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.
