It wouldn’t be spring in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains without a variety of weather and fly fishing conditions. Last week I guided two tailwaters in several locations plus we guided several streams in the Smokies. Dogwood Winter came in with a vengeance this year with snow in the Smokies along with flurries and […]
Late Summer Fishing Report from the Smokies and East Tennessee
August is here and it somehow doesn’t feel quite like late summer. The kids started school this week, we’ve seen relatively mild temperatures with a few mornings registering 59 degrees on the porch, and it seems like TVA has really bumped the flows on the big rivers. It’s feeling more like fall than summer, but […]
Wet Summer Keeps The Fishing Good In The Smokies
Compared to last year we’re in the middle of a pretty wet summer, but as I look at the stats we’re really on target for rain. Aside from one big system back in the spring our rainfall has been where it belongs. And that’s a good thing for fishing in the Smokies. Water levels have […]
Mid Summer Fly Fishing Looking Good Across East Tennessee and the Smokies
We’re officially into summer now and happy to report fishing is looking good almost everywhere you look. A wet spring season made fishing pretty tricky, especially on our tailwater rivers which ran high for a pretty long time. In fact, we lost more float days due to high water this season than we’ve ever lost […]
Spring Weather Roller Coaster in the Smokies and East Tennessee
You always know it’s spring in East Tennessee because of the stomach churning roller coaster ride you’ll see with the weather. I say “stomach churning” because when you guide for a living you’re always living in fear of anything that wrecks a day or even worse, shuffles the calendar. Over the years we’ve gotten to […]
Fly Fishing The Smokies and East Tennessee in 2016
So far we’ve had an unusual winter season here in East Tennessee. Right around Christmas we saw weather that would have been considered as unusually warm for Easter, let alone the shortest days of the year. Along with that warm weather we saw exceptionally heavy rains. Streams in the Smokies were at flood levels but […]
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 […]
August Fly Fishing Around East Tennessee
It’s a particularly busy time around R&R Fly Fishing world headquarters as we move into mid August. While we’re starting to enter the usual late summer guiding lull our kids are back in school so that keeps us hopping with all the activities and running around that goes with it. Tourists are fewer now than […]
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 […]
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 […]