The Danger of Fishing Nymphs

This weekend on the Hiwassee, I had a profound and potentially life-changing experience while fishing. First, I discovered firsthand the danger of fishing subsurface. Then, as if to reinforce the lesson learned, I stumbled across some risers that were delicately sipping something microscopic on the surface. Of course, that in itself is not unusual but the fact that I decided to tie on a small dry and then had success with it was very unusual.

I'm sure you're wondering at this point what in the world I'm talking about. Understanding that I love fishing subsurface flies, you are probably doubting my sanity. It would all make sense though if you were able to see my tooth. That's right, I chipped off the entire top of my tooth.

For as long as I've been fishing nymphs, I pinch on my weight by using the good old set of chompers in my mouth. There was always the vague unease created by knowing that something bad could result, but I always shrugged it off and gnawed on yet another split shot. Yesterday, the routine was rudely interrupted (and just after I had caught a nice 13 inch brown no less) by a frightening crunching noise coming from somewhere under my nose and above my chin. I didn't feel any pain though and began to think that my teeth were so powerful that they had shredded the small split shot. When I examined the weight and saw that it was in perfect condition, the light came on and I was horrified to feel rough edges on a formerly perfect tooth. Subdued, I managed to pinch on the weight with my pliers and continued fishing. I finally moved upriver above the powerhouse to look for the risers that I was sure would be there.

Sure enough, there were several fish working the pools immediately above the powerhouse and I soon had a rainbow and a smallmouth to hand, still using subsurface flies. Knowing things could be much better, I decided to try a small zelon midge that I had tied several weeks ago. I diligently took out the 6x and tied on a generous piece and finally attached the small midge. Moving upstream in stealth mode, I spotted a rise on the other side of the stream just behind a rock. Two casts later, I dropped the small dry just upstream of the fish and had the satisfaction of watching the fish inhale the fly. Suddenly, everything seemed right. This was how fly fishing was meant to be. Nervously I pondered how this might affect my future fishing as I envisioned myself fishing dries upstream and to rising fish only. Then I realized, it wasn't the time for that kind of thought, I needed to just savor the moment. There would be plenty of time later for constructing my own philosophy as it pertained to fly fishing and its methods.

Now, as I look back on that short time fishing, I am forced to wonder if perhaps I'm on the brink of a new phase in my fly fishing. I know deep down that I'll never completely give up on fishing subsurface. If it brings more enjoyment, I might focus on fishing dries more for awhile. One thing is certain and that is that I will not be chewing on any split shot for a long time to come. I'll probably be visiting the dentist to remedy the problems that have already occurred...

Upcoming Fishing

Some more fishing appears to be in my near future. Also, as Thanksgiving approaches, I'll be ready to fish some over the break from school. The Hiwassee is calling me this weekend and I'll probably try to get in a couple of hours. Check back in a couple of days for an update on the HI...

New Blog

I just found another great new blog based here in Tennessee. The author lives on the Caney Fork apparently (for which I'm extremely jealous) so we'll be checking out river reports often...

More Fishin'

That's right! I went fishing twice this weekend...I guess it was just making up for lost time. Regardless, the second fishing trip was better than the first. Since I was home for the weekend, I just went down to the Caney Fork which I've been wanting to fish for awhile now. The fishing was great and the catching was phenomenal. I completely lost track of how many times I caught fish on consecutive casts and some of them were even eating the dry I had on as an indicator for my midge.

This river will continue fishing well and I hope to make another trip there again as soon as possible. There are a lot of nice fish in the river and they are very willing to eat right now as winter is just around the corner. My best fish of the day was a hard fighting 16" rainbow but that was just because I missed the much larger brown that ate the zebra midge and then spat it out before I reacted... I'll just say I'm rusty since I haven't been fishing enough lately...

I Went Fishing!!!

Shades of fall

I'm sure you have all been extremely concerned about my lack of fishing so I decided that I should probably go today. The Hiwassee has been on the back of my mind for awhile so I finally went and checked it out. The river (at least the upper part) is full of fish that are all hungry and the fishing is good...

Got to have the game face...

Unfortunately I never saw any large fish and all the fish I caught were recent stockers. On the other hand, reports from the river have indicated that the water temps stayed within the tolerance range for the trout over the course of the summer. Hopefully we'll see some better fish once we get a chance to explore a bit more over the next few months.

First fish in weeks

I mainly fished up in the vicinity of the powerhouse today and as I said, there were lots of fish in the river. They appeared to be starving to death and I couldn't keep them off my flies today. The best fish was around 12 inches but was on the skinny side in my opinion.

Nice 12 inch fish

I'll likely fish again Sunday morning early for a couple of hours so check back soon for some information on the Caney Fork...

More fall colors

A rainbow comes to hand

Still No Fishing: Fall Has Arrived

School is a terrible thing, at least when it interrupts more important things like fishing. I still haven't been fishing since my weekend trip to the Smokies several weeks ago. To keep from going insane, I have still managed to get outside a bit to climb and also to document the change of season. A few pictures of fall here in Tennessee...

The possibility exists for some fishing trips to finally start happening in the near future so check back for a report on that in a few days...

Ridge Holds Strong

The ridge of high pressure that has been in place over the eastern US is supposed to weaken a bit as a front makes it through the area. Unfortunately it appears that the chance of widespread rain is not all that great tomorrow and the rest of the forecast period continues dry. Furthermore, the extended outlook from the Climate Prediction Center continues to indicate above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation for the area leaving us wondering how much longer this abominable weather pattern will continue. I for one am going so far as to consider cancelling my annual fall sojourn in the mountains. The water temperatures are cool enough that I'm not so worried about killing the fish but somehow, it just seems too easy with the streams so low or maybe it is more like cheating. Thankfully there are still tailwaters and if I don't head for the mountains over fall break, I'll probably try to at least get a few hours on some tailwater full of large fish...perhaps the SoHo or Caney....

Saving the Best For Last

The last day in Yellowstone proved to be the most memorable. This was the day for Slough Creek and one final shot at the fish of Trout Lake. We really had no idea what to expect from Slough Creek. By this point of the trip we were getting lazy and didn't feel like hiking in (like all the guidebooks tend to recommend). The word was that the lower meadows held the largest fish but they were also the toughest fish in the whole creek. I've learned to not put much faith in such stories, largely because I've often found good fishing where everyone else struggled.

We arrived at Slough relatively early in the morning since we could only fish until 2:00 in the afternoon. We stopped at the first pullout that caught our eye and walked down to look at the water. In awe we saw several very nice fish slowly cruising the pool and feeding as they swam slowly along. The plan had been to eat a quick streamside breakfast but I just couldn't wait after I saw the fish all feeding so well. After a quick trip back to the car, I returned ready to catch some fish. A small midge seemed appropriate since those were the only insects we saw on the water as of yet. My buddy Trevor decided on a Green Drake since the fish were supposedly used to seeing them. This proved a much better choice than mine and he was soon into several nice fish at the head of the pool. I was patiently stalking a nice fish and even got it to eat but couldn't get the hook set. A little while later another fish moved into range and this time I got everything right and soon had my first Slough Creek fish to hand.


I had caught my fish so I could focus on more important things such as eating breakfast. After the break, I decided to try some other flies. I really wanted to throw big dries so I figured it couldn't hurt anything. By this time the wind was really picking up making casting a real chore. The surface of the stream was covered in chop and that made it hard to see even my large #8 Chernobyl Ant. The fish didn't seem at all bothered by the wind and it probably helped conceal our presence. I soon found a sweet spot and nailed several nice fish including this rainbow that was somewhere around 18 inches.

Just when the fishing seemed to really be getting going, the afternoon closure went into effect. We had caught our fish though and were satisfied with the results so it was off to camp for an afternoon of relaxation.

Evening finally rolled around and we just couldn't resist one last trip up to Trout Lake. Our few glimpses of large fish were enough to motivate us to keep on trying. When we got to the lake, we were surprised to find several people fishing. The other evenings we had fished there, we generally had the lake pretty much to ourselves. There were several people fishing from float tubes which really is the best way to fish this lake.

We slowly made our way around the lake to our favorite area for evening sight fishing. When we got there, we saw a couple decent fish working but our efforts were in vain for awhile. Finally, some of the other people began to leave and we were able to spread out and cover a bit more shoreline. I moved down and finally spotted two very nice fish, a cutt that was around 18 inches and a considerable larger rainbow. This particular evening there were lots of cream midges flying around so I decided to try a Zebra Midge. After working the two fish for awhile, I finally had the satisfaction of seeing the smaller of the two turn and charge my fly. Soon the weight of a nice cutthroat was ripping line of my reel. I fought the fish carefully until it was right up to the bank and then made the mistake of trying to kneel down to land the fish. This was the wrong move and the fish immediately thrashed one last time, throwing the fly in the process. I watched helplessly as the fish swam back into the depths. Feeling rather sorry for myself, I wandered back down the bank to where I had hooked the fish.

Amazingly, the larger fish was still cruising the shoreline looking for some tasty morsel and I had the perfect appetizer tied on. My first cast was behind the fish but the next one was perfect and I watched in awe as the fish turned and nailed the fly. I waited just long enough to be sure of a clean hook set and then lifted my rodtip. The fish went absolutely ballistic. It went on a continuous run nearly to my backing before I was able to get it under any semblance of control. I was worried that my drag might not hold up to such a determined fish but everything was doing fine. I hollered over to Trevor that I had a good fish on and wanted a picture. Finally, as the big fish began to tire and come in, I decided I wasn't risking such a nice fish. I jumped into the water so I would be in the best position to land the fish. Beaching such a magnificent fish was not a good option in my opinion so I gently led it into the shallow water between me and the shore. Carefully, I grabbed the tail of the big 'bow and then cradled my other hand under it. The fish was tired and calmly posed for a couple of quick pictures after which I spent another minute carefully reviving the beauty. Finally, with a powerful thrust of its tail, the fish sped back into the lake leaving me with a memory and a couple of pictures.

This was the perfect cap to an already great Yellowstone trip. Of course, I can't wait to get back and next time, I'll have a float tube for fishing Trout Lake the way it should be fished. Another stop on the trip was yet to be made though including more car trouble...

Yellowstone Days 4 and 5

I finally found a little time to add another short post about Yellowstone. The first of these two days was spent on the Lamar and upper Soda Butte. The next day was for fishing the Yellowstone River and it was quite memorable.

When I woke up and looked out of my tent on day 4, I saw two fawns and two does grazing quietly through our campsite. It was a treat to have these animals coming so close and I snapped a few quick pictures. One of the fawns gave me the opportunity for this shot as he peered at my with curiosity.

We decided to give the canyon section of the Lamar a shot and accordingly scrambled down to the river from the road above. When we got there, we started out using big dries which seemed like a solid bet. Strangely, the fish just weren't looking up at all. I soon switched over to some nymphs and started catching a few fish but nothing particularly noteworthy. I had on one decent fish that would have been nice to land but it through my flies. Here in the canyon section we were catching mainly cuttbows along with a few cutts.

The afternoon provided another opportunity to check out upper Soda Butte during the afternoon closures on lower elevation streams. Once again, it provided us with some great moments and nice fish.

The next day would prove to be much more memorable. We had decided to hike in at Tower Falls and fish upriver from there on the advice of a couple guys from Bud Lilly's Trout Shop that camped next to us. This turned out to be an excellent bit of advice but things developed slowly. Once again, upon arriving streamside, we started out throwing large dries such as chernobyl style flies and big stimulators. We were rising a few fish but felt that things could be much better. Finally, even though I really wanted to fish dries, I put on a double nymph rig and a couple of indicators about 4-5 feet above. This proved to be the ticket with a beadhead PT and a small black simi seal leech both doing well. Now, hardly a drift went by without getting a strike. All the fish were solid cutthroat in the 10-16 inch range that fought well in the powerful current of the mighty Yellowstone. Finally, we had to quit fishing as the afternoon closure approached but I'll be back to fish this section, hopefully during the salmonfly hatch next time.

On the hike out, we saw many bones, at least some were probably from kills made by the park's large predators. This large elk skull and antlers would have made a great souvenir if it was legal to keep such things...

Solunar Tables

Our latest poll was on the topic of solunar tables that forecast the best fishing days, including the time of major feeding periods. I found the results interesting but also largely what I expected. I majority of responses were for the "Never" category. As I said, it was not unexpected but I think that a lot of people are missing out on some great opportunities. Of course, a lot of people don't get out that often (like me now) unfortunately and don't have the luxury of going on the forecast best days. They are just glad to be able to go when they can.

I would be willing to bet that the people that do pay attention to these tables have discovered some incredible fishing during the forecast peak periods. Fisherman that target large fish are especially likely to refer to these charts, at least in my experience. Personal experience has taught me that there really is something to these charts and I go fishing during "best" days as often as possible. If you haven't ever looked at a solunar fishing table or very rarely, I would encourage you to give it a shot. It can't hurt anything...