EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Mac Brown - Owner/Guide at Mac Brown Fly Fish (Western North Carolina)

In this episode: Western NC guide Mac Brown shares delayed harvest fishing strategies for fall season success. Topics include stocked trout behavior patterns, adapting tactics as fish become educated and contrarian approaches for pressured waters.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Avoiding indicator rigs after first week of stocking
• Dry-dropper presentations with small flies (size 18-24)
• Egg patterns fished straight to rod tip without an indicator
• Wet fly fishing for educated trout
• Small dry flies with wet fly tags
• Blue winged olive and midge fishing

Location focus: Western North Carolina delayed harvest waters (Tuckaseegee River, Webster, Nantahala River, Bryson City)

Target species: Stocked rainbow and brown trout

Equipment discussed: Small flies (size 18-24), egg patterns, Y2K flies, girdle bugs, squirmy worms, dry flies, wet flies, pheasant tails, stonefly patterns

Key questions answered:

• How does delayed harvest trout behavior change over time
• What are the best tactics after first week of stocking
• Why egg patterns work throughout winter season
• How to fish differently than the crowd on DH waters

Best for: Beginner to intermediate anglers interested in delayed harvest fishing strategies, fall and winter trout tactics and Western North Carolina fishing

Marvin Cash00:00:04

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. We're back with another Casting Angles with the man himself, Mac Brown. Mac, how are you?

Mac Brown00:00:11

I'm doing great. How are you doing, Marvin?

Marvin Cash00:00:13

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And you know, as we slide into pumpkin spice latte land, that means one thing in western North Carolina, it means delayed harvest.

Mac Brown00:00:22

Delayed harvest is coming up quick. Yeah, First Saturday in October and the schedule is going to be listed up on the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission.So everybody can look for their favorite stream from Tucker, CG and Webster to, you know, there's all kinds of them up at Nanahala.You can go on there and find out the perfect, you know, date what they estimate and they're usually pretty close to doing it on the dates they estimate.

Marvin Cash00:00:48

Yeah, and I would say too, you know, it's kind of, it's interesting because I know a lot of people don't fish for bass and Bremen stuff during the summertime. So this is really, for a lot of people in North Carolina, it's their re entry into fall fly fishing.And you know, the great thing is when those fish first get stocked, they're not very educated, shall we say. And so you can kind of feed them a lot of junk food and have a lot of success, right?

Mac Brown00:01:10

Oh yeah, yeah, it'd be good, it'd be good for people coming in from, from far and away and yeah, they'll get a lot of success and they'll feel big about, you know, there'll be a lot of, a lot of good, good moments and memories. And then after they've been picked on for a couple of weeks and it'll turn where you gotta be doing what they want.And they'll figure it out pretty quick. Like once they get hit really the first week or so, they'll start adjusting.I mean we get a lot of hatches still in the fall and like, like October Catus and things will be coming off and they'll start tuning in on that stuff. And a lot of times in the fall they tune in, there's still a lot of like really small midges and things going on.And those fish will tune in from the unpleasant experience of getting, you know, a squirmy worm five times in a week. And it'll be like, I'm not eating another red worm. And then they'll, they'll tune in on that real small stuff, like the 22, 24 size mid stuff.And if you really want to get technical with it, you can go in there and still catch those same fish then. And fish.The real tiny stuff, what they've adjusted to, because they'll eat a lot of junk food, you know, the first week, and everybody's a winner, you know, the first week. But once that first week is over, it's going to get. It'll get tough real quick because it brings a lot of people supply and demand.You know, the people are plentiful, and they've hit them hard. So then those fish have to adjust because they don't like getting hooked on all that stuff, you know, so they'll get.They'll actually get harder than if you just went up and probably fished a wild stream, you know, they'll get harder to catch. Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:02:44

It's interesting, too, right, because when they first get stocked, they're all potted up.So, like, you know, a lot of times, if you go out kind of early in the DH season, you kind of have to hunt around to find the fish because they haven't really spread out to kind of like, we'll just say normal kind of, you know, fishing lies, Right.

Mac Brown00:03:00

Yep. Yeah. They'll start to. They'll start to spread out after that first week, too.The pot will stay together, and then they start to spread out, and it's like you can do. Yeah. When they're still potted up, you just got to think about, how do I be. How can I be different?And all you got to do is go out there and look in the daytime.If you're coming up from out of state or even if you live close to Western Carolina, where all these DH programs happen, Just look and see what everybody's doing the first week. And you want to be different. You don't want to do the same thing they're doing, because after a week, that stuff's not going to work.And of course, you usually. What happens is they do it again in November, and then they stock it again in December.Then they quit in January, and they'll come back and do it again in March, you know, so basically, just look and see what everybody's doing and do something other. Because whatever everybody's doing is usually not what you want to be doing.Once they've been hit, you know, hard the first week, you want to do something different, you know, so if it's a small dry fly or if it's a. Think about this.So if everybody's throwing a bobber, right, and they're lobbing a bobber 10ft over the side and they got their squirmy worm and their girdle bug down deep. And then all of a sudden that's not working. What do you want to do different? Maybe throw a wet fly, Maybe throw a dry dropper dropper.Maybe do something that's a little more stealthy. That's not just like this big float going over top of them. And that's what about 95% of the people do is use an indicator.And I think a lot of times with the dh, the key to success is not copying what the majority's doing. Be, be individualistic and try to do your own thing, you know.

Marvin Cash00:04:36

Yeah, I'm a big fan of stone flies and pheasant tails.

Mac Brown00:04:40

Yeah, that'd be good. I mean, that'd be a good thing. And of course junk food and stuff will work good at first and then it starts, it stops working as good.And of course going into the winter, what's, what's a real common thing throughout the, the world going into the winter season is, is egg patterns. I mean, because fish are getting ready to spawn, so they're all like thinking about eggs even if, even if they hadn't begun to, begun to spawn.You know, your orange and your pinks and your, your egg patterns that are common colors like the yellow egg, all those are really good tactic, you know. Cause you can go in there any day of the week, even when they've been hit. And if you fished an egg pattern without a bobber, you can do pretty well.I mean, you can do really well all through the wintertime on those DH programs, just fishing eggs. I mean, eggs really. I don't know. In my opinion, eggs are king through the winter because that's what they're looking for.

Marvin Cash00:05:32

Yeah, you can fish a Y2K and you don't even have to use split shot.

Mac Brown00:05:36

Yeah, no, I mean, that's a good tactic. And it, but, but it's a big difference.You know, fishing that straight, straight to the rod tip without having a suspension device, you know, that works really well. I mean, it works well I mean, even on wild fish like up on the Holston Watauga or here, it works well whether it's a DH or not a dh.I mean, because you're in contact to it and of course fish are looking for it. And I'd be hard pressed to say yeah. I mean some people think, well, that's junk food. And they think all these things are junk food.You know, girdlebug junk food, my flies, junk food. Well, what those fish want is junk food. Okay.If you want to come up there and do well, early on, then probably you ought to join the crowd and throw junk food if you want to see a lot of numbers of fish in the beginning stages, you know, and then move to natural the more and more that goes on. But what I'm saying is there is certain junk foods that stay good the whole time. An egg pattern tends to be one of those.

Marvin Cash00:06:33

Yeah, but you know, also too, you got to remember, like, a girdle bug is a stonefly imitation, right. And mop flies are crane fly larvae. And, you know, those are common forage items.I would also say, too, that, you know, on the wild versus stock thing, those stock fish have a tendency to like to look up. Cause they're used to being fed pellets in a hatchery.

Mac Brown00:06:53

That's right. That's where dry fly comes into play. Like, dry fly. Like just a single dry fly with a. You know, with a wet tag below it with no weight at all.That does incredibly well. Like, after these things get beat up a little bit, that's really my favorite go to. It's a small, small dry fly with a small wet underneath it.When I say small wet, I'm talking like 20. I mean, when I say everybody thinks, oh, big. You mean like on the lakes, you know, throwing size 10 or 12. So.No, I mean, like, 18 to 20 can do really well because you get a lot of blue wings and stuff heading into the colder season. And those work really well. And they feel safe about it because it's.It's not like dropping down real quick with, you know, tungsten bead and all this. I mean, that's really kind of repulsive when you think about it, to wild fish.I think a lot of times people throw too heavy, you know, weight on it to where it goes down so fast. It. It's kind of like it's not natural is what I'm trying to say.So you throw something like that, and it makes a little splash, and it's sinking at a rate that's unattainable by a natural insect. And the wild fish will look at that and go, yeah, I'm not gonna try that. You know, but if it's undulating and it.It's free to move without having that kind of weight, you know, that's why I. I really prefer. Even still, like, I. I really like wet fly fishing a lot. And there's a time and a place for it to where I feel like it's the best thing out there.

Marvin Cash00:08:18

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's interesting too, right?Because I know you're seeing it because I talked to you or on the river today with clients, you know, you got an uptick in guiding, but you've also got some classes. And then we're going to travel together out to Arkansas, I guess not this month, but towards the end next month.

Mac Brown00:08:33

That's right. Yeah. We got the school still in October 15th. And then after that we go to see Davey down there in Mountain Home. The. What is that?The 25th, 26th, 27th, I think. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Is that it? Or 24th, I think.

Marvin Cash00:08:49

I think it's 4, 5 and 6.

Mac Brown00:08:51

Okay, 4, 5 and 6. And then. Then we get to. Well, it'll be up to you. We might stay a day.We might come back right after we get done, depending on what we get time to fish for. Because you got. You have another engagement, you said. But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting out there.That's a great time of year to be on the light. And those fish will be willing. They'll definitely be a lot of willing fish out there. And that's.That's just such a good fishery with as far as fish count per mile and in big fish per mile. It's just like. It's just like a kind of a fairy tale, you know. That's where I started, I told you that I think on one of these few weeks ago.But that's where I started when I was a kid in the early 60s with my granddad. So the White River's got a special place in my heart all these years, you know.

Marvin Cash00:09:35

Yeah, it'll be interesting. I've actually never been down there.You want to let folks know if they want to get in the boat for a guide trip or casting lesson or if you got slots left in any of your schools where they should go.

Mac Brown00:09:48

Yeah, the. The menu item is underneath the specialty classes on the menu at the top.And MacBrownFlyfish.com is where they can find out all the information on Show Season 2.I just put up all the new 26 shows for next year on that as well, which we're gonna do all the fly fishing shows and got a couple other things that people talking about for other commitments there in 26. And it'll have all the dates for everything. So that's the best place to find out then either message or email or send a smoke signal, as Marvin says.

Marvin Cash00:10:21

Yeah, well, it's a good time of year, right, because the leaves are going to start to fall and they're going to be wet. It's a great time to send smoke signals.

Mac Brown00:10:26

Oh, yeah, smoke signals going to be good. Coming up.

Marvin Cash00:10:30

Or they could always hit you up on your ham radio, right?

Mac Brown00:10:32

Yeah, the ham radio is good, too. I do a lot of ham radio every night. I mean, I like. I like doing a lot of radio at night. And.Yeah, if you're a ham radio operator, send me a PM on that. We'll send you the. Send you the call signs and everything. Where to be.

Marvin Cash00:10:46

Yeah. Well, there you go. Well, folks, as always, say yo to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Mac.

Mac Brown00:10:53

Tight lines, Marvin.