Fishing Reports

This Week's Report
Oct. 15-21, 2007

The fishing report for the week of October 15th through the 21st. We have had another good week here in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

I started off Monday looking to do a float trip with Aarron Hyte, president of the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club, and his lady friend Cornell. The cards just didn’t fall into place and the trip was cancelled at the last minute. We didn’t get a favorable generation timeframe from the TVA and Cornell had a last minute change of plans brought on her. We are already talking of new plans to try again. Sometimes those things just happen.

On Tuesday I had a retired member of the judical system from Northern Georgia. Mr. Bell told me when booking his trip that he wanted to learn the various nymphing techniques needed to fish the mountain streams and tailwaters. He had only been fishing with dry flies since learning to fly fish after his retirement. I started him off on a stream near Valle Crucis, North Carolina and he learned the dry and dropper system for shallow to medium depth waters. After a couple of hours we moved to another piece of water near Foscoe. There we used strike indicators to deep nymph a series of holes around 4 to 7 feet deep. Then for the last little bit of time I removed the indicator and he tight line nymphed and caught his biggest fish of the day, a 16 inch rainbow on a pheasant tail nymph. He was very happy about learning this new technique and couldn’t wait until the next day to get back out on the waters around Boone and practice what he had been taught.

Wednesday was a day of recovery from the last three weeks as well as some time at the fly tying bench getting ready for the winter midge fishing just around the corner.

Thursday was “Honey-Do” list day, nuff said.

On Friday I helped my guide partner glue up the scarf joints on the bottom and side pieces of the new wooden skiff he is building. The plans came from the Montana Boat Builders Company. As soon as we finish his we will start on one for me.

Saturday was a double wade trip day on the Delayed Harvest waters around the Foscoe and Banner Elk area. The morning group was a father and son who wanted to learn to fly fish together, something they would have in common to help keep them in touch with each other. They really picked up the casting quickly in the first hour. Then it was on to reading the water and bug hatches. The last hour was spent fishing and a few brookies and rainbows later it was time to take them back to their car. See the picture below.

My second group was a grandfather, father and grandson. The trip was an eleventh birthday present for the grandson. With all of them being beginners we worked on casting and mending skills with both dry flies and strike indicator/nymph rigs. We moved to the Watauga River and began fishing. Grandpaw was the first to hook up with a nice brown. Then the father after getting some further instructions from me hooked a nice 16 ½ inch brown. The fish fought hard and a crowd gathered along the opposite bank to watch. After several tense minutes of fight he brought the fish to the net. The crowd applauded and gave him many congratulations on such a nice fish. Then it was the grandson’s turn to catch a fish. I let him choose the fly and he picked a prince nymph. After about 5 drifts through the run the indicator goes down and he sets the hook. He landed the fish on his own and I cut the fly off and mounted it on the bill of his cap. He did well in his first time as a fly fisherman.

I had no trips scheduled for Sunday so I planned a date with my lovely wife and we headed over to Grandfather Mountain to see the gorgeous fall colors and go out to dinner in Banner Elk. The Woolly Worm Festival was going on in Banner Elk and it created lots plenty of traffic on our way to the mountain. We went all the way to the top of Grandfather Mountain and walked out onto the swinging bridge. I was able to get some really nice pictures with my new camera. We came down from the mountain and came back to Elizabethton to eat dinner and then on to do a little Christmas shopping for our new son-in-law.

I hope everyone had a good week and got to wet a line some. I look forward to some nice trips in the upcoming weeks. We still have some openings for October and November. Be sure to keep checking back for my weekly fishing reports.

Past Reports

Oct. 14, 2007
Oct. 7, 2007
Sept. 29, 2007