Tennessee Weekend

About three weeks ago, I got a phone call I had been waiting to receive for almost a year.  It was my fishing buddy saying they were headed to TN in a few weeks if I was able to get away.  I cashed in every honey-do favor I had saved up for a few weeks and started prepping flies.  I was especially excited to fish the sluice on the South Holston River.  Typically, the TVA runs either no water or a lot of water during periods of generation.  No water means lower and slower flows easy to wade fish, but the generation times are a no-go for wading where we fish.  The water is just too high and too swift for it to be safe.  During periods they call sluicing, they only run a small amount of water.  This results in a little less water clarity, plus a little faster pace of flow which should make the fishing a little easier.  The time came Saturday morning, 3:00AM sharp, and I was up and getting the Jeep ready to roll.  I was on the road by 3:30AM to meet my buddy, who would drive the rest of the way.  After stopping at the South Holston Fly Shop to pick up a few things and share some lies, we dropped our non-fishing gear at our home for the weekend.

We changed and headed for the Watauga River, eager to get on the water and on some fish.  Due to the Watauga's generation schedule, we would have a window to wade and fish until about 1:30-2:00PM.  The fishing was OK, not poor and not excellent.  Other fishermen had already hit the section we were fishing a few times that morning and maybe that had something to do with it.  We still managed to pick up some fish, though.  All of mine fell to a tandem nymph rig, with most taking a size 14 Iced Hare's Ear in "pheasant tail."

We got off the water as the flow was picking up and the water rising.  We were all a little hungry, so we headed into town and stopped at our favorite local eatery, Jiggy Rays.  Awesome pizza, great brews, and a great atmosphere.  

Refueled and recharged, we headed for the South Holston.  There were some fish rising to hatching sulfur mayflies, but not in crazy numbers.  After many refusals on dry fly sulfur imitations, I added a dropper of a sulfur Mil Spec (see www.flyfishfood.com for the technique, it's easy and effective) soft hackle.  That was all that was needed for steady action.  I caught plenty of trout on the dropper soft hackle while dead drifting it, and also when I tied on only the soft hackle and let it swing down stream.  The other effective option was a tiny bugger stripped across stream or swung downstream.  Both flies kept my 5wt bent all afternoon and into the evening.

Once darkness set, we returned to the camp and stayed up way too late considering the time we all got up that morning.  The campfire was burning, the drinks were flowing, and the conversation kept us entertained until the wee hours of the morning.  The following morning, we returned to the South Holston and picked right back up where we left off the previous evening.

I finally got a bit bored with all of the smaller rainbows and decided to chuck a bigger meal looking for a bigger bite.  I switched from a tiny size 10 bugger to a cone and deer hair head in a size 1, a substantially bigger meal.  Within a few casts, I felt a solid thud and thought "Here's the big bite!" But it was yet another smaller rainbow with a large appetite.  I managed to pick up a couple of more smaller fish on the bog streamer, with the big bite never materializing.

After a few hours and needing a slight rest, I returned to the river bank.  Off came the pack, down went the fly rod, and out came a bottle of Johnson City's finest herbal soda: Dr. Enuf.  I'm a sucker for anything cherry flavored, and this stuff is GREAT!

A great time was had by all on the short trip.  Being in the area of eastern TN for a meager two days is simply not enough to take it all in.  The time flew by quickly and before we knew it, it was time to start the journey home.  Although no large trout were caught, the numbers caught by our group was pretty staggering.  It was the "easiest" the South Holston had ever fished for us.  Until next time, gorgeous.