By Noey Vineyard
Sometimes the world starts to close in and I have to get away from everybody and everything. Fortunately, I knew just the place to go.
Itâs one of the best-kept secrets in Northern Georgia. The Cartecay River rolls through some of the most scenic parts of North Georgia. The entire river offers some excellent bream and bass fishing but it is the last four and a half miles of the âCayâ that I was headed for today.
Thatâs because this part of the creek is part of Georigas trout stocking program. Once a month, the different parts of the Cay is stocked with rainbow, brook and brown trout. The fish are released at several different locations along this part of the creek
Since this place is easily accessible from 515 and itâs practically in my backyard. I go there a lot. The scenery is breathtaking. Rolling hills provide the backdrop for the Cay. As it makes itâs way south. The riveritself provides shallow rapids and deep, slow moving pools, offering the angler a variety of places to fish.
In the past, I have used and been quite successful with small, Mepps spinners. I must admit though, I am a live bait fisherman at heart. This is a fact that gets me snubbed in the fly fishing circles, but to each his own. Not only do I use live bai,t but on occasion, some of the trout I catch end up in a frying pan. This really makes some of my fellow fisherman scream but hey, I like pan fried trout and so does Otis the fish dog.
Today it was wax worms but I have used night crawlers and crickets with great success. I found a nice quiet spot, threaded my wax worm on a small, pan fish hook, cast it towards a nice looking hole at the end of some rapids, sat back and forgot about the rest of the world.
Depending on what kind of mood Iâm in, I think about different things when Iâm fishing or sometimes I think about nothing at all. Today I was putting together my âAll Time Greatest Baseball Teamâ and had just selected Ozzie Smith as my shortstop when the twitching of my rod tip broke my concentration.
I snatched the rod and set the hook and smiled as my ultra light rod bent double. The 14-inch Rainbow broke the water just a few feet off the bank. This got Otisâs attention. He must have been putting together his list of âAll Time Favorite Milk Bone Flavorsâ but now he came over to offer support.
I reached down and gently lifted the fish from the water and removed the hook. Fish was not on the menu for dinner so I let Otis sniff it one time and eased it back into the water. I was glad to see that it wasted no time in departing the area. Fish that stick around too long after being released usually find themselves snatched back up by Otis. Hence his name Otis the fish dog.
The rest of the day went about the same. I caught a few browns and a couple of brookies but mostly rainbows. All having the short stubby pectoral fins of a hatchery raised fish. The fish ranged from eight to 15 inches, certainly not monsters. This is fine with me, because nowhere on my list of the reasons I enjoy fishing will you find âTrophy Fish.â
When the fishing slowed up, I put away my tackle and moved up the creek to a place where several large boulders made kind of a waterfall. I found a place where the late summer sun could get through the trees and lay back and listened to the water.
Rivers interest me by the fact that while river beds may be hundreds of years old, the water that runs through it is as new as rain. If you listen carefully, you can hear the river bed imparting its wisdom to the water as it flows by.
I love to sit back and listen to the river. Today it told me of the journey it had made. It whispered its many secrets in my ear and proclaimed loudly its dream of reaching the ocean. I wished it well.
Noey Vineyard was born in Atlanta, GA and graduated from Lassiter High School in Marietta. He served 20 years in the USMC as an infantryman and scout/sniper and has been able to fish in 22 different countries. He is an avid outdoorsman and angler and has been writing about his outdoor adventures for the past 20 years. He currently resides in Blue Ridge, GA with his family, two dogs, a cat, several horses and a mule and just published his first book âDaydreams of a Wandererâ, available at Amazon for $7.99. When Noey is not guiding horseback rides in the north Georgia Mountains and looking for fairy crosses, he is working on his second book of short stories.
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