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March 25, 2011
It has been an amazing past couple of weeks on the South Holston and Watauga Tailwaters, With all the flooding rains the TVA has been generating around the clock and we have been floating. The fishing has been, as my good friend John Lord would say, “EPIC”. Today was the last day that the TVA was going to generate around the clock and I had some sports who wanted to go after bigger fish so off to the South Holston we went. They started off nymphing and tossing dry flies at all the BWO’s hatching all down the river and landing those butter belly snit browns. When we got to my favorite stretch I anchored up and gave them a lesson on chucking streamers. They were quick on the pickup so up came the anchor and the beating of the banks began. No keep in mind this was their first time at streamer fishing. The hard work payed off.
Give me a call if you want to do a little chucking of the streamers and we can try to get you one of these South Holston or Watauga trophy browns tugging on your fly rod.
March 22, 2011
The TVA is still pushing water on both the Watauga and South Holston. We floated the Watauga today and it was top shelf fishing. Plenty of great browns and rainbows. There was a little BWO hatch in the morning, but they didn’t stick around very long. The wind played some havoc on trying to cast dries when we saw fish rising. The best technique was nymphing without strike indicators.
March 21, 2011
The early smallies bite is heating up. The water temp was 55 degrees, still a little stain in the water, and the river was about eighteen inches above normal levels. It was a good day to loosen up those casting muscles and get those bugs in those pockets where the fish were staged. Looking forward to good fishing this year.
March 17, 2011
With all the snow this winter and now al the recent rains, we have lots of extra water so the TVA is pushing plenty of water through its dam systems trying to keep the lake at good levels for the spring rains.
We have been having some killer days floating on these high water releases. It has been days of mainly streamers, but we are also getting some on nymphs and dries. There have been some excellent fish taken on the streamers, so here is a photo review of the past week of trips.
 
 
One of my guides, Ryan, was doing a trip on the Watauga while I was on the South Holston and they had a truly great day for nice browns.
Give us a call and let us get you on these beautiful browns and rainbows on the South Holston or Watauga Tailwaters.
March 11, 2011
Here are the tying instructions straight from Todd Boyer the inventor of the Wiggleminnow. Todd works at Eddie Wyatt’s Fly Shop of Tennessee in Johnson City. I am the lead guide for the shop as well. For me and my clients the Wiggleminnow has brought many nice smallies to the boat.
| Materials Used
Hook: TMC 8089np Sz. 2 for trout,bass. For salt and heavier fish, Gamakatsu B10s 2/0
Thread:Danville flat wax.
Mono loop: 20 lb mason
Tail: crystal mirror flash
Tail: polar fiber
Body: Wapsi foam cylinder 3/8 dia
eyes: plastic eyes “with stem”
Markers: Chartpak |
| Tying Instructions
1. start at the hook eye wrap back covering the entire hook shank stopping just beyond the barb, very important thats where you stop your thread.
2.tie in mono loop, make sure the tag ends are on top of the hook shank and not on the sides, don’t make loop too big about the size of a pea.
3. Tie in your flash, about 5 or 6 pieces, make sures flash is about the length of the hook shank.
4. Take about three cuts of polar fiber in each color, pinch the the polar fiber right in the center and tease out the under fur with a comb. Its important not to build up to much of the tail with bulk it will knock down the wiggle.
5. Tie in you tail make sure the length of the tail length is just a little longer than the hook shank, if you get it too long it will also knock down the wiggle.
6. Take your cylinder and go to the end of it and the cylinder creates a 90% angle make a 45% cut at the very end of the cylinderm make sure you cut towards the top of the cylider and not the back.
Use a SHARP razor blade, very imprtant that your blade is very sharp.
7. Then take your cylinder turn it upside down and dive your razor blade in about 1/4 of an inch behind the lip.
8. make a cut down the entire length of the cylinder, make the cut about 3/4 in depth leaving about 1/4 of an inch left.
9. bring the razor blade back to the front of the cylinder place the corner of the razor blade back into the cut and push the corner of the blade towards the the face and make a little cut in the center of the face.
10.place the cylinder on the hook shank sideways and push the eye of the hook through the cut at the face of the cylinder.
11. then turn the cylinder on the the hook and push the cylinder down on the hook shank, the back of the cylinder should end up right in front of the tail. if you have to bend the cylinder to get it to go in front of the tail you didn’t go back far enough on the hook shank.
12. turn the fly over on your vise and push the back and the front of the cylinder up making sure the cut is lined up with the hook point and place a bead of zap a gap the enitre length of the cylinder starting at the back.
13. squeeze the entire cylinder and hold for 15 seconds the wipe off excess zap. be sure and use zap a gap it works the best.
14. then go the the front of the fly and push the cylinder down making sure the hook eyes is in the center of the face, the shhot some zap a gap in the slit above the hook eye. if you use the zap attachements you should be able to do this. then squeeze an hold for ten seconds.
15.color back with marker, then pull the edges down with a gun cleaning cloth blending the color in, do this fast so the ink does’nt dry if it does just go over it again. turn fly over and do the same for the bottom.
16. take you plastic eyes, these are the ones with the stem on them, the best way to take off the stem is to cut the stem off flush with toe nail clippers.
17.place a bead of zap on the body not to much a glue the eye on push and hol for ten seconds, do the some with other eye.
18. add tiger stripes, make a sideways v from back to front.
19. Fire Tiger, polar fiber colors, chart/fire orange,
eyes, red, marker colors chart/ cadmium orange,
clylinder color yellow, stripes, black.
20. you can make these any color you want,
I tie, brown trout, rainbow trout, fire tiger, shad, white, white/red head, chart/white and black.
21 I use tan cylinders for brown trout, yellow cylinders for fire tiger, and white for the rest. |
| Presentation Tips
Use a no-slip loop knot adds alot more action, for a top water bite use floating line,strip and pause until you see the fly again at the surface, the fly has a slow wobble back to the surface drives fish nuts. Tied right this is the only true riding wiggle minnow there is, strip as fast as you want and wont roll over, thats why it is so effective on sink tips, use about 4 feet straight flouro to get deep on sink tip. One of the most productive flies there is, I know bold and bias, but true. Out fished many of the famous flies out there. Has caught just about every thing that swims salt and fresh. |
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March 9, 2011
Hopefully after this bought of heavy rain and possibly a little snow we can get Spring to come on in. Folks are calling everyday asking about smallie fishing in East Tennessee on the Holston Proper. I already have lots of multi-day trips booked for smallies, so I thought I would post up a few pictures from trips to get everybody thinking warm spring thoughts.
 
 
 
March 5, 2011
This week has been absolutely excellent on the South Hoslton. There are BWO’s coming off, midges as well, so dries can get some. The nymphing techniques are bring plenty of fish to the net. Then there is the streamer “Chuck & Duck” method, which ahs been top shelf, lots of really nice browns coming in for the obligatory “Grip and Grin” shots. It looks like we will have plenty of generation the next week due to the rains this weekend, so give me a call and lets go wear out your arm slinging streamers.
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