It’s been a wet season across the Southeast and even wet by the rainforest standard of the Great Smoky Mountains. Fortunately we’ve seen an end to the stationery fronts pulling tropical moisture to us the way metal shavings are drawn to a magnet. Even though things have dried out substantially we’re in the middle of […]
The Guides Apprentice
As you might imagine many of our family outings involve fly fishing. We live within a few minutes of a national park filled with hundreds of miles of wild trout streams. Furthermore, we have to pass or cross pretty good smallmouth bass river to go anywhere. Add in the fact that we have numerous lakes […]
An overview of water conditions around the Smokies & East Tennessee
High water became a bit of a regular thing around here and after nice weekend in the Smokies it’s pretty obvious that most anglers have all bit given up on fishing. You can tell because there were very few fishermen out on the river. Fortunately it looks like we’ve turned the corner and water conditions […]
Blast From the Past
A few days ago we saw this video over on Chi Wulff and it was almost like having your life flash before your eyes as this was almost ten years ago. Ian had two books published in two years closely followed by the release of the Fly Fishing Eastern Freestone Streams pair of DVD’s. We […]
Water Conditions Improving in the Smoky Mountains
Water levels are still pretty high but the good news is that they are starting to get negotiable for fishing again. Don’t expect to be able to wade anywhere and there’s a good chance you won’t be able to cross the stream, but there is a good chance you’ll be able to catch a fish. […]
Unprecedented Water Conditions Across East Tennessee & The Smoky Mountains
We’re not the oldest fly fishers in the region, but we have been guiding a long time now. Charity has been doing this professionally for about 12 years now and Ian has been at it since 1995 plus we’ve been around the area longer than that. We’ve never seen or heard of water conditions like […]
Keeping Our Fingers Crossed
Take a look at stream flows across East Tennessee and another look at TVA releases on the tailwaters and there’s good reason for optimism. After another week of rainy weather and blown out rivers and streams we’re off to a good start. But to be completely honest, we have a sense of deja vu because […]
Blooming Mountain Laurel in the Smoky Mountains
Here’s another two minute Smoky Mountain break from the Smoky Mountains Association. It’s summer in the Smokies and there’s no better time to beat the heat than by heading to the high ridges and peaks where temperatures rarely see 80 degrees. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQtcCvBJlVI&feature=share&list=UUGgSN2xOftPusuRNvpnVLaA[/youtube]
Our Advice Is To Watch the Flows Carefully
To be clear, we’re used to flows on the tailwaters lacking absolute consistency. We get reliable flows in the spring when the reservoirs are filling, then in June you need to pay more attention but you can usually divine a pattern from it that you can work with. We came to terms with this fact […]
A Ton of Possibilities
Water flows are much better going into this week than they have been over the past few weeks. Streams in the Smokies are good levels after a period of unusually high flows. We’re also seeing more favorable tailwater flows that seem to have something like consistency. We’re seeing pop up thunderstorms every day in the […]