Yesterday the sun was shining brightly and wearing long sleeves made you sweat on the river. Today it’s raining and the thermometer is set to plunge tonight. Tomorrow morning we’ve been told to expect freezing temperatures in the low 20’s and teens up in the Smokies along with a dusting of snow on the mountains.
That’s March for you…
The good news is that we do need the rain. Local streams have been running about half the volume we’d typically see at this time of year so the rain should beef things up a little bit.
A Blue Wing Olive, about size #18
While it was a gorgeous day in the Smokies yesterday we couldn’t help but notice the hatch activity was pretty light. I hate to even sound like a complainer. We’re fishing in conditions that could give you a sunburn while much of the country is still in a virtual deep freeze, but it is what it is. We were kind of expecting a hatch so it was a little disappointing to get most of our activity on nymphs.
Some fish were hooked on dry flies and others missed so don’t despair. However, the basic nymphs we use like a Pheasant Tail, Zelon Nymph, and Pat’s Nymph easily outperformed the dry flies.
joe wessell says
What kind of camera do you take the trout/underwater shots with. GoPro? I’m looking to get a camera and really like the pics your camera takes. Thanks for your time.
Ian says
The underwater photos are taken with a GoPro. We plan to post an article soon that we hope helps out. It took us a while before we were able to get good underwater images regularly. Maybe we can shorten the learning curve for others.
joe wessell says
Would definitely be interested in an article on making it easier and knowing what type of accessories to get that are necessary. Thanks and look forward to a later article on Gopro!
Collin says
Had a fantastic day on Cosby Creek yesterday. Bugs were everywhere, and I caught around 20 fish – all of them on dry except for the first one.
I didn’t see any concentrated hatch, and in fact didn’t see much in the way of trout feeding on the surface for bugs, but they took my dry from about noon to 4pm, one right after another.
Ian says
Great to hear about the good fishing, Collin. Thanks for the report!