Fished yesterday form 3:00 til 7:00 . Tons of midges on the water. And fish were eating them. So gave them a diet of loop wing midges- olive body.  They ate them up. Caught several 16″-18 ” browns  and several good rainbows. The bows are not only fired up in fighting. But their colors are so red… definetly outiftted in the spawning colors… gorgeous!  Both browns and rainbows will rip your arm off right now… they are on fire.

Today, I got to fish from 3:00 til 5:30. The BWO’s came out to play.  And the trout decided to play with them. Many BWO’s lost today… Smack, slurp.. pow. That is what it sound like for a couple of hours.  The olives were small. The fly of the day was a #22 thorax BWO with cdc wings. The wind was blowing. The rain was falling . And the temparture plummeted. Text book condtions for BWO’s.  I got cold, but the action was hot. I dressed for 60 degree weather, with a light rain jacket.  But conditons changed fast.  Of course, no gloves were brought by me. But what is a little cold for this kind of dry fly fishing. Once the olives popped to the top, dry fly fishing is all I did.  Fish rose to a natural.  They rose to the fake . Almost every time. Toward the end, fish changed to midges.  I left to get warm. But man, what a day…

If you are afraid of a  race traffic this weekend, come to the river the Roan Mountain way. Slip in the back door and enjoy the tremendous fishing  that is going on now.

Tight Lines,

Rod

Jason and Rex came over to fish the S. Holston for the first time. We meet up at the shop at 8am and headed down to the river. We drove down the river to our first spot, and I saw fish midging when we got out of the truck. So I tied both of the guys on dries with a midge dropper. We headed out into the water and hooked into some fish right away. After the sun got up good the fish stopped rising so I changed the midge dropper out to a nymph dropper. Then we really started catching fish. Jason was the first to start getting into them good, and after landing a nice 15″ Brown trout he was into them all afternoon. Then Rex got into the action. We were catching fish one after an for the rest of the day. It was a great day on the water, and I could tell that Jason an Rex really enjoyed the S. Holston.

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

Tight Lines,

Matt Champion

South Holston Fly Shop

The weather has held out for a few days. I couldn’t imagine it getting better from the day before but…. IT DID! Temps were in the 70’s with sunny skies. I had an evening trip with Robert Dillard from NC Here on the South Holston. We found our first choice spot open geared up and hit the water. We had fish rising immediately. We rigged with a bwo and a nymph dropper and started. Robert hooked up quick bringing several fish to hand in only a few minutes. A bwo hatch had started and the fish were responding well. A very nice fat brownie about 17” hammered the dry and the fight was on. After a quick release several more fish were brought to hand with some gorgeous colored up bows. Robert hooked into another nice brown on the nymph in some quicker water that kept a nice bend in the 4 wt. As the evening progressed the hatch dwindled and the fishing slowed so we called it a day. It was a pleasure to fish with Mr. Dillard look forward to next time. If you would like more info on the South Holston or a guided trip check us out on the web or give us a call.
GUIDE,
Kevin Lowe
South Holston River Fly Shop

Fished the Watuaga River yesterday afternoon.  Went specifically to see if the black caddis’ were coming off. That is a hatch I have enjoyed fishing for many years. And always look forward to it’s arrival.  It says’ Spring is here. ” There is a certain place I go to look for this hatch each year.

Last year the bugs arrived 10 days or so from now. But with this warm weather, I  felt like they might make an early entrance.

There were little black caddis’ in the bushes, but none on the water while I was there. If I remember right , the hatch came off last year around 10:00- 11:00 . So I was late for the emergence.

How you can tell when these are beginning to hatch are the smacks right along the edge of the banks. The black caddis crawl to the edges and emerge there.  So when you see smack , smack , smack  on the edge, it is starting to begin.  Honestly the best fly for that time is a dark soft hackle. They will kill it.  Swing it toward the shore. Their actual size is 20-22 and have a gray- black body with the typical long wings, which make you think the fliy’s body is bigger than it is. But it is really tiny.

For a dry, I like to fish a little black, biot body Henryville Special with dun cdc wings.  Two years ago, I used tan hi viz for the wings and they ate it well.

The bugs had already emerged, but the fish were still on the edge waiting for more.  Caught 20 or so fish in the couple of hours I fished .  All were on copperheads.- size 16 and 18. Caught one dandy brown a little over 20″ s on a size 16 copperhead . It was a very thick bodied fish, and burned the reel.  I did not lift him from the water to take a picture.

I am going back tomorrow , earler in the day. Bet you they will be emerging,  just like years before, I can’t wait to get there.

If interested in fishing the Watauga – wade or float, please let us know. Matt and I have spent many years on that river and will be glad to show it to you.

Tight Lines,

Rod Champion

423-878-2822

Eric and Mark came down to fish with me on the South Holston River. We meet up at the shop around 8am, and headed to the river. We got to the river and there was fish rising to Midges. Then the BWO’s started showing not long after we got on the water. Then the fish started feeding on the Duns that were on the water, and we started catching fish on BWO’s dries. Then the fish started eating the nymphs that we had as a dropper. Mark was fishing up in the running water up at the head of the hole and was catching fish good on both the duns and nymphs. Eric was down below us doing the same thing. Then I hear Eric yell that he had a big fish on. So I ran down river to help him out with the fish, by the day I got down to him Eric had landed the fish. It was a Big 19-20″ Brown trout. Sorry no picture it flopped out of Eric’s hands before we could get a picture of it. After that we broke for lunch. After lunch the fishing was a slower the BWO’s had stopped coming off and a high presure system moved in. We did manage to catch fish in the afternoon mainly on nymphs, but nothing like we did in the morning.

All in All it was a great day on the South Holston.

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

Tight Lines,

Matt Champion

South Holston Fly Shop

Gary came down to float the Watauga River with me on Thursday 26th. So we meet up at the shop and headed over to the Watauga River for a day of fishing. The weather was nice not to cold but not to hot either. The fishing was a little slow for the first part of the day. Then we got into some BWO’s, and was able to catch some fish on BWO dries. After lunch is when the fishing started getting better. The fish started feeding on nymphs well, and we caught some really nice fish the rest of the afternoon. We did not caught any big fish, but all of the fish that we caught were in the 12-15″ hard fighting Rainbows.

It was a great day of fishing.

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

Tight Lines,

Matt Champion

South Holston Fly Shop

That sounds like it… I leave and  Dave Miller , a good friend and one of our guides.. goes fishing. I could have stayed, but no.. I had my mind on my wife and left two hours too early . Dave goes to the river and fishes a monster BWO hatch.  And Dave knows what a big hatch is.  He actually counted the fish  caught on dry flies. He caught 82 in 3 hours. That is him, alone.  All on dries.  The largest fish  landed was an 18″ brown.  And there were many, many quality fish brought to hand. 

I bet the bugs are coming off today and tomorrow in  the snow.

Also heard from Kevin and Josh that the BWO’s were hatching good on the Wautaga yesterday. 

If you want in on this, let us know. These guys will put you in them.

Tight Lines,

Rod