Fishermen are a superstitious lot and we’re no exception. Anyone who’s followed us over the years knows about our devotion to Rain Jacket Voodoo. (Yes, capitalized.) Rain Jacket Voodoo is where you can carry rain gear for months and never use it, but the first time you venture out without it you’ll get soaked. We […]
First High Country Expedition for Native Broook Trout in the Smokies This Season
It’s about that time. Spring is in full effect, wildflowers are blooming in the Smokies and shades of bright green are ascending the mountains slowly one day at a time. It’s time to start hiking in for native brook trout known as specks in the southern mountains. While the fishing featured more nymphing than is […]
We’re guiding all around East Tennessee and the Smokies
The season is in full swing and every day finds us in a different place. One day rowing the drift boat, wading a stream in the Smokies the next day. This week we’ve had a true blend of fly fishing for trout in our home waters. We saw a little more snow this week and […]
Quick Pic: Golden Stonefly Nymph
Here’s a golden stonefly nymph we recently found in a stream while flipping rocks. These guys are very common in the Smokies and are very distinctive in appearance so they’re easy to identify. Now you know why the Tellico Nymph does so well in streams across the region.
A Beautiful Weekend on Hazel Creek
After last spring’s “Wet & Wild” Hazel Creek camp that featured torrential downpours for the second half of the weekend, it was a breath of fresh air to have nothing but blue skies and sunshine for all four days of our stay this past weekend. In spite of nearly perfect conditions, the fishing was a […]
High Water in the Smokies Before the Great Weather Arrives
Last week was just one of those weeks… This is my twentieth season guiding and Charity’s thirteenth so it’s not new, but you certainly don’t like it. A constant parade of weather disturbances came through featuring everything from snow, to rain, to high winds. It was just a tough week with yo-yo-ing water temps and […]
A Week of Ups & Downs
This past week was quite a roller coaster ride for us fishing guides. It started last weekend with a fresh 4″ of snow in the Smokies that flat out shut down fishing in park streams last Sunday. Trust me. As a guide it wasn’t pretty. But the weather quickly warmed up and our new drift […]
Good Bye to an Old Friend
The phone rang about dinner time last night and it all became a little more real. It was a truck driver on the outskirts of St Louis heading this way with a load of Hyde drift boats. One of them is ours. “You’re the guy with the trade-in, right?” That was our cue to get […]
Looking for Some Consistency On the Way
This week’s fishing could be best summed up by Dickens’ opener to a Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Over the period of less than a week we saw gorgeous, sunny weather, snow, a couple of passing storm fronts, a temperature roller coaster, fantastic hatches, […]
Weather Improving After A Tough Week
It’s been an odd week around here. One that started with sunshine and flowers, regressed to freezing weather and light snow, then bounced back to warm rain. The freezing nights dropped water tempertures down to the high 30’s in some spots and the fish were locked down for most of the morning. We adjust our […]