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 […]
Snow and Ice in the Smoky Mountains
Just like many other areas of the country we’ve seen freezing weather and some snow in the Smoky Mountains this week. We didn’t get all that much snow but the cold hit immediately after some rain that created a sheet of ice over all the roads that later became covered with snow. I know folks […]
Fly Fishing in the Bitter Cold
Here in East Tennessee we’re in the middle of what is the coldest weather we’ve seen since 1996. We’ve had plenty of cold weather since then, just haven’t hit the lowest point on the thermometer since then. The winter of early 2010 was pretty cold and we can remember snow staying on the mountains for […]
2014 Starts Out Wet & Cold Across East Tennessee & the Smoky Mountains
As I sit down to write this Townsend, TN is under a winter storm warning through tomorrow morning. Right now it’s raining but we awoke this morning to the gentle tap of sleet outside. The Smokies are forecast to receive several inches of snow as temperatures fall late this afternoon through the night. All I […]
We Take a Look Back at 2013
We’ll always remember 2013, but probably won’t look back at it so fondly as we do other years. We’ll always remember the severe drought of 2007 and the way it stretched a bit into 2008, but those years weren’t so tough as 2013. Without a doubt 2013 was the toughest we’ve seen in our eleven […]
Mild Weather Across East Tennessee
Every day that’s gone by hasn’t been quite so cold in the morning and a bit warmer in the afternoon. Yesterday it was pretty comfortable on the stream with just a light jacket. Today we’ve gotten out of bed with flat out warm temperatures but the wind doesn’t bode well for what’s to come. Any […]
The Perfect Drift: Winter Fly Fishing Video
We spotted this short video over on Chi-Wulff and decided to cherry pick it for ourselves as well. It doesn’t look like the Smokies, but it’s close enough when you look at the water and the fish. Maybe you can’t get to the stream right now or just don’t have that mental defect to make […]
Back Behind the Oars
For the past few weeks we’ve seen some negotiable, if not consistent, flows on our local tailwaters. Last weeks cold, high flows in the Smokies meant that we should hitch up the drift boat to find the best opportunities to hook some trout. There were some very nice fish in the mix and it was […]
Quick Pic: Rainbow Release
It’s been a tough week around East Tennessee. All the creeks have been running pretty high and pretty cold to boot. The tailwaters have been running pretty high as well but the Holston has had a few hours a day when flows have been negotiable. Just enough to get us by….