Well today mother nature threw more snow at us this morning here in Kingsport, Tennessee. It has been great fishing so far this week starting with the warm sunny weather over the weekend and continuing into the first part of the week. There were plenty of folks out fishing on both the South Holston near Bristol, Tennessee and the Watauga in Elizabethton. The South Holston has been having some good BWO hatches and a AK’s Parchute is the best emerger/dry to be throwing. There are also plenty of adult blackflies and the trout are sipping them madly at the surface. You should be using a Griffiths Gnat for those fish sipping blackflies. I have also been trying a new swing technique for emergers and it was working very well for me. More to come on this after some more exhausting river test’s, its tough but somebody has to do it.

The Watauga is doing great on Quality Zone floats, the standard deep nymphing rig with 2 BB shot to get it down seemed to work before the morning generation hits you. Then as the water falls the BWO’s start coming off and it was sweet on dry flies in the Ledges down near the town of Watauga, Tennessee. The Watauga seems to be just waiting for the caddis to start coming off. There are still some big boys being landed on the Watauga, baitfish streamers seem to be the ticket for them. How would you like a 12 pound brown tugging on your line. The TWRA and Tennessee Tech fisheries biologist spent some time on the Watauga doing some shocking and said they had 20/20 groups . The 20/20 is 20 fish at or over 20 inches in each section they monitor. That is good news for everyone. Makes you want to get out there and toss some big bugs.

In a couple of weeks we will be throwing plenty of these as the Caddis Hatch starts winding up. If you haven’t gotten your trips booked, now is the time to call me, dates are filling fast so get on the calendar and experience the fog like caddis hatches on the Watauga.