I’m confident in saying the hatches have started. We’ve seen several days of consistent hatches and once they start don’t really stop. This brown came to a #12 Haystack dry fly fished on a 13′ Ayu Tenkara rod.
Spring in February
It’s been an extremely mild winter, even for the Southeast. Here in the Smokies we tend to get a more distinct winter season than neighboring areas in the Tennessee Valley. For instance, the last two winters were pretty severe and we had plenty of snow. In fact, almost six feet of snow accumulated on Mount […]
Big Brown Trout in the Smokies: You Win Some, You Lose More
It’s that time of year here in the Smokies when we have our best shots at hooking up with the really big fish. We’re not talking about 12″ – 14″ fish that put a lump in your throat when they eat your dry fly in May. We’re talking about fish that would be considered big […]
Spawning Brown Trout
It’s that time of year when we can expect to see brown trout spawing on shallow gravel bars anywhere from the Smoky Mountains to the South Holston and Watauga tailwaters. No other time of year allows a better time to see big fish. They don’t generally eat while they’re spawning and most anglers consider it […]
We Still Know How to Fly Fish
We’re on the tail end of another busy guide season and starting to find some time to go fishing for ourselves. After weeks of being out on the water guiding and instructing fly fishing sometimes you start to wonder if you’d even remember how to get a good drift. Yesterday Charity and I were able […]
The Peak of Fall Fly Fishing in the Smokies
We’ve got to admit it. We’ve been more than a little let down by the TVA generation schedules over most of the fall season so far. Last autumn was so good on the Clinch that we’re still savoring it, but outside of a few weekend opportunities, we’ve been guiding almost exclusively in the Smokies since […]
Update from Yellowstone Country
Our group has settled in to the routine here at TroutHunter. We’re eating breakfast around 7:30 and the guides are meeting up with the anglers around 8:30. Mornings are very cool with some frost so there’s no rush since the fishing tends to pick up as the day warms. So far we’ve had anglers fish […]
A Break in the Heat and the Crowds
It’s the middle of August and we’ve received our first merciful break from the heat. Overnight temperatures have been in the 50’s in the Smokies and we’ve been fortunate to see daytime temps stay in the low 80’s. This has brought water temperatures down a little bit. Last week in the heat the water was […]
Sometimes the Stars Line Up and the Big Fish Cooperate
As a rule we don’t lead people to expect they will catch big fish or even a bunch of fish. We always want them to come away from a guide trip with some knowledge they can use on their own later and make sure they have a good time. The fish almost always come but […]
Quick Pics: Hazel Creek
We’ve got more pictures on the way, but here’s a quick sampling from our fish camp on Hazel Creek last weekend Hazel Creek rainbow trout We caught a glimpse of this black bear before it disappeared into the forest A nice brown trout with a Beadhead Tellico Nymph Our home during our time on Hazel […]
