The national park has been open for about a week now with restrictions, but we’ve guided a few trips and have more on the calendar. It’s good to get back in the park and guiding again, but here’s what you can expect. Only the main roads in the park are open at this point. That […]
All Options Are On The Table
It’s been incredibly warm here in the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee over the last week. Hiking up a trail to fly fish a backcountry stream has been a sweaty affair with temperatures 20 degrees or more above normal, but the fishing has been pretty good. Nymphs are working, but we’re not sure who’s fishing […]
Feels Like Spring
We haven’t seen the brutal winter weather New England has experienced this year, but it still hasn’t been a stellar few months for fishing in our part of East Tennessee. Most streams in the Smokies have been frigid and our local tailwaters have had inconsistent flows. There have been times when you can go fishing, […]
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 […]
Summer Tailwater Forecast for East Tennessee
We’re far enough along in the season now that we’re able to start looking into the crystal ball for how fishing will progress into the summer. There’s always a degree of uncertainty more than a few weeks into the future, but our tailwater rivers are a little easier to predict in terms of how flows […]
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 […]
Tailwater Anglers the Time is Nigh
Yesterday was another chilly one around East Tennessee and particularly so in the Smokies. There was a fresh shot of snow above 3500′ or so. Not enough to amount to a whole lot, but just enough to hurt our feelings. The weather is warming up again for the weekend, but for the first time in […]
Great Weather But Challenging Water Conditions This Weekend
The weather forecast is calling for sunny skies and mild weather this weekend but it looks as if water levels will be challenging across East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. We had a restless sleep last night as a strong front passed through with strong storms and heavy rain. This morning several USGS stream gauges […]