Hiwassee summer / Stairsteps in the fog

Just like the old days! We have great flows and the coldest water I have ever seen on the HI. 54 degrees in Reliance. it is so cold we have fog daily, with or without the rain. Sulfurs are just about over, we are working with Blue wings and waiting on Isonychias any day now. Great fsihing late, especially through the gorge.

smallies this time

Sulfurs for trout on the Hiwassee and Toccoa now, but these pics are from bronze backin in north Tennessee.

April 16th great fishing

Toccoa, Holston, and Clinch -All fishing superb this week. Plenty of bugs, plenty of fish. it is good to see the front of the truck look like this again!

The bugs are in and the fish are on them.

I just finished up my first 7 day run of the year and boy has it felt good to be on the water so much. There's no mistaken that Spring has finally sprung as all the trees are sporting fresh blooms or even new green leaves. The scenery is always great while on the river, but this season never disappoints. And the good news is we've pretty much been the only boats on the water, so the crowds really haven't started to hit the outdoors just yet.


The fishing, well what can I say about the fishing? It's been good to say the least, as all the fish are starting to take notice of our spring hatches. The hendricksons have been solid this year, but the grannoms are the real news. They are already blowing very hard on the riffles. Look for the hatches early in the day, sporadic hatch and egg laying during the mid day, and full blown egg laying in the evening. Try fishing a dry/dropper late in the day and don't be afraid to impart a little action on your flies.



All of our regional tailwaters are fishing very well right now and flows are very cooperative. Best bets for the next 30 days are the Holston/Clinch and Hiwassee. Also, keep an eye on the Cumberland. Flows are starting to really shape up for the Cumby and we could see just the right amount of rain to keep the flows, the cold water reserve, and the trout very happy for the rest of the year.


Mountain streams were a little slow for me personally last week as the colder night time temps in the 30's seemed to have the fish hunkered down some. I'm guessing that report will change with this onslaught of beautiful, sunny weather we're getting right now.

See you on the water.

Thursday April 8th

What a day on the HI. rainy morning gave way to sun and afternoon hatches. nymphed great through the rain, then the hendrickson's came on. Dry Fly afternoon. Good rainbows and a couple of above average browns.

It's time to go !

The trout are rising. The water and weather is right. We have boats available.

Beautiful first day of Spring!

Today, I celebrated the first day of spring on the Clinch River, with longtime friend and client, Vance. Vance has always been good about finding above average fish and today was no different. We put on with one turbine flows and fished the higher water levels all day.

We used deep nymphing techniques most all day. Using tungsten nymphs and fluorocarbon tippets. The bite was excellent early on as the fish hammered every great drift. Of course, we had to remain vigilant with our indicators and depth, but it paid off. We'd hook fish almost every cast after an indicator adjustment.

The day was gorgeous, sunny and warm. We did endure some stiff afternoon breezes, and that slowed our action some...but with over 20 fish boated (most in the slot limit)...we were more than satisfied with the first day of spring. The picture is of Vance and his best fish of the day, a fat 17" bow that made 5 blasts out of the water on it's way boat.

Tellico after the rains! March 13th

Mark, Jake, and myself spent a rainy Saturday showing off the Tellico watershed to a group of young men who were visiting from all over the southeast. The cards were stacked against us a little as the area had received about 2 inches of rain over the previous 36 hours and the streams were noticeably swollen. The men had a positive attitude though, and that makes a huge difference.

So we set out with lots of split shot, tungsten nymphs, and the best drifts we could get. The fish were willing to bite when you thumped them in the head with your offerings. Everyone caught fish and everyone learned the fine art of high sticking mountain streams. Pictured above is a nice snake brookie. He was about ten inches long and his head was huge. A slender snake of a brookie.