Today is 11-24.  As most of you know, TVA is running water pretty hard because of recent rains. The water is clear , but the generation is on.

Matt has guided and we both have fished a lot the last couple of weeks. The reviews are mixed.  Seems like half a day each day is hot. and the other half is so- so. But the deep nymphfishing is fairly steady.

Sulphurs and BWO’s are still hatching on high water. They have not been picked on much so the fish are not as picky as usual.

Streamer fishing is on one day and off the next. We caught 1- 20+”  brown three days in a row, with a couple of big fish lost 2 of those 3 days. One day, fish are chasing streamers like crazy and the next, they are chasing.. none. When they are chasing , it is on! When they aren’t, deep nymph fishing or waiting on the hatch is the trick. But the amazing thing is, there have still been plenty of Sulphurs… they have to quit sometime, but as of now, it is still happening.

As for our web page, some is up on Ebay…  under our store name.  Check it out, if anything interest you, call us and we can do it over the phone. The Ebay store will be finished very soon, and a stand alone web page will be coming next.

As of now, we are making an offer of :

Any New in the Tube Factory Winston BllX, Bllt, Bllmx or Winston Tradition Plus a Lamson Guru Reel.. all for the retail of the winston alone- $695 .{ or the actual retail price of the rod]  That is a minimum savings of $189.

As for me , I love the Bllt. I would not trade it for any rod in the world. Load it with the SA Sharkskin line and it is the best! I have become a medium action rod guy. Can’t even cast the fast stuff anymore. I guess, old man are set in their ways. Most people like the faster BllX , but the medium action bllt is for me. I bet the 9’6 wt. BllMX with a full sinking line is some kind of streamer rod.  The St. Croix Legend Ultra 9′ 6 wt. with the SA full sinking line is the cat’s meow. If one of you guys does not buy the 9′ 6 wt.- BllmX from me, I am going to put the sinking line on it and find out.

Tight Lines,

Rod

Darnest thing I have ever seen. It was spectacular yesterday. 

I want you guys to know how to catch them on dry flies. Am sure a lot of you do. But for those struggling.. here is how I worked things yesterday.

I know Sulphurs are hatching so I started with a size 18 skating , emerger pattern. Fish absolutely ate it up. Good fish, too. All browns..  My reasoning was that as the water is going down, the Sulphurs will begin coming off. And the first stage of emergence , fly wise, is the emerger. I use a skaing fly that has stuff going everywhere. I will show it to you in the shop. I like to dry fly fish, so my emergers float. You can tell flies are emerging when fish start smacking.  Their takes are splashy… water shooting forward.. swhirls right near the surface.  A lot of times, the fish will pull up in the head of the pools  and go on a feeding spree. If they are there and lifting their heads or smacking, they will be easy to catch. Never overlook the heads of pools. It can not be too shallow. 

As the water begins to flatten out as the generating water goes down, like yesterday. The fully emergered Sulphur dries were on the water drying their wings for take off.  At this time, a sulphur comparadun or thorax dry fly is the ticket. I tie comparaduns with cdc so that is what I use.  They are a clean tie. They are simple with a good simple profile for the trout. Otherwise when the trout look up , they don’t see a bunch of stuff. Just the body profile with a wing tip on each end and a couple of tail endentures in the water. Less the fish see of the fly, the more trout you will catch. ” Less is more” is very true I think.

I cannot over emphasize presentation. You can get away with some upstream presentation as the water is dropping. But you still need to throw a curve cast so that your fly reaches the fish before anything else does.. that means before fly line or tippet . If you can do that, you will catch fish on an upstream presentation.

As the water goes on down, the best presentation is across and down to the fish. A curve or reach cast is very important here if you want to catch a bunch of fish, including the bigger ones. Again, get the fly to the fish before anything else DRAG FREE.  In order to be drag free, you have to start with a reach, curve dump, or parachute cast . Or make one up of your own. There are a bunch of different ways to accomplish the above. Just work a couple of ways out for you . But you have to start with some way of giving yourself some drag free before you start mending. Because mending is the second most crucial thing to catching fish. Again drag free is the game. You can mend for long distances down stream to a fish. Setting the hook at long distances is a different story. That too, you will have to figure out for yourself. But first you have to get the fish to eat your fly.

Anothor crucial thing is , do not keep banging away at the same fish. If you keep casting the same fly to fish or a pod of fish on low water  and it doesn’t take after 4 or 5 times, he probably will not take. Changing flies might work. But mainly move to more fish . Do not keep pounding the same fish. After a cast or two, that fish knows you are there.

And don’t leave too early now. From 4:00 to 5:30, it was literally a take on every cast, literally. Remember spinners come back to the water late to lay their eggs. Trout love easy picking spinners. A spinner pattern will work. But a straight cdc comparadun has been the ticket for me.

I hope this helps some. I see too many people not catching fish. And I want you to catch them. It really is easy once you get it figured out.

If you want some private lessions in the water on this , let us know. Matt or I will be glad to spend an hour or two to show you exactly how we do it.

Also, we have some good sales now on our Sales page here, check them out. We will have a true internet site soon with our store on it. I hope you guys will support us. We will give you some very good buys for doing it.

Tight Lines,

Rod Champion

423-878-2822

On 11-4 , I got to fish the afternoon. From 2:00-5:00.

The Hatch was small and sporatic, but still caught fish on cripples well. Later that afternoon some spinners came back to the water and the bigger fish started lifting their heads. Caught some dandies on a comparadun.. one close to 20″ . and fat as a pig. Absolutely gorgeous in it’s fall colors.

On Thursday, I got out around 4:00 expecting the same action. I was a little further down stream.  What happened next took me off guard.  Jim McDowell had told me of these bugs. They were smaller and the hatch was much tougher to handle. Pale Evening Duns , maybe.  These definetly weren’t spinners.. the wings were a medium dun color and they were hatching. Although some of the spinners came back late evening, the earlier bugs were freshly hatched. And by the time I got there, the fish were picky. I caught a bunch of the 10-12″ fish but the bigger ones eluded me. These bugs were a brighter yellow and smaller than I was prepared for. If I get another shot at them, I will have some 18 and 20 cripples, and some yellowish orange 18 and 20 comparaduns with the medium dun wing.

Thanks Jim McDowell for the call and the info.

Tight Lines ,

Rod Champion

TVA is giving the afternoon to fish now.  They cut the wheels off at 1:00– I got there as quickly as I could.  Just a few Sulphurs on the water when I arrived, but that did not stop me from using a dry fly. Actually it is a strange skating, cripple or whatever CDC sulphur . They ate it up at first. Then the wind showed itself big time, but I stayed with this strange fly. Patience is all it took… sip… sip… bam.. They ate it in one way or the other.  Bunch of fish.. mostly browns with several rainbows thrown in. No real dinks in the bunch. Man , the water temp. must be right.. because the fish are on fire.

Then around 3:30 or 4:00 Sulphur spinners began showing up.  Along with the spinners , there were smaller sulphurs emerging.  So out comes strange cdc fly # 2. This definetly is a cripple. Dave Miller has been catching fish real well on this critter… some good ones too. So out it came. I was undersized. I only had size 20 hooks at home, and these spinners were 17′s or so. But I had elongated the fly around the bend of the hook to make it bigger. It worked.. Dave was  not telling a fish tale. Some nice 14-15″ Browns in the shallow water ate it.  They ate it good until around 5:00 when the spinners were dead and on the water. That means , I could not see the bugs and the fish were eating them. Which means spinners to me, since I had seen them in the air and on the water earlier.

Water was coming at 5:00 so I left.

Did I ever tell you what a great river this is.

Tight Lines,

Rod Champion