Ashe County

Bighorse Creek

I have personally fished Bighorse only once, so I can't comment about it very effectively. However, one of my fishing partners has made several trips there, and it recently was written up in 1995 in Wayne Clodfelter's magazine, Trout NC.

The time I fished it, in May of 1993, the water was discolored and cold. Sam and I started in a pool just below where the stream crosses Rip Shin Road, at the upper end of the hatchery supported water. Landed a few stockers on Tellico nymphs. We moved upstream onto the catch & release section, and Sam promptly caught a nice rainbow on an annelid pattern. We fished about a half-mile up the stream, and I caught a couple of small rainbows on soft-hackle yellow bodied flies. No specific pattern, just something I tied up. We actually turned around at the beginning of some very promising-looking water, since things had been so slow. Also, with the discolored water, wading was difficult, since we couldn't see where we were putting our feet.

Even though I didn't have a great outing, I'd like to get back to Bighorse one day under better conditions. Sam has been there when the water was clear and done much better. Also, I think I'd do better there now even under adverse conditions. I didn't fish bead-head nymphs in 1993, and I'm now a firm beliver in them, especially in situations such as I encountered on Bighorse.



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Last updated 17-December-1997