South Holston River & Watauga River
Posts tagged South Holston River
South Holston River Fly Fishing 3.14.10
Mar 15th
3.14.10 South Holston River Fly Fishing
I really don’t know how to start this report! Josh and I were both itching to float the Watauga River. With high flows and prior commitments and awesome hatches on the Soho we just hadn’t made it over in a couple weeks.
Well once we got to the put in the TVA had surprised us with an un scheduled generation. Heavy rains had blown the Doe River out and put a lot of off colored water in the river. We floated anyway!
The fishing with all the bad conditions at once was rough. After a brief shower and only a couple fish we decided to row out. At the ramp our truck hadn’t been shuttled and it took us an extra 45 minutes to get squared away.
So now we are underway once again. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the South Holston River. And once there high water, again the TVA had changed the schedule.
Feeling super deflated we drove up river to find the water was actually falling! First time for the day we were in luck. Falling water normally equals good fishing. Josh wanted to scout one of my favorite spots for a guide trip later in the week so we found a parking spot. Josh sprang from the truck and began grabbing gear at a hectic pace. I ask what was his hurry, He pointed at the water and said”LOOK!!!”. The surface was alive with rising fish. Some of these risers were real bruisers. Changing rivers had me rigged all wrong, so all I could do is turn my back and try to quickly rig with the sound of constant splashing ringing in my ears. Which for a dry fly fisherman such as myself is torture! Just seconds later McFadden’s voice broke rise sounds, “FISH ON FISH ON!” I turned in time to see the fish bend his Winston Biix almost double. This made getting a good knot tied even harder. I had a good idea of what bugs were on the water so I tied on a straight up BWO & off I went.
Years of hatch hunting and dry fly fishing the Soho has taught me a few tricks to use during bigger hatches. I started scanning the water for bigger fish. I see a good fish rise and fired a cast to it. And from no where a 13 inch bow hammered the dry. After a quick release I spotted a big fish rise. After a few cast made a little tricky by the wind, FISH ON!! A gorgeous 17inch brown.
For the next 45 minutes fish were coming to hand ever few cast alot of 12 and 13 inchers. I found another big fish rising and then a huge fish rose just in front of me, I was literally drifting the fly closer to my legs than the tip of my rod. I never hooked that fish but a few cast later I was in a war with an 19inch brown. This was a feisty long thin fish that just did not want to come in.After landing my second fish over 17 I called it a day and headed to the truck.
Josh came to the truck and being the hatch had slowed wanted to try 1 more spot down river. After a short drive we hiked into a spot we don’t fish as much as we should. I carried a streamer rod for some deep holes for Josh to use. I didn’t plan on fishing. At the first spot Josh stakes claim to the next run, so I started tossing a streamer 3rd or 4th cast and WAM!!! A heavy heavy fish then slack! DANG… Josh was rigging so he let me know that it looked huge too bad it got off… (THANKS BUDDY). The day started off so bad then got so good I just couldn’t complain. So I stripped in, checked my rig, and cast again. WAM WAM FISH ON Heavy fish after a brief tug of war I netted the beautiful colored up 22″ Heavy rainbow. I was excited i ran out of the water like a little school girl so Josh could snap a pic. What a day.
Guide,
Kevin Lowe
P.S. Hatch Hunting doesn’t get much better!!!
South Holston River Fly Fishing 2.27.10
Feb 28th
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
South Holston River Fly Fishing 2.21.10
Feb 21st
February 21, 2010:
What a weekend of fishing this has been. It just kept getting better as did the weather. We were blessed with mid 50 degree weather today & the fish seemed just fired up. We got on the river earlier today than yesterday which allowed us our choice of spots. We picked a spot down river that we don’t fish as regularly as we do some others. But it produced.
Kevin and I split up at the truck I headed of down river with a dry dropper rig and Kevin moved upstream of the nymph rig. As I fished my way downstream through a long run it just wasn’t happening for me on the dry. So I swapped to a Dry Dropper/Dropper rig a little deeper and began catching fish at the bottom of the run. I was fishing a scud pattern and a blue wing nymph under my dry. I hooked into 10 fish downstream before swapping out to a deep nymph rig. I was fishing in a larger tailout at the bottom of a run, it got to be fairly deep in there and with slow moving current there was some subtle takes. As soon as I went deep on my nymph rigs. The fish really seemed to be liking the blue wing nymph so I knew the hatch would be on soon.
Meanwhile upstream I can hear Kevin about every minute on the radio. Fish On!… Dink…..Fish On!…Nice Rainbow ….. Fish on…. Nice Brown…. Fish on…. another nice rainbow. It went on at about that pace for every bit of 2 hours.
I started seeing some rises with blue wings on the water as the hatch was moving up river. Fish were rising with regularity so I switch out to a dry/dry rig. I’ll often fish 2 dry’s of different sizes to help me match the hatch a little quicker today it was a 22 bwo they wanted … the wouldn’t look at a 18 so I stuck with the smaller.
(Meanwhile upstream: Kevin is landing a nice 18 inch brown you’ll see on the video. What a pig.)
I caught 5 fish in a row on the dry one right after another … healthy 10 inch rainbows and browns. Release the fish.. Fanny the Dry….Cast… Set…Fight… Repeat. So I’m doing pretty well until a fella starts casting a spinner in my hip pocket. So back upstream I go. I set my camera down on a rock and take some video, the dry fly’s are continually moving up river. There has to be a fish rising here. I’m watching the far bank where I have seen and caught fish rising before. And sure enough like they were cued to do so a couple of nice rainbows start rising about 40 feet out across 2 current seams. I make half a dozen drifts through there and hook up on one of the rainbows feeding. (Meanwhile: Kevin has railed good fish all morning) so he’s ready for lunch feeling confident he sore lipped every fish in the river. We head to “THE STORE” for a good homemade burger and some tots, before setting up for an afternoon shoot. With an hour and a half left to fish when we got back down river, I decided to take one for the team to get some good video footage. We we’re able to pick up quite a few good fish through the afternoon further up river. All in all a very good day on the river. This river will spoil you one day and teach you something the very next. That’s what keeps us coming back each and every time.
East Tennessee Tailwaters 2.20.10
Feb 20th
February 20th, 2010
South Holston River AM Wade Trip
We arrived at one of our favorite spots on the river this morning at 9:30am. Kevin and I decided to split up and fish a couple different areas. There was still a little chill left over from the cold last night. I walked down the trail and there was still frost on the mud lined bank where the water had frozen from the morning pulse. The midge bite was on through the morning and I brought a dozen fish to hand before noon with many more that were on for a short time. I did miss one fish that was on for a minute that was very heavy. I was fishing a dry dropper rig with a blue wing dry on top and a blackfly larvae midge pattern of mine about 2 foot below. I was expecting to see a big hatch of blue wing olives today. It just didn’t happen where I was. Many times when we’re just out fishing we’ll take along the 2way radios so that we can brag on how well we’re doing. Best fish I brought to hand in the morning was a 13 inch brown. The Rainbows are very colored up right now and boy are they hungry. They should be doing their spawning thing very soon. It became almost hot today at times with temperatures near 50. The water was still very cold. Kevin was downstream from me about a quarter mile or so and he was apparently in the right spot.
Feeling confident that we had worked the water over we decided to change spots with more and more people coming out to the river. By 1:00 the river was plum full of people out fishing and enjoying the water. But, that’s to be expected on the first warm saturday all winter long. With most of the good available spots taken we broke for lunch and headed over to the Watauga River to catch the water as it was dropping out for the afternoon.
Watauga River PM Wade Trip
After a short drive over to Elizabethton, we found a good spot to wade while the water was falling. There was some blue wings popping off, but the Midges and nymphs continued to be successful for us. A dry dropper dropper rig was the way to go today.
Blue Wing Olive Nymph
#22 Blue Wing Olive
We picked up a couple more fish through the afternoon, it was a pretty good day out on the water and you just can’t beat a sunny 50 degree day in the middle of February regardless of the fishing.
The caddis hatches will be starting very soon over on the Watauga. They can be blizzard hatches at times. Book your trip now for spring to make sure you can be there for it, you don’t want to miss it.
Guide- Josh McFadden
South Holston River Fly Fishing 2.1.10
Feb 4th
February 1, 2010
The spawning areas that have been closed for several months are back open for fishing. We and put the hyde in the water around 9am. We had great expectations for the fishing. The fishing proved to be very good. The fish in the newly opened water were very hungry and acted as though they hadn’t seen a fly before. The morning was very cold in the 20’s with wind. We fished nymphs down to the cul da sac with good numbers. As the sun heated the water as expected the blue wing olives began to pop. Like clockwork the fish began to rise to the emerging duns. There is just nothing like dry fly fishing on the first of february with no one else around. This river is most definately one of the best trout fisheries in the South East. Where else can you think of can you go catch wild trout on a dry fly in the dead middle of winter. If you have not fished the South Holston River before you have got to get up here soon and take a trip. You just don’t know what you’re missing. As you’ll see in the video it’s the ones that you don’t catch that you know are trophy fish that just keep bringing you back.
