Appalachian mountain water, what's not to photograph?
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| Brown trout - Photo © Mac Stone |
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| Micah with his prized brown - Photo © Mac Stone |
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| 20'' wild brown trout - Photo © Mac Stone |
