Jim Ray met me at the shop for day two of his fishing trip. It was very cool Tuesday Morning so we didn’t start until 9:30am. Also TVA generated until 9:00 so we had to wait for the water to drop back down. We started out with a Sulphur Dry with a Midge Dropper an we had hits right away. Jim caught a couple of little Browns and then he caught a nice Rainbow. He also missed a couple on the Sulphur Dry. Then about 10:30 – 11:00am the Black Flies started coming off, and fish started rising everywhere to them. Then the wind started again and the fish stopped rising so we decided to go eat lunch.

After Lunch we headed to another section of river. When we got to the water I saw a couple of fish rising, but not enough to put on a dry fly. I put Jim on a tandem rig with a nymph and a Midge. Jim started hooking into fish right away including one hot 14-16″ Rainbow that jump about 4-5 times before throwing the fly. We could see a good number of Blue Winged Olive and Sulphurs floating on the water. An the fish were really feeding on them in the little run above us. Jim caught several fish in this section of water including rolling a really nice Rainbow. When the sun dropped below the mountain the fish stopped rising, and the fishing really slowed so we decided to hit another piece of water that would have some sun on it.

 We got to the next section of water and I rigged Jim up with a tandem nymph rig. I put on a nymph and a egg to fish up thru a section of good running water. As we were working our way up stream we spotted a pod of good fish sitting in a run. Jim worked the run over good and hooked into a really big Brown Trout. It is hard to tell exactly how big that fish was but I guessed that it was 26-27″ fish. The fish took us into the backing three times and after a long fight an a lot of walking down stream she broke us off in the grass. Man that was a heck of a fight. That fish was hot! We worked our way back up stream and Jim caught several more fish out of the run including a nice 14″ Brown. Then he hooked into another really nice Brown Trout. We fought the fish and got him to hand. It was a really nice 20″ Male Brown Trout. The fish this time of year are in spawning colors. Man what a gorgeous fish. As we worked on up thru the section of running water it was getting dark on us. Jim managed to hook into a couple more fish including on big fish that we never saw just felt for a second. It was a great two days on the water with Jim, and we had  good fishing. I really enjoyed fishing with Jim and he hooked into a number of Big Browns in his two days on the South Holston.

If you would like a to try and catch one of the Big South Holston Brown Trout,this is the time to do it. They are out moving around.

If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.

Tight Lines,

Matt Champion

Champion Outfitters Guide Service