Posts tagged Watauga River

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