Fishing Reports

March 13, 2009

Well it is the first of March and the Caddis Hatch will soon be happening on the Watauga River. We are seeing all the caddis larvae crawling around when you pick up a rock from the river. Be sure to give me a call or email because the calendar for these trips is filling fast.

The South Holston is fishing well, lots of BWO hatches along with the standard winter fair of midges and black flies.

The smallmouth are starting to move around feeding up for their upcoming spawn. There are many nice ones being caught in the upper sections of the Holston.

We are getting ready as well for spring muskie fishing. Nothing like slinging a big 12Ó fly on a 10wt rod. Yes a 12Ó fly. I have been at the tying bench coming up with some patterns that hopefully will bring some of these toothy critters out of the depths for a snack.

I had the privilege on February 25th to take Ken McMahon on his first ever trout fly-fishing trip. This was his Christmas present from his wife. He had to wait until the new fishing licenses were available from the TWRA.

We hit a small mountain stream first because this is what he told me he wanted to learn how to fish. He likes the solitude of being on a backcountry mountain stream enjoying the scenery and catching a fish is just a bonus. He had the pleasure of you catching a bunch of wild rainbows on a dry and dropper rig. The Blue Quills were popping off that day. The wild rainbows were feeding heavily on the surface and some were even jumping in the air trying to catch the hatching bug before it got away.

Next we stopped by the Watauga Tailwater so I could teach Ken about big water fishing. We went to a double nymph rig under a strike indicator. He began working a riffle like a pro. He was carefully placing the nymph rig in the current seams and dissecting every bit of water to be fished. He was working hard making sure to cover all the water and suddenly Ken was rewarded for his hard work. The line ripped off the water as he set the hook and the fight was on. After several minutes of hard fighting ken was able to back out of the water towards the shore and land this beautiful 20Ó brown. What a way to start a new hobby.

Ken thanks for being a great student and I hope you have may more days like this one in your future. Here is a picture of Ken's nice brown:

Past Reports

March 13, 2009
Jan. 16, 2009
Dec. 2, 2007
Nov. 18, 2007
Nov. 25, 2007
Nov. 11, 2007
Nov. 4, 2007
Oct. 28, 2007
Oct. 21, 2007
Oct. 14, 2007
Oct. 7, 2007
Sept. 29, 2007