The South Holston schedule was very wade-friendly all weekend, but that schedule couple with very nice weather on a weekend seemed to bring out all the fishermen. Our usual sections we liked to fish were very competitive with other anglers, and the fishing was very difficult for us. I scratched out a few fish but it was very tough. We headed to a diner for lunch to fuel up and locate a little confidence, and chance was on our side. We met up with a local gentleman there, had some friendly small talk about the fishing, and the conversation ended with him offering to take us to some private access he had along the river. Thanks to this man's generosity, we hit some water free of fishermen with a lot more enthusiasm. I found some deeper runs and chutes through the rock that begged to be high-stick nymphed and rigged up with a #14 sulphur soft hackle trailed by a #16 Ice Hare's Ear nymph in pheasant tail-colored Ice Dub. Once I got the weight right with the split shot to get the flies down deep enough, I immediately found fish. It was about 50/50 on the nymph and soft hackle. No giants, but the action was steady.
We worked a long stretch of the private water access, picking up fish in all the juicy looking water, and I finally hooked a good sized fish on the soft hackle. It was a deep chute between a large rock and a log, and after several drifts through the run with no takes, I finally got a strike. On the hook set, which was light, I popped the fish off. I saw it shake its head a few times after I broke off, enough to see it was a rainbow in the upper teens, at least. Anyone who knows me knows there are few things I hate more than light tippet, but unfortunately this stuff seems to be necessary on these rivers. My strike rates go up with small tippet and 12' leaders, neither of which I like to fish.
That night, after being up all day and fishing hard, we relaxed by the camp fire and told lies to our fishing buddies in camp for several hours. It was a good way to unwind after such a packed day of travel and fishing. Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed when we checked the TVA schedule to see the Watauga would be generating all day long. I enjoy the dark arts of nymph fishing for trout, and the Watauga is an absolute blast to high-stick nymph. It was not going to happen on this trip, so we hit some familiar water on the South Holston, instead, to close out the trip. There was not much surface activity early on, so I tied on a small #10 bugger-ish fly I tied for this trip and immediately started hooking fish. I'm not usually a big fan of what I consider mindless fly fishing, casting a small streamer across the current and letting it swing and having the trout do the rest, but it was working. Unfortunately, I only had three of those flies with me in the color combo that was working (black/olive/brown), lost the first two on deeply hooked fish, and lost the third on a hook set. Have I mentioned I hate small tippet? Luckily, standard olive buggers seemed to work just fine.
Before returning to Ohio, we had to stop at a local grocery store and stock up on a local favorite that I can't buy in Ohio, Dr. Enuf herbal cherry soda. It's life-altering stuff.
It was a good weekend getaway with enough fish thrown in to take care of the trout fix I needed desperately. The only disappointment was that I failed to catch a trout on a dry fly. There were some sulfurs and a few BWO's coming off while we were there, but the fish did not want the dries I showed them. Emergers did catch a few fish, but nymphing and swinging buggers were the methods that put more fish in the net. Hopefully, a return trip will be in order this fall to get us on the Watauga and maybe a few smaller streams in the area for brookies, bows, and browns.
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