Blake Boyd and I meet up for a day of fishing. We did a little photo ops for newspaper then head on to do some fishing. It was really cold in the morning, and there was ice on the sides of the river. So the fishing was slow in the morning. Blake missed a good many fish on a dry and caught one. While I fished nymphs in the deeper running water. I hang one fish out of the running water. We decided to head upstream to see if we could not find some rising fish. When we got to the river the fish were rising to Blackflies. Both of us had a few new patterns that we wanted to try out to see if the fish would take them. I spotted a big Brown feeding in a lane. I tried different dry and dropper before I finally got him to eat a size 24 Stripper. After I landed that 22 1/2″ Brown Trout I switch over to just fishing dry flies. I was having my best luck with a size 28 Blackfly dry. Blake was having lots of hits on a little Blackfly dry that he had tied up. The fish were just feeding really well on the little flies. Kevin Lowe was also fishing in the same area that we were, and Kevin was caughting fish on his little size 30 Adult Stripper. It was a really fun to watch the trout come up and sip in the little dries. There was alot of fish rising and there were several fish hooked an landed over 14″.
It was a great day on the water.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
423-878-2822
Matt let me fish a few hours today, again. Got on the water about 2:00. Hadn’t been there but a few cast when the water came alive. Fish were sipping everywhere. I did not see many BWO’s on the water but the fish were full of their nymphs and Duns. Anything olive 20 or smaller would have caught fish today. I fished a 22 BWO Sparkle Dun. This one had an olive trailing shuck. Both Browns and Rainbows hammered it. Actually sipped it more than hammered it. The wind was a bear . So in between gust, they hammered it is more like it. When I sat down to retie , black flies crawled all over me . They were size 22 and smaller. The trout also had Black Fly Adults in them. They should have. There were a ton on me. So an olive nymph, most any derivitives of a zebra midge, little strippers , black fly dries, sparkle duns and BWO Comparaduns : my guess all these would have caught fish today. Fish were hungry…
RodC
Dave said he could not cast …. well he can. And he can fish also. I watched him quietly slipp around those grass beds .. boom a brown trout.. then to the log.. a couple of more browns… then on to the tree. I believe Dave said 20 browns there. Could have told you he was a hunter by the way he fished. He stalked , quietly… and that is the key.. quietly . And don’t let him fool you about his casting. Good loops and as smooth as butter.
Crazy fish.. eating Suplur comparaduns in January. Somebody should tell them it isn’t time yet. And on top of that, just sipping them.. not smashing but sipping. You know, the kind of sips you live for. The Dry Fly Fisherman’s takes. Just like Dave.. quietly and gently.
They ate Little Strippers also. Just like Dave, gently.
On the way out, we stopped and watched at least a 100 Turkeys in all shapes and sizes, in one field. That was amazing. 100 of them in a wide open pasture , just taking their time scratching for food.
Cannot beat that for a day, can you.
Tight Lines,
Rod Champion
I meet up with Andrew and Matt again for a day of wade fishing on the Watauga River in East Tennesee. The forcast for the day was cold with some snow showers. So we headed over to the Watauga around 9am. We arrived on the river and started fishing in one of the upper sections of the river. Andrew was having problems with a tandem rig so I worked with him on how to cast a tandem nymph rig. While Matt worked a section of water upstream of us. Matt caught a couple of nice fish out of the run including on 15″ Brown Trout and a Brook Trout. He also missed a couple of other fish. It turned cold and started snowing. So we decided to stop for lunch. After lunch we headed down river. We found a Blue Winged Olive hatch and some rising fish. Matt missed several on a BWO dry. I moved Andy up into the running water and he started catching fish on nymphs. So I switched Matt over to a nymph rig and both of them were hooking fish regularly out of the running water. As we worked our way up through the running water Matt caught a nice 15″ Rainbow. Andy caught several nice Rainbows and one nice Brookie about 10″. Around dark the fish just stopped feeding and we called it a day.
It was a great winters day of fishing on the Watauga River. Matt caught a Slam (Brook, Brown and Rainbow) Andy didnt get his slam but he did caught Rainbows and Brook Trout.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
Andrew and Matt came down from the D.C. area for a day of wade fishing on the South Holston. The weather was pretty nice for winter time fishing, and the high was in the upper 40’s with plenty of sun shrine. We started out the day up high on the river and hooked into a couple of nice little Browns. So we moved down the river. We fished hard down the river and both Andy and Matt landed a couple of nice fish. I pumped of the Brown and he had not eaten anything yet. So we moved to another section of river. We got into a little Blue Winged Olive hatch. The fish started rising well on them and Andy was hooking up pretty regularly. The shadows started moving over the river and the fish stopped rising as regularly so I put Matt on a Woolly Bugger. He hooked two nice Browns on the Woolly Bugger. We moved upstream around 4pm to fish the Black Fly hatch, and we were getting hits regularly on a size 24 Black Fly Dry. Andy caught two nice fish on the little dries, one was a 16″ Rainbow and the other was 15″ Brown. Also caught a nice Brown on the little dry a pretty 15″ Brown Trout.
It was a great way to end the day.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
Jim Ray meet me here at the shop for a day of wade fishing on the S. Holston River. After putting all our gear here in the shop we headed down to the river. A cold front had come through and the weather was cold Tuesday morning. So we started down the river to see if the fish were hitting in the morning. The fishing was a little slow to start out with, but as the sun warmed things up a little the fish started feeding. Jim caught a nice Rainbow out of the first run, and as we worked our way up stream we hooked several more trout. We stopped for lunch, and after a great hot meal at Web’s Store. We headed upstream to see if we could find a BWO hatch. After a good afternoon of fishing we decided to see if we could not find a big fish feeding. We could not get one to hit so we called it a day around dark.
Jim and I had a great time fishing even though it was cold.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
I picked Kevin Sherman up from his house in Shelby, NC for a day of wade fishing on the Green River in Western North Carolina. We arrived at the river at about 10am. It was a beautiful day but the water was still cold. So the fishing was a little slow. After working with Kevin on his casting he got it down pretty good, and he hooked his first fish a nice Rainbow. After working the water over well. We decided to stop for lunch. Due to the warmer temps there was a good hatch of little Winter Stoneflies coming off, but the fish were not rising much to them. We did get a couple of fish to rise, but we had to go down deep in the runs to get most of our hits. We ended up hooking up on several fish and missing a good many more.
It was a beautiful day on the water, and I enjoyed fishing with Kevin again.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
Paul and Mike meet me at the shop for a day of wade fishing on the South Holston River. We headed down to the river and got started. After just a few minutes both guys were on to fish. Paul hooked into a nice Brown and after a quick picture we watched her swim away. Then we headed down stream and got into somemore feeding fish. After a lunch break we went looking for a hatch. We found a some fish rising to both Midges and BWO’s. We ended the day catching fish on Dry’s and Droppers.
It was a great day on the water with both of these guys.
If you would like a guided trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Thanks,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
January dry fly fishing on the South Hoston river. Unreal stuff…. Blake is catching fish on a Sulphur Comparadun . I am catching fish on Stripper tied dry. And Jim was catching fish on a BWO Olive Cripple.
Stomach pumpings shopwed Balck fly adults size 26-28. II had tied some strippers without any weight on a size 24 – Tiemco 2488 hook. I put a white ccdc wing on it. The wing was about 1/2 the body length . Landed one 16″ brown and had a 18+” brown rise to the flyy 3 times. Each time I took it out of his mouth. That is midge fishing.
The Little stripper in black and gold beads still are catching fish well. And would expect them to continue to 12 months a year. They are are such a good replica of a real midge pupae. Have tied some up with a brown glass bead . In my mind it looks good. You know how mthat is. We will see.
Come on up.
Tight lines,
Rod Champion
Yesterday being my day off I decided to go fishing. The weather was beautiful with temps in the upper 50’s to low 60’s. It felt like Spring time out on the water. The fish hit good all day yesterday with midges being a producer. I did see a several Sulphurs on the water also. As the sun started to set there was a big Midge hatch that came off. As the sun started to set I decide I would try to caught a Big Brown so I hugh around and fished into the dark a little bit. I finally got into a few big Browns I got two to hand and one popped loss. One of the ones I got to hand measured 25″ and the other was 23″ both really big fat Brown Trout. It was a great day on the water.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Tight Lines,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
423-878-2822
Fishing waqs good this weekend. Some BWO’s from 1:00-3:00 at certain spots on river. Fish were still eating 20-28 midges.. Blake’s Little stripper is still a very good one. Samll olive Midge Adults are on the water in the afternoons. Small Sprout midges, parachute adams, Morgan Midges and the likes will catch your share of them.
The weather is beautiful and the fish are on. Sounds like a good reason to lay out of work to me.
Take Care,
Rod Champion
423-878-2822
And Overbrook…. those are the internet names of the men Matt fished with yesterday… Fishing was good.. and the comraderie was better. I tyed with them last night . It was fun.. these guys are very good fly tyers.
It was midge fishing galore. Blake’s Little Stripper and the Little Black Stripper were the flies of the day. Tons of fish were caught . Of course, mostly Browns. Overbrook caught a Rainbow that he was very proud of. Get this.. Matt pumped a stomach . It had the ususl Midge Pupae and Midge Adults. And there was one very strange bug in that fishes stomach. A BWO Sparkle Dunn, size 24, that had come off my vise. That fish had eaten that fly. I felt like a proud Papa…
Midges were from 20- 24.
Tight lines.
Rod Champion
423-878-2822
Dustin Bunch from Cleveland, TN met up with me here at the shop for a day of wade fishing on the South Holston River. Dustin is a experienced flyfisherman. After getting wadered up here in the shop we headed down to the river. We got to the river and Dustin hooked up with a nice brown right away. Then his second fish was a Big 25″ Buck Brown Trout. After a couple of pictures, we watched him swim away. Dustin kept hooking up on fish and then hooked into another Big 22″ hen Brown Trout.
We got cold and decided to break for lunch. After lunch and a quick tour of the river we headed back fishing.Dustin kept hooking up all afternoon. After a couple of quick runs back up to the shop to get warm, Dustin landed another nice 21″ Brown Trout. The sun started to set on us so we called it a day.
The weather was tough on us, but man did the fish hit. The high for today was 25 degrees but I dont think that it ever made it that high. It snowed and the wind blow all day long. We stayed warm, but everything else was frozen. There was even ice on the water edges.
I really enjoyed fishing with Dustin. It was a great day on the water.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Tight Lines,
Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service
Well with it being New Years Day Me and Daddy decided to do some fishing on our own. The weather today was cold and very windy. So we just got out for a little afternoon fishing. The fish were really eating Midges today after the fishing being a little slow the last couple days. After a fishing for a while I finally hooked up on a nice Brown after a quick measurement I slip him back in the water he measured 22″. Then I hooked into a really Big Hen Brown that measured 26″ she gave me a good fight then I watched her swim off. Then Daddy got into the act he hook and after a good hard fight land a fat 25″ Brown. Man this fish had a lot of color on it. We finished up the day by catching several smaller fish that were in the 10-14″ range. It was a great day on the water even though the wind was blowing about 30mphs at times.
If you would like a Guided Trip give us a call at 423-878-2822.
Happy New Year,
Rod and Matt Champion
Champion Outfitters Guide Service.
