I’m sitting at my desk in Townsend waiting for more freezing weather and snow to arrive. Yesterday was relatively mild but the streams in the Smokies were essentially frozen over. Even now I can still see snow on Thunderhead Mountain and other high peaks. Still, yesterday was sunny and about 50 degrees and we weren’t […]
We Take a Look Back at 2013
We’ll always remember 2013, but probably won’t look back at it so fondly as we do other years. We’ll always remember the severe drought of 2007 and the way it stretched a bit into 2008, but those years weren’t so tough as 2013. Without a doubt 2013 was the toughest we’ve seen in our eleven […]
Back Behind the Oars
For the past few weeks we’ve seen some negotiable, if not consistent, flows on our local tailwaters. Last weeks cold, high flows in the Smokies meant that we should hitch up the drift boat to find the best opportunities to hook some trout. There were some very nice fish in the mix and it was […]
Quick Pic: Rainbow Release
It’s been a tough week around East Tennessee. All the creeks have been running pretty high and pretty cold to boot. The tailwaters have been running pretty high as well but the Holston has had a few hours a day when flows have been negotiable. Just enough to get us by….
Settling In To The Off Season
It’s December and our guide season is over for all practical reasons. We’ll certainly take a few folks out on a few days over the next few months, but this is far from what we call our season when we’re on the water almost everyday. We’ve answered a few emails over the holiday concerning the […]
Fish While You Can
We’ve entered that shoulder fishing season now that really isn’t one of those main events of the year, but perhaps the most important. No, it’s not the ever popular spring dry fly fishing or colorful falling fishing but the “get it while you can” fishing. We’re quickly moving into late November and the weather is […]
November Fly Fishing Is Here
There are still some pockets of fall color in East Tennessee but the Smokies are quickly transitioning out of that phase. The tops of the mountains are bare and look like winter. Further down the slopes the vibrant yellow, red, and orange is beginning to fade to brown with a few exceptions. We’re seeing brown […]
The Peak of Fall Fishing is Here!
It’s the last week of October, the weather is cool, the leaves are falling, and the fishing has been great. We’ve already seen some large brown trout moving and that will only improve over the next two weeks as they move into position to spawn. Weather this week will be warmer than we saw last […]
Our Western Trip Summary
We’ve been home from Yellowstone Country for several weeks but have finally managed to get all the great photos sorted and put together a wrap up of the trip. We hosted a group of 12 fly fishers at TroutHunter in Island Park, Idaho on the Henry’s Fork. This was our third time with a group […]
Cold Weather Setting in As Fall Colors Begin to Peak
We’ve had a somewhat compressed fall season here in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. We spent the second half of September in the Rocky Mountains and came home to the results of the government shutdown. Our home waters in the Smokies were closed and it was mid October before we got back on the […]