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July 6, 2010
What a great 4th of July, celebrating our countries birth and having great trips with clients. The weekend started with Sam and Kathy C. on a Watauga float through the Quality Zone. The fishing was great on the usual Watauga Tailwater summertime patterns, nymphs until you could see the noses as they fed on sulphurs and sweat bee dries.
Then it was two great gentleman who were childhood friends taking another memory filled fishing trip. Buzz and Gren talked about the old days as they fished and had a great time fighting those Watauga Tailwater attitude filled bows.
Sunday July 4th was Scott and Sarah B. from Atlanta, GA. It was Sarah’s first trout fishing trip and she worked hard at getting the cast down and was rewarded with many bites on her presentations. It was truly enjoyable to watch Sarah become a great fly fisher person as the day progressed. The folks on the “Hooch” better watch out.
Then it was back with Sam and Kathy from Richmond, Va on Monday. We fished the South Holston near Bluff City to start the morning off and it was a spectacular day for them on the South Holston Tailwater. We put the wooden driftboat in the water and rowed to the proper spot and in the first ten casts, landed six beautiful South Holston brown trout. The sulphur hatch during the afternoon generation was like a blanket on the water. Watching those fish splashing and slashing going after all those bugs was nothing shoer of amazing. We finished the day with a flurry of better than average browns on dries.
Then it was on to the Holston Proper for some smallie action with a gentleman who had never caught a smallmouth bass. The weather was hot and the fish were everywhere. Working with his cast with the heavier weight rods only took a few minute to get him into the rhythm then it was lets catch some fish. He talked about the hard fight the smallies put up and from the many deep bends in the rod today he got more than his share of the excellent fighting ability of the Holston Proper smallies.
I hope everyone had a great 4th and is staying cool in the summertime heat. Its a couple of days off and time for some driftboat trailer maintenance and then back on the water for a good set of trips for trout and smallies.
June 29, 2010
We are officially in summer now and the fishing is as hot as the temperatures we are experiencing. This past week was great trips with returning clients who landed excellent fish. John L. loves to float in his canoe after spending a day with me during his multi week stay on the Watuaga and South Holston Tailwaters in East Tennessee. Here is a sample of his morning on the South Holston.
Gary H. and his nephew Hunter are great fishing buddies and always take a day with me each summer when Hunter comes to visit. Hunter and Gary had an excellent day on the Watauga, then spent the rest of the week wading the South Holston for trout and floating the Holston Proper for smallies. Hunter said it was a great week. Hunter then went to Myrtle Beach and fought a 6 foot shark for an hour before being broken off.
Gary T. and Chad W. wanted to float the Holston Proper for smallies and the day was hot as well as the fishing. These gentleman were excellent fishermen and casters. We tried various patterns with success, even one smallie right beside the boat as the fly hung at the surface while rowing downriver to the next hole. Chad has some really good patterns and this proved it.
To finish out the week before spending the weekend at the South Holston Fly Fishing Fest at Rivers Way, I had a great day guiding father and son Tim and Mike C. on a trip down the Watuaga. Tim bought this trip I donated to the Project Healing Waters Fall Tournament near Spruce Pine, North Carolina. I enjoyed giving them a chance to make some great father/son fishing memories based on Tim’s comments in an email.
Well a day off for me and then back on the water for the next week, we still have some dates available for the summer float trip special, so give me a call or email and get booked for a great summertime adventure.
April 8, 2010
The past week has been giving us some good weather and great fishing. We have been floating the Holston Proper near Kingsport for smallies and the action is picking up each day as the river warms. The Watauga Tailwater in Elizabethton Tennessee is finally flowing back to normal thanks to the TVA. The fish are still in a holding pattern waiting on the Caddis Hatch, but the float trips have been productive on nymphs and woolly buggers. I love those deep crimson stripes and golden bellies on the rainbows in the Ledges. The South Holston is still fishing great with the sluicing, BWO’s and some sporadic sulphurs are coming off.
We are having a cool couple of days with this cold front, but temperatures will rebound into the mid 70’s next week. We will be doing plenty of trips for the Caddis Hatch the next couple of weeks with some trips to the private waters thrown in as well. The month of May is starting to book up with smallmouth trips so make sure to give me a call and get your trip on the books for some great topwater popper action on the Holston Proper.
 
March 9, 2010
Been on the water with clients the past few days and it has been good, weather and fishing. The Watauga is fishing great on both low water and under generation. The BWO’s are coming off in droves and the feeding frenzy is on. Today was good numbers and some big fish thrown in for good measure. The browns were fighting hard digging deep as you fought back, and the rainbows were up on the surface giving those great tail dances. The South Holston is fishing extremely well while wading and the BWO’s really come off good in the mid afternoons. The weather was nice Sunday while floating the Holston proper for smallies, but the water below the Holston Army Ordinance Plant was still pretty cold, 45 degrees in the mid afternoon. The upper section we float through the Eastman Chemical Company is warm and some nice 4 to 5 pound smallies are being caught. While doing this float you have the chance to catch a 3 to 5 pound trout above the low water dam and then once we slide over the dam the warm water discharges take the river to 60 degrees and the smallies are stacked up in this section.
How are your sight fishing and casting skills for trophy class trout? Want to try you hand at casting to a tight target where rainbows that can go upwards of 15 pounds will only move 6 or 7 inches to take your presentation. We have almost fifteen miles of private waters on five different streams. One of the streams has the second highest biomass on streams in Virginia and another is number five in the state. Some folks who have fished all over the country for trout say this water ranks highly on their list of places they prefer to fish. If you are interested in fishing these waters give me a call and get hooked up with a catch of a lifetime.
The Nolichucky muskies are starting to move around this week. These are some of the greatest freshwater predator fish I have ever chased. They are proving to be a worthy adversary. It is a day of 10 weight fly rods and big flies, but the rewards can be so sweet. This type of fishing requires a different mindset because it can be a day of hard fishing just to see a follow, but those who have the obsession understand. I grew up fishing for these as a teenager on lakes in the northern states, I had a uncle who shared the passion. Keep and eye on this blog for more updates and pictures as we start spending more time hunting these great predators.
January 8, 2010
We are tying a record today for seven consecutive days below freezing, tomorrow will break the record and Sunday will set a new one. We are not supposed to get above freezing until Monday and then gradually warm up next week into the mid to upper forties by the end of the week. YOHOOO a heat wave coming. The TVA is also slowing down on generation so we can wade possibly next week.
The raft sits comfortably under its cover and snow
The Hyde exposed to the elements
The wooden driftboat snug in the warm garage
December 31, 2009
Well it is an end to a great year, so long 2009 and welcome to 2010. This has been a great year for me, Randy Ratliff, of Troutfishers Guide Service based in Kingsport, Tennessee. I want to thank all of my clients, returning and new ones for your trips with me this year. I have so many great memories of these trips and have spent yesterday and today fishing and reflecting on this year.
Many changes have come this year, I have my wooden driftboat back on the water and have really enjoyed rowing it on the rivers throughout the season. The smallmouth fishing on the Holston River in Kingsport, Tennessee was stupendous this season. Many trophy smallies were brought to the net. The trout fishing on the Watuga Tailwater in Elizabethton, Tennessee was equally impressive. The main season started with the Caddis Hatch and then went into the summer terrestrial fishing and finished out with the October Caddis and streamer season as the big fish were moving and staging for the spawn. There are many stories and memories for everyone to re-live throughout the winter months waiting for spring to arrive. If you are sitting home and really want to fish, winter trout fishing is great, the river has less fisherman pressure and our catches seem to be of a bigger size. Take the time to look through the pictures and see what good times we had this year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and Tight Lines to everyone!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
December 1, 2009
The Thanksgiving week produced some nice trips and decent weather for this time of year. We had a few days of cold and blowing wind on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, but the rest of the week was good for fishing.
The trophy trout waters we guide on gave up some nice fish for this young man. He wanted to learn the techniques to landing big fish on the fly rod. He hooked a number of fish while on his trip and learned many things about getting trophy trout to the net. The skills he learned today will make him a better fisherman on his home waters of the South Holston. It has a legendary reputation for producing some excellent trophy fish through the years. Here is a sample of one of the nice rainbows that Chris caught.
The TVA was gracious to not be pushing any water for the first part of the week on the Watauga and the trips on Monday and Tuesday showed the fish were ready to feed on low water . We caught them on dries, emergers, nymphs, and streamers, so the clients got to experience all types of fishing and they learned some new styles of fly fishing that they hadn’t tried yet. This time of year we get to see the complete life cycle of a hatch, nymphs coming off the bottom and fish flashing as they feed on them, emergers just under the surface and in the film, the fish bulging as they feed on them, and hatched adults setting on the surface drying their wings and the trout crushing them before they fly away. I love these days where I can teach how to fish all the different parts of the hatch cycle. On these particular days it was the emerger stage that seemed to produce the best bite. Small size 20 soft hackle BWO emegers were the best fly to be throwing and there were some nice fish to be caught. Here is Ted with a fine Watauga River rainbow. I love going with Ted and his friends, because Ted brings his gorgeous Bolder Boatworks dritboat for me to row. This is one sweet ride.
The South Holston was running water all week and the floats were good, some days were better than others. This time of year we float the South Holston mainly throwing streamers and as many know who do this style of fishing, somedays your the hero and some days your the zero. But all streamer fisherman know this and that is what brings them back, the lure of catching a nice fish on that one cast.
The weather for the next week is not going to be good for fishing, high winds of 25 to 50 miles per hour and lots of rain, one and half inches to two inches by Friday morning and then turning to snow flurries. I will have a fire burning in the fireplace and be setting at the tying bench tying up flies for next summer. I will also be hanging out at the Fly Shop of Tennessee in Johnson City some this week, so stop by and say hey if you are in the area. We need to support our local small flyshops if we want them to be there in the future.
Here is a sample of what will be fishing well in the coming months on the South Holston, get your magnifiers and 7x tippet out its Winter Midge fishing at its finest.
and what can be caught on them
November 26, 2009
Well as we all gather around the table with those we love for a day of thanksgiving, don’t forget about those who are off in foreign lands defending us and also those who are less fortunate than us and can’t be with or don’t have loved ones to celebrate this day with. Take the time this holiday season to remember what it is about. We read and hear on the news that it is not going to be a good time of year, these are the folks worried about how much money we spend this time of year.
Lets get back to basics, this season is about loved ones and how much we care and love them. Take the time to make something with your hands and give it to them, if you are not a crafty or handy person, do something for them, clean the leaves out of their yard, fix a broke fence, just look back at what and how our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did during the lesser times in their lives. I can remember my grand mother traded her canned goods for a couple skeins of wool yarn one year and learned to knit. She knitted all of the grandchildren socks and scarfs for our Christmas presents. It was all she could do for us other than cooking a great meal. I didn’t understand why I didn’t receive more presents from her like I did from my other grandparents, but as I grew older I understood. I still have those wool socks and scarf. I wear the scarf on cold days and think back to how much love she put into those items she made for us. Those are great memories and I long to have been able to spend more time with her. A very hard life on the farm took her from us early.
There are no pictures to show from these great times, my Dad has some 8mm movies that I need to get put into DVD format, but I have many of those images in my head and will never forget them.
I am thankful for all things things all my grandparents taught me about how to be the person I am and I hope that I have passed them along to my daughter. Well have a great day and not only give thanks for your blessings, but go out and bestow some on someone less fortunate than yourself.
November 20, 2009
We have been doing the “Chuck & Duck” streamer tango on the South Holston for the past couple of weeks. It is cool to see the dark shadow chasing your streamer as you strip it through the water. This type of fishing can keep the adrenaline and heart rate high. Yesterday there was a big brown chasing the fly taking swipes at it and missing it, as the client kept stripping it closer to the boat the big brown just kept trying to get it. As he pulled the fly out of the water right next to the boat the brown came straight up out of the water to get the fly. It was totally amazing to watch how aggressive this fish was.
The South Holston is fishing very well with this technique and there are still some sulphurs popping off in certain sections and we are having good luck taking these fish as they feed on the rising nymphs. We are not seeing any fish taking the adults from the surface.
 
If this is your cup of tea, give me a call and we can do a “Chuck & Duck” Winter Discounted Float trip, for the incredible price of $235
November 18, 2009
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