We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the weather over the past three weeks. As temperatures remained in the low 80’s through nearly half of October we wandered if and when we would ever break out the waders. Within just a few days the weather cooled dramatically. Now it’s November and I’m writing this from R&R […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Conditions Better But Not Perfect By Any Means
We feel like we’re being pretty patient with the weather. After all it is January so it’s not like we’re supposed to have warm weather perfect for fishing. We don’t know about you, but we could sure use a good day of fishing about now! Water levels have finally dropped down into the fishable range […]
Weather Pattern Makes It Tough On Fishermen
It’s been a tough weather pattern lately. For the better part of a month the water has been fishable but the weather has been brutally cold or the weather has been mild and the water has been pretty high or outright unfishable. We’ll just say it… It’s pretty damn frustrating! In a move only the […]
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 […]
Where to Fly Fish: Government Shutdown Edition
As anyone who pays any attention will know the US Government has been closed along with all the departments it encompasses. At first thought some people might not expect fly fishing to be impacted by Washington politics, but it surely is. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closed along with every other park in the […]
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 […]