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 […]
Dogwood Winter Provides Varied Fishing
Early April in East Tennessee brings the blooming of dogwood trees, an iconic Southern Appalachian spring scene. It also tends to bring a cold snap regionally known as Dogwood Winter and this year has been about as wild as we can remember after the dogwoods bloomed, although we can remember one Easter weekend a few […]
Great Fishing All Around
After last week’s well above average temperatures you could say things have normalized via the law of averages. Yesterday was the first day of spring and late in the afternoon many roads inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park were closed due to snow and ice. We saw some sleet and snow flakes mixed with rain […]
All Options Are On The Table
It’s been incredibly warm here in the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee over the last week. Hiking up a trail to fly fish a backcountry stream has been a sweaty affair with temperatures 20 degrees or more above normal, but the fishing has been pretty good. Nymphs are working, but we’re not sure who’s fishing […]
Here We Go!
The weather is great, bugs are hatching, trout are rising, and our guide calendar is filling up fast. We even saw a flock of turkeys with a couple of strutting gobblers yesterday. No doubt about it, spring is here and it’s a great time to fly fish in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. Up to […]
Spring is in the Air
If your could see out the window here at R&R Fly Fishing world headquarters in Townsend, Tennessee you’d think I was crazy to say spring is here. Snow is falling and there is a dusting on the trees. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though as it’s been in the 50’s and 60’s the past […]
Tough Winter for Fly Fishing in the Southeast
If you’ve been waiting for a good time to go fly fishing this winter in the Southeast you’ve probably had a tough time making it work out. That’s been made even more ironic by the admission that we’ve had some pretty good weather moments, but unfortunately there were enough high water events to negate the […]
In Spite of the Thaw It’s Still Winter
We had almost a week of weather that sure felt like spring. Bright sun coupled with some hiking made you take the jacket off and feel comfortable in shirt sleeves. There were a few days of good fishing in the mix, but even then there was melting snow that kept water temperatures relatively frigid in […]
Waiting on Spring
It’s pretty safe to say that we’ve been at our annual fishing low point here in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. Our tailwaters have been running pretty high from the excessive rains at Christmas and our streams have been running pretty cold for the last two weeks. We didn’t near so much snow as […]