4.2.10 South Holston River

4.2.10  South Holston River Fly Fishing

Kevin and I had 2 float trips lined up for Friday coming up from Gastonia, North Carolina.  I had arrived at the river early so I rigged up my 9ft 5wt Winston Biix and 9ft 6wt St. Croix Legend Elite with double nymph rigs underneath an indicator. Loaded the gear in the boats and had the shuttles run. We are ready to go at 10am. The morning was a little cool but comfortable, though  it didn’t take long for the Sun to heat everything up.

Mike and Ben (Father and Son-In-Law) were the first two ready to fish so they grabbed their gear, some coveted Diet Sun Drop, and we hit the ground running. I back rowed up to the grates and began working with the guys on mending and casting the nymph rigs. Both Mike and Ben had done quite a bit of mountain stream fishing before with shorter rods and casts. This was going to be a learning experience. I began working with Ben in the front of the boat on getting good mends and proper dead drifts. Meanwhile, “Rainbow Mike” is casting in the back of the boat and makes only a couple of drifts before hooking a very vibrantly colored rainbow.

This fish was very eager to take Kevin’s Midge so we swapped Ben over to the Same rig. No sooner did I get Ben’s flies swapped out and Mike had another one on this time a Brown.

Both were getting some good drifts through the water so we moved down river to just around the bend. Ben started catching fish with regularity as well.

But just about evertime we moved to a different spot, Mike would catch another nice rainbow.

As the afternoon progressed there was some fish begining to rise in what was an extremely prolific hatch of black flies.  More black flies came off on Friday than i can remember ever seeing before.  Our shirts were covered they were crawling over any and every dry surface they could find.  By the time we would take lunch it was well up towards 80 degrees and the Sun was blistering so we took a well deserved lunch break in the shade

After lunch we began moving down river at a quicker pace to find some more running water to fish. TVA had a suprise cut back in generation from 800cfs down to 500 cfs which does change the dynamic dramatically.

Both Mike and Ben continued to catch fish as the day went on.  By mid afternoon Ben’s was casting 40 feet with good long drifts and a good understanding of where and when to mend. It wasn’t long before Ben was hooking fish more often than not with his ability to “reach out and touch someone” with his casts.

I had a great day out on the water with Mike and Ben. It’s a rarity to find a Father/Son-In-Law with such a great relationship.  We’ll make sure to have plenty of Diet Sun Drop for you Gastonia Boys the next time around.

“Tight Lines in 2010″

Guide -Josh McFadden

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