Spring rains have continued into June. It was hard to get out of bed on Sunday and overcast skies and a continual drumming of moderate to heavy rain slowed the whole process. I didn’t leave the house until 11:30am. I arrived at the Conway River expecting high flows, but I got flood conditions. The Conway was in no way fishable so I set my sights on one of its small feeder streams, Pocosin Hollow. I drove past a local clearing debris off the road with his tractor, parked my car on the empty dirt pull off, and began my hike. Pocosin, usually no more than a trickle, was raging. I hoped that I could hike up the ridge far enough to find fishable water. No Trespassing signs tried to discourage me from finding trailhead and if it weren’t for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club app on my phone, they might have succeeded. A half mile on private roads (only open to public foot traffic) and I eventually found the trail. The stream flowed fast and clear and with enough force to make all crossings at least slightly hazardous. I rigged up my rod and nymphed one deep slow run. It seemed that any fish would have been too deep and spread out in the high flows, so I broke down my rod and shifted my mentality from fishing to hiking. With the goal of trout no longer hanging on my mind, I was fully able to appreciate the wild rainforest like setting. A heavy mist hung in the air suspended in the green branches overhead. The drumming static of the water lulled the mind like a white noise machine and I knew I was alone. I hiked up the three or so miles to the Pocosin fire road before turning around to begin back down.
