We’re on the back side of the Memorial Day holiday and that means all sorts of things when it comes to fly fishing around East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. First of all that means it’s thunderstorm season. We’re seeing pop up storms somewhere everyday. That doesn’t mean the day will be a washout, but […]
What A Week!
Over the course of the spring Charity and I have felt like the fishing was a little more difficult than usual. There were more days than usual when trout in the Smokies wouldn’t rise to a dry fly very well and the number of fish taking a fly on the tailwaters seemed light compared to […]
Hatching Yellow Sally
Little Yellow Stoneflies, often referred to as Yellow Sallies, are hatching throughout the Smoky Mountain region right now. These bright yellow insects start life as a dull brown nymph in the stream. They migrate across the stream bottom and crawl up on boulders in the middle of the stream or on dry areas along the […]
All Kinds of Bugs
It’s May and you’ll find all kinds of bugs hatching wherever you go around East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. There are some Hendricksons still hatching plus some huge March Browns on the bigger streams. In the evenings the yellow mayflies are showing up in several species. All you really need to know is they […]
Most Area Streams Fishable After Heavy Rains
Last night was certainly an interesting one here in East Tennessee as we had strong winds, heavy rain, and even some hail in a few locations. The “on the scene” report from the Smokies is that most of the streams are in good shape. The bulk of rain fell west of the mountains in Tennessee. […]
Quick Pic: Golden Stonefly Nymph
Here’s a golden stonefly nymph we recently found in a stream while flipping rocks. These guys are very common in the Smokies and are very distinctive in appearance so they’re easy to identify. Now you know why the Tellico Nymph does so well in streams across the region.
High Water in the Smokies Before the Great Weather Arrives
Last week was just one of those weeks… This is my twentieth season guiding and Charity’s thirteenth so it’s not new, but you certainly don’t like it. A constant parade of weather disturbances came through featuring everything from snow, to rain, to high winds. It was just a tough week with yo-yo-ing water temps and […]
A Week of Ups & Downs
This past week was quite a roller coaster ride for us fishing guides. It started last weekend with a fresh 4″ of snow in the Smokies that flat out shut down fishing in park streams last Sunday. Trust me. As a guide it wasn’t pretty. But the weather quickly warmed up and our new drift […]
Looking for Some Consistency On the Way
This week’s fishing could be best summed up by Dickens’ opener to a Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Over the period of less than a week we saw gorgeous, sunny weather, snow, a couple of passing storm fronts, a temperature roller coaster, fantastic hatches, […]
Weather Improving After A Tough Week
It’s been an odd week around here. One that started with sunshine and flowers, regressed to freezing weather and light snow, then bounced back to warm rain. The freezing nights dropped water tempertures down to the high 30’s in some spots and the fish were locked down for most of the morning. We adjust our […]
