"Trout aren't naturally as selective as they've become in crowded tailwaters - they've been trained to be like that by too much fishing pressure. I've seen tailwater fish that are so hysterical they'll refuse naturals. You wonder how they get enough to eat." - John Gierach
Let's face it. If you have a 6 fish outing it can be considered a good outing. A 12 fish day can mean a round of applause. But a 20 fish outing most likely means the hatchery truck beat you there!! This is a condition that seems to exist in the Carolinas and in northern Georgia where THOUSANDS of trout are stocked EVERY WEEK in select tailwaters. I guess there is a subspecies of flyfisher who finds this to be sporting and also FUN but all it does is raise the level of expectations to the unreasonable and dare I say, the unnatural!!! Most monster numbers are because of timing, such as hitting a Great Lakes spawning run on the nose or something like that!
Edward Ringwood Hewitt, a great American Flyfisher, mentioned the three stages of flyfishing:
1. Catch as many trout as you can
2. Catch the biggest trout that you can
3. CATCH THE MOST DIFFICULT TROUT THAT YOU CAN
Number 3 is the most important. It will stay in your mind forever. You should know the one. It refuses EVERYTHING you offer except for that ONE last cast that gets it done. This is not euro euronymphing.
Ken