It’s been a tough winter. No secret there. Rivers and streams in the Smokies remained under ice even as warm temperatures and sunshine arrived over the weekend. We considered a trip to either Clinch or Holston but the combination of our schedule and expectations of crowds on the water kept us away. I’ve been burning […]
Ice on Little River
Here are some familiar spots on Little River covered with ice. It’s a view most people never see.
Tailwater Fishermen Rejoice!
It’s been a long time with only a few windows to get on the big rivers in East Tennessee, but this weekend things are going to change. TVA’s predicted flows for area trout rivers show that there will be wadeable flows on most rivers. The Clinch, Holston, South Holston, and Watauga will have the most […]
Warmer Weather On the Horizon
I’m sitting at my desk in Townsend waiting for more freezing weather and snow to arrive. Yesterday was relatively mild but the streams in the Smokies were essentially frozen over. Even now I can still see snow on Thunderhead Mountain and other high peaks. Still, yesterday was sunny and about 50 degrees and we weren’t […]
Cabin Fever Spreads Like Wildfire
One thing we can tell after getting out over the past weekend is that there is a highly virulent strain of cabin fever spreading out there. We thought it was only us. Last Saturday we had the unlikely combination of a good TVA flow on the river, Nana lined up to keep the kids, and […]
Conditions Better But Not Perfect By Any Means
We feel like we’re being pretty patient with the weather. After all it is January so it’s not like we’re supposed to have warm weather perfect for fishing. We don’t know about you, but we could sure use a good day of fishing about now! Water levels have finally dropped down into the fishable range […]
Weather Pattern Makes It Tough On Fishermen
It’s been a tough weather pattern lately. For the better part of a month the water has been fishable but the weather has been brutally cold or the weather has been mild and the water has been pretty high or outright unfishable. We’ll just say it… It’s pretty damn frustrating! In a move only the […]
More Water Than We Expected
We really did expect the water to be high today but what we anticipated would be decent for stripping streamers in selected spots. As it turns out there was much more water than that! There was up to 2″ of rain on the tops of the mountains that fell on top of several inches of […]
A Good Thing: It’s Warming Up
After this last week’s Arctic blast it’s good to see that it’s warming up. The forecast is calling for some rain and that will only help to warm stream temperatures even further and melt any remaining snow on the slopes and peaks of the Smokies and surrounding mountain ranges. Don’t get over excited. This doesn’t […]
Video Clip: Bald River Falls Frozen
Anyone familiar with the Smoky Mountain region and Cherokee National Forest around the Tellico River basin is probably familiar with Bald River Falls. It’s easily one of the most impressive sights in East Tennessee and even better, it’s solidly in trout country. This past week there was a rare sight, the falls iced up and […]