Mostly Cloudy...

...with a 90% chance of good fishing, and I'm stuck here at home.  The clouds moved on late Saturday and haven't left yet.  I almost pulled the trigger on a Smokies trip on Sunday and then again on Monday, but the streams never spiked up enough for me to justify the cost of gas.  Today, when I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that it was still cloudy.  According to the weather guys, we might actually see some clearing tomorrow.

If it would just warm up a tad I would head out and find some willing bluegill, but there is still a chill in the air that makes it tough to imagine that they will be biting well.  The trout, on the other hand, are probably doing might fine right now.  The best part of this lingering cold weather is that summer and fall should be fabulous this year, and that doesn't just apply to us locally either.

Snowpack in places like Yellowstone is anywhere from average to well above average.  Most of Colorado is looking good as well, except for the far southwest portion.  Montana is looking great.  In other words, this is the time to start planning your trips for later in the year.

Locally, I expect a great year on all of our tailwaters as the long cold winter has stored up lots of cold water in the lakes that will help us through the warm summer months.  The Smokies should fish great throughout the summer unless we enter a drought, and thankfully that doesn't seem to be on the horizon right now.  In fact, this might turn into the perfect fishing year as long as you weren't wanting to fish in the southwest up through Oregon.  That is the one corridor with WAY below normal precipitation this winter.

If I can help you with a trip locally here in Tennessee, or if I can help you plan a trip to Colorado or Yellowstone, please let me know.  I'm currently booking trips locally through the end of May which, by the way, is generally the number one best month for fishing here in Tennessee.  The fishing for the next month should be great as well since most people will be done with Spring Break and our rivers and streams will be mostly devoid of people until mid-late May when school gets out.