The South Holston has been generating so much lately, I have been fishing the Watauga River a little each day this past week. It seems TVA is not generating on the Watauga during the week days. Matt thinks it is because of construction on the new Siam bridge.  And when bridge workers are not there, during week ends , TVA is generating. That held true this past week.

The Watauga is a  25  minute trip from our shop.  So it works out real well. If one is generating, we can drive quickly to the other.

The fishing was good.  The first two hour day produced a 20″ or so brown. That fish had been working hard on a bed. I had NO idea that fish was a bedding fish. I could not tell there was a bed. Only by his tired fight and watching him upon release did I have a clue. The bed he went to was barely noticable. This river has so much round copper rocks , a bed does not show up. I would not have messed with him had I known that. That rascal hit a size 20 BWO dry fly. His rise was just like the 3 other smaller fish that had eaten the dry. In the glare, just a subtle sip. I left the area when I saw him sit down with a female.

The next day- Wednesday, I fished a BWO hatch for an hour. Fish were rising and eating but all were small fish. I mean 6″-10″ small. Probably landed 15 before giving up on the dry and went to nymphs.  My first nymph fishing in forever, it seems. I had forgotten how much fun it is to watch that strike indicator go down. The size of fish went up quickly .  Not big fish, but solid 12″ and a couple pushing 14″.  Fun never the less.

Thursday afternoon  went to another stretch and fish nymphs completely.  Stepped in the water and busted 10 quickly, then had to work like heck to catch 3 more. I don’t know why the quick drop off. I expect not enough weight. Of course, I had no split shot. Got  a store full of them, but none on me. Go figure.  But I was still using a 3/32 tungsten bead and heavily weighted nymph + another 5/64 tungsten beaded nymph. That is a lot of weight . But flows are up, so in faster deeper runs, it was not enough.

There are a couple places in the past always had good BWO hatches all winter over there. As soon as river flows allow, I am going to see if history repeats itself.

On the S. Holston, this past week, drift boat trips had had rising fish. Dry Fly fishing at Christmas on high water. Ain’t that something.

Tight Lines,

Rod

>online casinoon the water at 3:00 and stayed til 8:00.  No dry activity seen where I was. But did see a few sulphurs on the water. It will not be long now. I caught a bunch of fish on a size 16 copperhead and an #18 red ass.  It is funny.  There are wars about who created this fly. As far as I know, it was created in Arkansas a long time ago. It is a pretty simple tie: I make a few wraps of red thread right below the bend of hook.  Then tie in a peacock body. [ I tie with silver bead] Then use a partridge soft hackle and tie off at bead with red thread.  Make sure the fish can see the red thread behind the bead. It makes a difference.

Caught a ton of 8″-10″ wild browns with a few  14″ browns thrown in  batch. Then around 7:00 , I put on a size #20 copperhead. The size of the fish went up quick. No monsters but each each brown went from 14″”-16″ .  Not a small one in the bunch. This was quite, slick water. And the good fish ate the smaller fly, fished 18″ down.

Tight lines,

Rod Champion

 коли под наем

I was fishing with Jim and Sean, and we had a great day of fishing. Sean caught a really nice 17″ Brown and I caught a hugh 32″ Brown trout.

We had been fishing all morning and had caught a few fish, but nothing special when I walked up to Sean to see how he was doing. He said that we had a big fish sitting out in front of him and we couldnt get it to take. I saw the fish move and it moved across the river from us. Sean told me to cast at it, and see if I could hook it. About six cast later I had the hugh Brown on the end of the line. After a good long fight we got the fish to hand. Now I didnt have a scale with me, but I would say that it is a 14# Brown. After that we caught a few more fish then broke for lunch.

After Lunch we had a good afternoon of fishing. Sean caught some really nice fish including one 17″ Brown. While Jim caught alot of fish nothing big, but alot nice Browns and Rainbows.

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

Great Fishing,

Matt Champion 

South Holston Fly Shop

optical communicationsFished with Pedro [ Dave Miller] yesterday afternoon for 2-3 hours. Sulphurs came off fairly well. Fished ate comparaduns with gusto. We have the ones in the shop that work well.

What was so good about yesterday was the quality of the fish. We caught a lot of fish. A 10″ brown was the smallest. All others were 12″ and better. many of them were 14″ with several going 15″ or so. caught a 16″ wild rainbow that was pure terror. The cooling of the water has really put the power in the wild fish. My goodness, they are on fire.

All the browns in the river are wild. And we only caught 3 rainbows. 

What a day! Enjoyed it Dave,

Tight Lines,

RodC

We have two Winston Bllx’s. Both are in perfect condtion. They are factory rods, with lifetime warranty cards. $520.

ландшафт 

I meet up with Tom and his wife at the shop around 8am, and we headed down to the river. We started out and Tom found a hole full of trout. He was really catching them on nymphs then a few Sulplurs started coming off and Tom was getting them on the dries. After a morning of fishing me and Tom decided to put the boat in. We caught a few fish on nymphs, but we mainly went looking for risers. The Sulphurs started coming off good and the fish were rising to them. Tom was hooking up and getting hits really on Sulphur dries. We fished risers the rest of the afternoon.

We had a great day on the water and the Sulphurs came off which is really alot of fun.

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

Tight Lines,

Matt Champion 

South Holston River Fly Shop

423-878-2822

????????

I met up with Steve and Bob from Atlanta for a day of fishing on the South Holston River. They we’re wanting to learn the techniques necessary to catch fish on South Holston. Due to an afternoon generation schedule with water from 1-7, we had to move down river to get well ahead of the water to get our day in. In the morning the fish we’re held up deep in the runs. We caught a dozen both browns and rainbows before we broke for lunch. The split case nymph had again proved itself to be the top dog of the nymph bite. A split case nymph underneath of a FBPT is a great combination. We headed up to Webb’s Store to take part in the afternoon buffet. Then went back further down river to see if we could find an afternoon hatch. We found good numbers of rising fish downriver that we’re taking sulphur emergers.

CDC Biot Comparaduns was the best productive dry with a yellow glass bead soft hackle we found up at the shop below it about 3 feet.
At the end of a good drift down stream, We let the soft hackle emerger swing up to the top, it seemed to drive the fish nuts. We caught good numbers of fish on the dry and the SH. We had a great day on the water despite the unfavorable generation schedule conditions. If you’re considering a trip up to the South Holston and want to see what the “fly” in fly fishing means then head on up this way.

Guide,
Josh McFadden