The St.John’s Fly Fishers ventured back to Lake Logan and the West Fork of the Pigeon River recently for another legendary trip. The Lake Logan area is becoming one of the group’s favorite fishing destinations.  The group planned on fishing the river right in front of where we were staying, as well as venturing out to nearby streams along the Blue Ridge Parkway which were only a few miles away.

We all stayed together in a great cabin along the river that accommodated seven of us, with our own well appointed bedrooms and bathrooms.  The weather for the weekend could not have been nicer(for mid-March) with daily highs in the mid 60’s and some tree leaves beginning to bud. You could tell that good things were in the air.  The fishing was also very good as the trout were eager to check out our flies, and take them more often than not. We also had some finicky trout in the section of the river near our cabin that were eating very small midges. It took a while to figure out what to present to them, but it turned out it was a very small fly(midge).  Matt Williams had success in this department.  Some of our crew had come in a day early, and had a chance to fish some stretches of the West Fork of the Pigeon just south of the property with great success. Jeff Pruitt landed a huge brook trout,  perhaps one of the largest trout we’ve seen among us, and Dan Robertson was able to get him on video and with photos to enhance this experience.  

The trip would not be complete without a few unplanned adventures.  One of the more adventurous elements of the weekend, occurred around mid day on Saturday, when the group decided to drive up to the top of a mountain near the Blue Ridge Parkway, to find one of the native streams we wanted to fish. Part of the crew took one road, and the other crew, literally in another truck, went up Lake Logan Road to the top of the mountain. As the altitude increased, the group encountered a heavy duty fog(clouds).  The kind of fog that you hardly ever see. Visibility was literally in feet and inches. A careful approach was taken with some teamwork, and we all safely arrived at the destination. Fortunately the group was rewarded with an amazing stream that was wide and full, and many great memories were made.  

One the more memorable moments occurred as we were getting ready to walk into the trail near the stream.  Craig Murden discovered that his wading boot was on it’s last leg, and in fact it began to completely disintegrate, down to the soul coming off and leaving his foot on the ground. He decided to stay put in that exact area. The others in the expeditionary crew tried their hand on these waters for a while with varying degrees of success.  At that point, we wrapped up our fishing for the day and head back to the dining hall for dinner.

After dinner we enjoyed a great campfire, one of the best in fact that we’ve created together. There were a number of stories told about the day, to include how to build around the wading boot debacle. We decided to create some kind of annual award around it, that we could give out each year, and have some fun with it. Greg Williams and Craig Murden were assigned the task of designing and building an appropriate plaque/trophy and share it with the group soon for feedback.   While we all enjoyed the fishing and the comaraderie.  

There were multiple places and conversations we all encountered on the trip that had a deeper, spiritual meaning. It was so peaceful and quiet there, that we knew that God was(an always will be) with us. Dan Robertson shared some prepared devotion readings, as well as some of his favorites for deeper dives into some scripture. It’s these types of trips, that God reveals his presence more clearly.  And we are all grateful for these opportunities.  We also want to congratulate Jeff Pruitt, who may live in infamy, for landing the whopper brook trout, now on video and film.  A special thanks also to the group that sat around  the campfire on Saturday night and dared to dream a little about this great planet, and the other places we might want to visit in our lifetimes. We all hope to go to Montana this August, and many great places were suggested. We’ll organize our thoughts and ideas and share on the website soon. Stay tune for more adventures with the St. John’s Fly Fishers.