You always know it’s spring in East Tennessee because of the stomach churning roller coaster ride you’ll see with the weather. I say “stomach churning” because when you guide for a living you’re always living in fear of anything that wrecks a day or even worse, shuffles the calendar. Over the years we’ve gotten to […]
The Season Is Upon Us
It’s the middle of March and our guide season has started rolling even as hatches in the Smokies started at least a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been seeing Early Brown Stoneflies for some time and the Blue Quills and Quill Gordons have been hatching in good numbers. In spite of what’s been an exceptionally […]
Spring Hatches Should Start Soon
We’ve experienced an incredibly mild winter and the extended forecast shows nothing but above average temperatures over the next few weeks. This is important as we usually start watching for our spring hatches to get rolling in early March, about the time when the weather starts to warm up. Since the warm weather will be […]
Getting Back to Normal
It was a strange autumn and it’s been a strange winter as well. Water levels were at historic lows in the Smokies and through the month of November we experienced a string of wildfires. The one most people know about turned out to be one of the largest in the history of Tennessee and devastated […]
Winter Fly Fishing Forecast for the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee
Every year it seems like we’re just coming out of spring fishing, going into summer fishing, then we look around and find that the fall season has come and gone and winter is at our doorstep. Guiding keeps us busy wading and floating rivers all over East Tennessee, but with our children getting a little […]
September on the Henry’s Fork
Now that our guide season has slowed down we’ve had some time to go back and remember our time on the Henry’s Fork in Idaho. This was our sixth consecutive year hosting a group at TroutHunter, and while we say it every year, this year REALLY was the best yet. We had absolutely perfect weather, […]
Wildfire in the Smokies
After answering what seems to be countless phone calls and emails we’ve finally gotten around to posting something about the unprecedented wildfires we’ve experienced here in the Smoky Mountain region. First of all, let me say that we are fine and Townsend, Tennessee has been virtually unscathed through all of this. Gatlinburg has been quite […]
Summer Fly Fishing in Full Swing
We’re wet wading now so you could say that summer fishing has arrived. Water levels are in pretty good shape in the Smokies after significant rainfall last week. It was a relatively dry spring here in East Tennessee and our local reservoirs are far from full. While this may not be ideal for water skiing […]
Getting Kids on the Stream in the Smokies
Charity and I have always felt strongly about getting kids out on the water. Even the most fervent conservationists won’t live forever and a big part of the job is to make sure future generations care for our natural resources. The best way to make that happen is to get them out on the stream. […]
Creeks and Big Rivers, Drift Boats, Brook Trout, and Bears
It’s that time of the season when it can be hard for me to remember where I was only three days ago because we’re covering so much water. On any given day Charity and I might be almost anywhere within an hour or so of Townsend, including a vast expanse of Great Smoky Mountains National […]