TN Tailwaters

I fished the Watauga river on Sat. March 29th and only managed a couple of fish. The hatch (or lack thereof) was a real disappointment. I caught all fish on a black fly larvae pattern size 22. I saw just a couple BWO's coming off but the hatch never really took off. After 2:00 I was invaded by a group of bait fishermen and abandoned my spot for the South Holston.

I parked at the Weir grates and immediately started picking up small browns in the riffles using a WD40 BWO emerger size 24. About 3:30 the duns started hatching in earnest and I switched to a BWO parachute size 18 and managed about 4 on top, but not before I had to add about 4 feet of 7x tippet. The better fish were rising in the still water and were hard to fool. Down and across seemed to be the only way to get a good look from a fish.

WNC Small Streams

Fished a couple of small wild streams off the Parkway on Saturday. We had high expectations with the warming temps of the last week. The first stream we hit had water temps still in the 40's but by 1pm we started picking up fish on dries. This pattern seemed to be the ticket in the fast moving waters. The recent rains had the water at levels I had not seen since last spring. We picked up mostly rainbows in the lower sections of the streams but moved up into wild brookies after lunch.

We managed about 6 fish but had hoped for a lot more. The water temps were still just a little too cold but looks promising with a week or two of temps in the 60s.

Snow on the SoHo

FRIGID !
That was the word on the TN Tailwaters this weekend. A fishing buddy and I awoke at 7:30 in Elizabethton to 45 degree temps and misting rain. By 9 am it was a full blown snow storm with temps in the teens and howling winds. Oh well, you drive the distance.. you gotta fish. We found the river mostly deserted with only a few hardy souls on the lower end. We tried several spots and finally about 11 the BWOs started popping off.
You literally had to time your cast when the wind subsided for a split second to keep the size 18 parachute out of your ear. We managed about a dozen browns like the one pictured. We may have had more but the temps, wind and an increasing dose of the Hypo drove us to the truck after about three hours.