With spring here in NC, my calendar quickly filled up this year with things like weddings, reunions, and family travel plans. Though I am fond of all of these things, I also know that delayed harvest streams are soon to let every power bait tosser in the state take over and start taking fish out by the truck load. This time of year gives me an inherant itch to get out on the water and fly fish (not that I don’t always have the itch but April and May are the great months to get out on the water). When I was able to find a weekend in the schedule, I started calling all of my buddies that I thought would want to get outdoors regardless of their fishing attributes. As always, I could count on family. A quick “h%$l yes” was all I needed to hear from my brother Chris. As the week went by, the calls continued and I was set for a couple of days with my brother and some other non-blood “bros”. I rescheduled some of my Friday appointments and headed out to meet Chris for some backwater fishing and camping on Friday and then meet my buddies on the delayed harvest streams on Saturday. After a long, half day hike I was able to land several fish on a Smokey Mountain streamer pattern called the yallerhammer. There is something that seems to happen to me when I get away from the city and get into the wild. Everything that bothers me is immediately put on the back burner. I suppose this is my version of escapism (the old versions have not always been the healthiest). When the action seemed to die down, I walked back to the delayed harvest and grabbed a few more before meeting my brother. We set up camp, cooked some brats, had a few suds and hit the sack. The next morning, we met up with the rest of the crew only to say “later” as we all hit different areas of the streams. At my first hole, I grabbed several right off the bat. It was pretty sporadic for most of the day until about 3:30. I tied on a yellow egg and it was gangbusters. I couldn’t keep the trout off of this fly. One fish right after the other. Nothing of great size with the largest at 19″ and smallest at 10″ but when I catch that many, I tend to not be disappointed. I met my buddies back at the ride around 6 and reports from them were not as good. A few were caught but not many. I took them back to the spot I was working and sure enough the yellow eggs worked again. I love these days. Getting outside, catching fish, and hanging out with close friends. Though I absolutely hate getting into fishing spot wars with the “necks”, I’m sure I will be up there plenty. It is too good of a time not to.