South Holston River Fly Fishing 2.27.10

February 27th, 2010:

They were generating today until 12 o’clock and I had a few hours to burn this afternoon, so I was able to catch the water as it was dropping out. Anytime you have the opportunity to fish on falling generation water is a good thing. The fish have a tendency to be very charged up with lots of gusto, and for the first 30 minutes or so as the water is falling the fish will hit very well usually.

One word of caution because there is still more flow try to wade areas that you have waded before and know the low water depths of. Particularly this time of year you don’t want to go swimming.

The temperatures have dropped off this week from what we experienced last weekend. I stepped in the water @ 12:30. I rigged up the Winston Biix 4wt with a nymph midge set up underneath of a white thingamabobber. If the light conditions are suitable the white indicator blends in well to other bubbles and it doesn’t seem as off putting as some of the other colors.

I had landed 3 fish in 6 casts right off the bat. Fishing Rio 5x fluoro I broke a couple of better fish off. There were some fish rising to blue wings with some consistency, but I was on a mission to try out some new midge patterns so I resisted the urge to dry fly fish.

As a fly tier, I find it’s important to give patterns an honest test. After breaking my rig off on a good fish. I moved Kevin’s new midge up on point and put another un-weighted midge in behind it. The temperature were supposed to be in the mid 30′s but with the wind blowing across the water it sure didn’t feel like it. Newsflash …..it’s still very much winter.

I caught 25 fish in a 2.5 hours and packed it in shortly after 3. One thing that’s so great about the Soho is that once you get to a spot, you really don’t have to move much. The water was very clear today. I was sight fishing with my nymphs, I would see a fish roll in a spot and sometimes I wouldn’t pull that fish out of the hole for 10-12 casts. A guy that was fishing below me probably thought I was crazy before I left I was after this 13 inch brown that had rolled on my nymphs in and I casted and casted and casted to this fish before he finally took. He was close enough to hear my 13 inch fish celebration, but when you’ve been after a particular fish for a while it doesn’t matter the size you’re just pleased you did. More later…

Tight Lines in 2010
Josh McFadden -Guide