Eric Wetherington shows off a 16″ rainbow trout he caught on a float trip with a #16 Zelon Nymph. Things actually started off pretty slow and while we had a few rising fish, it wasn’t as many as I’d seen only a couple of days earlier. The afternoon session got pretty hot and heavy with […]
Dropper Rigs Keep the Action Fast and Furious in the Smokies
Charity and Shrish Rane teamed up to get this photo a few days back on Little River. Charity held the leader and acted as art director, instructing Shrish on the best way to get this underwater photo. Shrish was excited for the opportunity to do some dry fly fishing since he doesn’t get to do […]
Get Bent (Rods)!
It’s that time of year for us. Imagine December at Macy’s and that’s the time of year it is for us in the fly fishing guide business. Fishing is great everywhere right now and anglers are coming out of the woodwork. With all the water we have here in East Tennessee it’s not surprising that […]
Sure Signs of Spring
We have some undeniable signs of spring here in East Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains. From a fly fishing point of view the fish are rising in the Smokies and TVA has cut flows from the dams. We can finally fish the Clinch & Holston any day of the week. But there are […]
Quick Pic: Tailwater Rainbow Trout on a Midge
Now that fly fishing on the Clinch, Holston, and other tailwaters is an option it’s time to dig out the small flies. We were a little disturbed today when some dimpling trout easily resisted a #18 Zebra Midge, but all of them took a #20. One of the beautiful mysteries of fly fishing: fish not […]
Fly Fishing is Strong Everywhere in East Tennessee
If you haven’t gotten out on the water, what are you waiting for? Water conditions in the Smokies have been a tad on the high side, but fishing has been very good. TVA has cut generation significantly so river flows are superb on the tailwaters. We have some more time allotted to get on the […]
Tailwater Fly Fishers, Your Long Wait May Be Over
In most years TVA will start to drain reservoirs in August and we’ll see medium to high flows into December, sometimes early January. Then flows are typically a mixed bag, sometimes good and sometimes tough until spring when TVA cuts flows to fill the reservoirs. This year has been a tough one due to weather […]
High Water in the Smokies But Things Starting to Improve on the Tailwaters
Phenomenal evening light over the Smoky Mountains as the skies clear after heavy rain last weekend It was a tough weekend to be a fly fisherman in the Smokies and we’ll just go ahead and say it was probably even tougher to be a fly fishing guide in the Smokies. Water levels were pretty high […]
Keeping An Eye on the Water
Water levels in the Smokies have receded to quite fishable levels after they spike up pretty high late last week, but we have some more rain on the way today. So far it looks like the system is breaking up and should only bring us light and scattered rain showers. As fly fishing guides […]
The Smokies Are Fishing Great, The Tailwaters Not So Much
The fly fishing in the Smokies continues to be great! And the fishing on our local tailwaters… Did we mention that the fishing in the Smokies is great?!? We had some high water over the weekend, but that has subsided and there are clear flows in all of the mountain streams. All of the charts […]