This is the day of the year when we typically expect our guide business to drop like a heavy stonefly nymph with two BB shots. The Thanksgiving weekend is usually the last weekend of the year when we can count on being booked although the weather is never a sure thing. When people ask how […]
It’s Not Winter Yet
Things are quickly slipping towards winter here in the Smokies. The mornings have certainly gotten cold and we’ve had several consecutive frosts. Most of the leaves are off the trees even as a few pockets of brilliant color hang on in sheltered coves. The fish are still rising, but not as fast and furious as […]
World Turning
There’s absolutely no doubt that fall has arrive now as autumn color is quickly progressing in the Smokies, leaves are falling, and the weather is cooling down. In fact, we’ve had frost the past two mornings here at R&R Fly Fishing world headquarters in Townsend. Dry fly fishing is the usual fall program in the […]
Fall Fly Fishing Has Arrived in East Tennessee and the Smokies
We’re still getting our feet back under us after an incredible trip to the Henry’s Fork and Yellowstone National Park. We had beautiful weather and phenomenal fishing. More on that later, but we’re excited to be back home just in time for autumn, our favorite time of year on the water. It seems that the […]
In the River in Yellowstone Country
We’ve arrived at TroutHunter on the Henry’s Fork and spent some time fishing in Yellowstone National Park already. Our group arrives today and we expect to start casting a line on “The Fork”, but it’s already been pretty special. We had barely gotten settled into our room at TroutHunter and ordered a beer at the […]
Plenty of Options for Fly Fishing Around East Tennessee
The mountain streams have been fishing well for the past couple of weeks and after a long hiatus it looks like our tailwater rivers should start becoming consistent as well. Norris Dam has been spilling from Norris Dam for a while and even as there were some fishable moments on the Holston River, they were […]
It’s Still Winter But We’re on the Countdown to Spring Hatches
There have been some relatively warm days over the past couple of weeks and we’re supposed to be coming into at least a couple more, but don’t let it fool you. It’s still winter in the Smokies and I honestly can’t remember the last time I didn’t see some snow on the high ridges. There’s […]
Get Out When You Can
We’re accustomed to the idea of mid January being cold and dreary so we don’t expect to get much fishing time in at this time of year. In fact, there was a time when we spent much of the depths of winter out on the road speaking at fly fishing events around the country. We’re staying […]
Fishing Conditions Improve on Several Fronts
After heavy snow in the Smokies and temperatures that stayed down below freezing for an extended period we had all but written off any good opportunities for fishing the rest of the year. We usually expect things to stay pretty good up until around Thanksgiving but we were all but shut down well in advance […]
An Unusually Wet October
Directly on the heels of the driest September on record we’re in the midst of an unusually wet October in East Tennessee. Once again this proves my statistician friend, Doug Sanders, point that things tend to average out. We’ve already exceeded our normal rainfall total for October and we’re looking at some significant rain on […]