Dave Beerbower did a little fishing in the Watauga river in North Carolina. Here’s his report:

My son in law Luke and I decided to try the Watauga River on a cold Sunday morning. The temperature was 31 degrees and the wing was blowing at 25 MPH when we started. Though the air was very cold, the fish were hot. Luke caught one right away on a spinning rod and I caught a couple right after that. What was unusual for this area, the browns were all 15 inches and above. I was teaching Luke how to fly fish when he hooked the biggest rainbow I have seen in this part of the river. It was at least 18” and he broke us off right before we netted him. In just two hours of fishing, we caught two rainbows and four brown trout. This is a good sign for winter fishing in the high country.