We had some important stuff to get done today. We’re hoping to get our first real e-book completed soon plus there’s some other stuff to get done before our guide season kicks into gear. But today was easily the nicest day we’ve seen since early November. Sunshine and 60 degrees! The rest of the week isn’t forecast to be as nice, so we rearranged our plans and spent a few hours on the stream.
We weren’t expecting much more than a pretty day on the water. There’s still plenty of snow melting so while the water is warming up, it still has a few days to go before it will get out of the low 40’s. But we were surprised to see some of these!
There were a few Blue Quills hatching. The fish didn’t really seem to notice and it’s still a little early, but things are obviously moving in the right direction! We even caught our first fish of 2014 on a dry fly. Most fish took one of several nymph patterns, but it felt good to see a fish rise! It’s been a while….
This wild brown trout goes home after he was hooked on a #16 Haystack
The rest of the week will certainly be warm, but there’s still plenty of snow on top of the Smokies. We only hope most of it melts before stormy weather arrives later this week. Strong storms on top of melting snow are a sure recipe for high water.
We’ll keep you posted….
Matt Berry says
Oh to see some mayflies! Congrats on the dry fly catch. Hope your water stays down.