It is on , nymph fishing wise. Matt said yesterday, that on his guide trip, they hammered fish. He said his guys caught 40 fish in the morning and hammered them in the afternoon. The bigger fish came in the afternoon. One 20″ Brown was landed. But Matt said a True Monster took them on a ride. There is NO exageration in Matt. He said he spotted a 8-10 lb. Brown. His client fished for it and got it to eat. The fish took them on a Sunday Ride for a while. Then it got serious and the 6X tippet could not stand such a fish.
An old nymph of mine was all Matt’s client’s fished.
Rod

Nymph fishing has been real good on the South Holston River in east Tennessee. Matt took Steve Sharp and his son on a wade trip yesterday. They caught a lot of fish. The morning was pretty slow for them.. a dozen or so fish landed. But the afternoon was hot. Matt said they easily caught 40+ fish in the afternoon. The ticket for Matt yesterday was an old nymph of mine- Copperhead and a small BWO nymph.
The river is getting ready to bust wide open. Probably would be a good idea to get there.
Happy Trails- Carol,
Rod

I fished Saturday afternoon. The nymph fishing was very good on the South Holston River. Very few bugs so went deep for fish. There were plenty of fish. Caught a lot between 10″-14″s. All were wild brown trout. Of course, anything Brown in this river is native born.
TVA is only running a generator for 30 minutes twice a day. It makes for all day wading. The water is fairly low, but has a good run to it.
Caught fish on both #16 and #18 nymphs. In the quieter, slower runs, the fish wanted a # 20 BWO nymph. Sometimes a twitch would do it.
It looks like TVA will be giving the same schedule ALL week.
Tight Lines,
Rod Champion
South Holston River Fly Shop

TVA is now filling the lake back up. That means All day wade fishing here on the South Holston River.
BWO’s should be good into April, now. And of course , Blackflies and midges. Sulphurs are not too far behind.
Matthew Guinn caught this Brown Trout Sunday afternoon on a Scooter Midge.
We have the Simms Headwater Wading Pants on SALE right now.
MSRP $250 – SALE $149.95. This is the way to stay Cool this summer. We have them in ALL sizes.

Tight Lines,

Rod Champion

Matthew Guinn is giving Free Fly Tying Lessions at the shop beginning March 22. This free class will last 6 weeks. It will begin at 7:00.
Matthew has done classes now for 3 years here at the shop. He not only is an excellent fly tyer,  Matthew enjoys teaching others his trade. And it is a trade with him. He ties full time at the South Holston River Fly Shop.
Matthew ties some of the best looking and fish catching articulated streamers there is.
For Class members, the shop will be offering 10% discount on all materials.
Give us a call so will have some idea the number of participants.
Thank you,
Rod Champion
423-878-2822
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the adden fished some yesterday. The water was cut off at 10:00pm. Josh said the BWos were on the water. He caught 19 on a BWO dry. Then sulphurs began to come off. He proceeded to catch 12 more on a sulphur dry.
Pretty good stuff for mid February.
Tight Lines,
Rod

Bugs big time yesterday as the water was dropping, here on the South Holston River in East Tn.
Some said they were easy pickings on Sulphur and BWO dries.
Small nymph droppers were deadly.
TVA cut the wheels off at 10:00 am today. So it looks like the rest of the week should be good wading schedules.
Time to hit the river.
Tight lines,
Rod Champion

Float Trips are still producing fish pretty darn well. Kevin Lowe did a Float trip on Saturday. It was cold, cold. The good news is there was a good BWO hatch on high water. And the fish were rising to the olives.
Last week , Matt said as the water was falling on a float trip, there was an excellent BWO hatch.
So it is still a good time for a drift boat trip here on the South Holston River.
We are having a 20% SALE on ALL Winter Items. They must go! … cause Spring is right around the corner. But I bet you we are going to have some more cold weather.

And we still have 7  SIMMS FREESTONE JACKETS in YOUR size on tremendous SALE

These are like the Simms Guide jackets, except instead of being Gortex, they are Simms version of Gortex.  These are Waterproof and Breatable Fly Fishing Jackets. Backed by Simms Quality and Warranty. MSRP- $199- SALE $125.

Now we are talking about wading Schedules. This is Wednesday. Projecting same amount of water for Thursday and friday.

Give us a buzz at 423-878-2822
Thank you,
Rod Champion

We have 4 pairs of these: 1 Large+ 1 XL and 2 XXL.
Regular $249- SALE $199.
New In Box.
Stay cool this summer.

Please call us on these.
Thanks,
Rod Champion
423-878-2822

I talked to TVA yesterday. This is what they said.

They are running water to keep the lake levels down where they need to be this time of year. TVA has  gotten the lake  level to where they can start cutting back some.February 15 is the start of that. The reason way they are running during the day time is that is the time peroid they need the power. They dont have the power demand during the night so that is why it is cut off during the night.

They will start letting the lake fill back up starting the Middle of this month so they should start giving us more time to wade fish. As long as we dont get any big rains that makes the lake rise to much. So we should be getting more time with out them running starting the middle of the month.

Just wanted to let everyone know what TVA had told me.

The High water fishing has been pretty good. We are having BWO hatch and fish rising to them.

Thanks,
Matt Champion
South Holston Fly Shop