The past week has been a bunch of smallie and trout doubles for my clients. The trout on the Watauga have been on fire for zebra midges most of the day. Jim and Susan were constantly hooking up on doubles as the fished the Upper Watauga near Wilbur Dam and Bee Cliff Cabins. Casting accuracy was needed as we work the midges in tight places to get the bite, their patience and excellent casting skills helped them throughout the day.
Then it was on to smallmouth bass on the Holston Proper and they excelled at teasing those stubborn smallies into biting in some tight cover. The barometric pressure was all over the map that day making the fish very lethargic, but their ability to hit small targets and making their flies look so life like helped them get the bigger smallies to bite. The Double G was the best topwater fly and the Tequeelly was the best streamer for the day.
A father and daughter duo from Cincinnati, Ohio had another great day on the Holston Proper. They had never fly fished for smallmouth bass or thrown streamers and big popper flies, so we had a little casting lesson first thing that morning and then off to fishing. Hillary picked up on how to fish for them quickly. She really got a nice smallie as her first about a hour into the float. After landing this hard fighting smallie she said, “this is absolutely awesome and I will be back to do this again SOON”. She became very good at sight fishing, seeing the bass in the shallows and casting her fly to the best spot and enticing the bass to eat. Dad was just happy to clean up any fish that she left in the spots.
Well this coming weekend is Troutfest. I will be in the Temple Fork Outfitters booth with my good friends, Rick Pope, Bob Clouser and Lefty Kreh. Be sure to stop by and register for a float trip with me. There will be an old wicker creel with sign up slips on one of the tables in the booth. Hope to see you there.
The Springtime fishing is great this year. The trout on the Watauga and South Holston are giving the clients great catches. The smallmouth bass have been awesome, The topwater bite was good until this week. The fishing this week has been medium weight streamers on sink tips giving the best results.
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To get to Troutfest from your location put this address into your GPS or any driving direction software to get there: 7906 East Lamar Alexander Parkway, Townsend, TN.
Troutfest is a Fly Fishing Exposition and Fundraiser held in Townsend, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. Proceeds from this event are donated to Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fisheries Department, Friends of the Smokies Fisheries Scholarship Fund or other youth educational conservation projects. The Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited sponsors this event as our major fundraiser and annual festival. This year the event will be one of the largest venues for fly anglers in the Southeast United States.
Some of the best fly tyers from our area will be demonstrating throughout the two day event. As many as 8 tyers will perform at one time all weekend. It’s free and the tyers are specialized in many different types of fly tying such as trout, bass, panfish and saltwater.
Lefty Kreh, Bob Clouser and other notable fly fishermen will offer free seminars both days. Here’s your chance to meet and talk to some of the most famous legends in our sport.
National Fly Tackle Manufacturers will be on hand with their gear in the National Exhibition Tent. Meet the people who work for or own these companies and see all the new fishing gear.
Other exhibitors will include fly shops, artists, non-profit organizations and government fish and game agencies including Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Troutfest is a sanctioned annual event of the Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited which is chartered by Trout Unlimited National as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Chapter secures permits and liability insurance for this event.
The Chapter entity provides funding with other sponsors to underwrite this event. The Chapter holds all funds and disperses profits to Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fisheries Department and Friends of Great Smokies National Park Fisheries Scholarship Fund. Profits will be also be used for youth education fishery programs. Some funds will be retained as seed money for next year’s Troutfest.
Many of the volunteers are LRCTU members but many more come from other non-profit organizations such as other TU Chapters, The Fly Fishing Federation and individuals who are not connected with non-profit organizations. You do not need to be a TU member to volunteer or participate. All donations are tax deductible.
Townsend and Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers you the most beautiful place on earth to fly fish for trout with 800 miles of streams holding rainbow, brook and brown trout. And of course, the Little River runs right through town. The month of May is prime time for fishing in the Smokies so you will want to set aside some time to be on the streams. Located in Tuckaleechee Cove, Townsend is known as the “Peaceful Side of the Smokies.”
Townsend offers motels, lodges, campgrounds and rental cabins for your lodging. Though not a huge tourist destination, the town does have some great restaurants and special accommodations.
Troutfest was created in 2004 by the Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimted to celebrate fly fishing and promote regionally the experience provided by this pursuit. Secondly, the chapter decided that any proceeds derived from the event would go directly to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fisheries Department to sustain and improve fish habitat within the Park.
Thanks to visitors like you, Troutfest has contributed more than $170,000 to this effort since 2004. In addition chapter members and friends annually volunteer between 1500 and 2000 hours to insure a successful, fun and educational experience.
In addition to Troutfest, the chapter also supports a variety of Park projects throughout the year.
When casting weighted flies, here are some things to keep your thoughts on. Are you casting the fly line and fly off the end of the rod to ensure not smacking the rod with a weighted fly and damaging your equipment. When landing your cast is your line and leader as straight as possible and are you instantly connected to the line? Being connected to a straight line and leader will let you feel that bite that usually happens as soon as your fly hits the water. Watching a recent underwater video of a fly caster landing his line with slack and then taking to much time to get the line into his fingers and begin stripping, the smallmouth hit is flies three times before he felt the first hit.
Just some food for thought as your practice your casting in the yard or on the river.
I will be in attendance at Troutfest coming up May 19th, and 20th. I will be in the Temple Fork Outfitters and Chota booths all weekend. Be sure to stop by and lets talk some fishing.
Clouds, rain and windy conditions bring out the big boys. This past week we have had another round of these crazy heavy rain storms. This makes the TVA push water giving us the great flows needed to stage the big fish in the best hiding spots along the river. Think ambush when casting streamers looking for that big bite. It doesn’t have to be that big snarled up mess of logs and limbs, most of the bigger fish for my clients have come from that lone piece of wood or slight cut in the bank. This past week I had a Connie, who has spent a good amount of time fishing the salt for redfish, she wanted to try her hand at floating the tailwaters for trout. The river was slightly stained as we started so I put on a white belly, purple back minnow imitaion and she got her first Watauga brown trout.
The early morning generation was getting to us and the water was getting a deeper stain so we went to darker colors and really concentrated on the cuts and timber on the banks. Her fishing partner Jerry, got into a nice brown about 100 yds down stream.
The water kept getting more stained so we went after some of the bigger browns we were catching back during our winter floats. Connie was very lucky, making the proper presentation and then getting a big brown, the same one that Zane Porter got back in February to hook up. The fight was on and Mr. Brown was not going to be easy to get to the net. After a good hard fight and a couple of breathtaking surface rolls he dove deep and said sorry but not today. Oh well you can’t land them all. Connie was happy just to get hooked up with w Watauga legend brown trout.
As the day went on the river started to fall back and the stain dissipated giving us some caddis hatches from Smalling Bridge through the Cadiis Riffle. Then the sulphurs began to show themselves and the big rainbows began feeding on the emerging nymphs. We put on JAWS and went after them. Here are a few of what the ledges had to offer.
Looking forward to floating the upper Watauga this weekend due to heavy YVA generation schedules this weekend. The rains have the Holston Proper up about 5 feet and extremely muddy so no smallies until mid next week. Be sure to check out my Troutfishers YouTube channel for my latest video on fishing with Mr. Bob Clouser last week.
Hope you have a great weekend, “Tight lines and heavy nets” until next time .
It has been a exceptional week of fishing here in East Tennessee. The weather has been up and down, cold rain and only in the fifties one day, then bright bluebird sunny days and near eighty the next. That hasn’t affected the fishing at all, the smallies on the Holston Proper as well as the trout on the Watauga and South Holston don’t seem to mind the big weather swings. They are hungry and the bugs are coming off good, so they have plenty of food source to feed up on. The Holston Proper was hatching caddis, white mayflies, and hendricksons. The smallies were in a feeding frenzy going after all those bugs. Poppers were the right fly when they were sipping bugs on the surface, they would put a good bend in the TFO Clouser Series 6wts. Here is Linda Heller with a good one taken on a chartreuse popper.
The wind picked up some as the weather was changing so we went to Clouser Minnows. The feeding activity was very good under the surface on the new style Clouser Minnows that Mr. Bob Clouser brought along on this trip. He spent three days floating with me testing some new designs that you will be able to purchase through his website. They are made with new synthetic materials with plenty of flash and movement to mimic dying minnows. Even the smaller fish were hitting it with a vengeance.
The fish were taking these new flies very well. The primary colors that Mr. Clouser was using were called Walleye and Baby Bass. Watching Bob and Linda work these flies was such a treat for me. It was all about keeping it moving and accuracy on casting the flies to the proper spot, no matter if it was on a backhand or forward cast.
Bob Clouser and Linda Heller also enjoyed a day floating the Watauga fishing streamers for the big ones, it was a fun day. The sun was little to bright for the big boys to come out and play, but it had been 7 seven or eight years since they both last fished the Watauga so it was a great day of remembering the fish stories from the past.
The week finished out on the Watauga with caddis popping off and getting some great fishing on dry and dropper rigs with a tan caddis and blood midge droppers. A couple of great guys from northern Georgia enjoyed a fun day floating the Watauga.
Now the weather folks are calling for snow tonight and Monday with heavy winds, so its off to the tying bench to get more Clouser Minnows and trout flies tied up to get ready for the busy next few weeks with clients.
Be sure to check out my Troutfishers videos on Youtube. I will be uploading some new ones this week showing Bob Clouser fighting some nice smallies on the Holston Proper.
That was the comment the lady client said yesterday on the South Holston Tailwater when she was talking about the sulphurs hatching and the fish rising to feed on them. It was great to see her enjoying a birthday wade trip with her best friend, two great ladies who love the sport of fly fishing. The trout were taking midge emergers early in the morning but as the sun heated up the water the sulphurs started slowly emerging then building into a full blown hatch. They were grateful that the rivers gods gave them the opportunity to experience the great sulphur hatch and to catch some of those beautiful butter belly South Holston browns they had heard so much about. The weather was extremely windy with air temps only at 50 degrees so when it came time for lunch we went to Mark Price’s Webb’s Grocery Store for a warm lunch, be sure to stop by there for breakfast or lunch when fishing on the South Holston Tailwater near Bluff City Tennessee.
The Watauga is fishing just as well, we are seeing midges, BWO’s, Craneflies, and the Caddis are coming off now as well. We have been floating the upper river this week with all the generation the TVA is doing, but it will slow down soon as they get all the lakes to full pool. We are using nymph rigs, as well as dry/dropper rigs to get trout in all types of water. One of my clients this week caught a nice holdover 11″ brook trout from when TVA used to stock them in the Watauga Tailwater. That was a great surprise as it came to the net.
We are booked solid for the next week and a half, there are a few openings the last week of April, so give me a call or email and get out on the Watauga or South Holston Tailwaters for the sulphur or caddis hatches.
The warmer than normal weather is bringing better than normal early spring fishing. The Holston River near Kingsport and Church Hill Tennessee is fishing good. The smallies are feeding hard on baitfish. Twitch stripping minnow imitating patterns is getting it done. Turkey hunting season kicks into gear this weekend, and the hens are moving about and the toms are strutting trying to get their attention.
The Watauga Tailwater is the only trout river we can float right now, the South Holston is only getting two one hour pulses each day. The Watauga Tailwater in Elizabethton is fishing better this week, we are seeing more of the tan Caddis, small black Caddis, small black Stoneflies, Craneflies, BWO’s and Midges. This means so shortage of things for the fish to eat. I had a really good float trip with a couple of brothers I took out about five years ago. They truly love to fly fish and this passion came from their Dad. They spoke about all day about the memories from trips with their Dad. Here is a copy of an email they sent to me and some of their friends.
Quote ”John and I had a float trip on the Watauga River with renown local guide Randy Ratliff. It was the greatest fly fishing day either of us have ever had! We both caught (and released) over 20 fish. John had a brown at 17″ and a rainbow trout at 18″, and I caught my biggest yet on a fly rod, a beautiful 19″, 3.5 lb Brown!”
Here are the pictures of their bigger fish for the day.
Give me a call 423-360-1468 or contact me through the website to get your day on any of these great rivers and tailwaters. Looking forward to taking you on your fishing trip and showing these great fishing waters.
The smallmouth bass fishing on the Holston Proper, near Kingsport, Tennessee is as hot as the recent weather we have been having in the Tri-Cities. With record temperatures being set last week, we were out floating the Holston River and doing very well for the smallies. The river is clear and has good flows, the smallmouth were feeding on minnows so it was minnow imitating baits we were throwing. For the spin rod guys it was flukes and tubes, for the fly rod folks it was one of our new design flies and the old stand by.
The South Holston is wade only right now as the TVA starts filling South Holston Lake near Bristol, Tennessee. It has been BWO’s and we are also seeing some Sulphurs coming off in the afternoon. The Watauga is doing good, it is starting to show signs of the caddis starting to hatch, we are seeing stoneflies and cranflies coming off as well as the daily BWO and midge hatch.
The Cadiis Hatch is soon here and April is booking up solid, there are a few dates left so give me a call, 423-360-1468 and get your date booked.
Until next time, may your lines be tight and your nets heavy!!!
Well the mild winter weather has really got the springtime temperatures in high gear. This coming week we are going to be 20 degrees above average for daytime highs. The fishing has been just as good as the weather.
The South Holston is very wade friendly only two short daily one hour generations each day.There are lots of fish being caught on BWO emegers and dark Zebra Midges. The slow flow means you will need to fish the riffles to increase your chances. The Watauga went from good streamer fishing to nothing but size 20 and 22 Zebra Midges and BWO emergers as well, but the bigger fish are feeding on the small bugs. We did a sample on one rainbow and he was full of midges. We are also seeing some sporadic caddis as well as some size 14 black stoneflies.
If you haven’t gotten your date booked for the Caddis Hatch give me a call, there are a few dates open. The smallmouth action is getting good with the warmer weather. See you on the water!!!
Here is a 20′ brown on a size 20 midge, and some nice rainbows as well, from the Watauga.
