Tying the Perfect Mayfly

I've finally found the time to finish looking at some DVDs that James Marsh sent me awhile back. School caught up with me and I got too busy to review them but now want to make mention of them.

The titles were "Fly Fishing The Great Smoky Mountains National Park," "Tying Perfect Mayfly Nymphs," and Tying Perfect Mayfly Emergers, Duns & Spinners." I won't go into detail on the one about fishing the Smokies since Hawgdaddy over at the Tennessee Valley Angler did a great review you can check out here which basically says everything I had planned on saying. Great minds really do think alike...

The two tying DVDs were inspirational in a good way and also in a slightly annoying sort of way. I say annoying because they did a spectacular job of reminding me how basic my fly selection often is and even worse, how disorganized my fly boxes tend to become. If you want to learn just a few basic patterns that you can tie in different color combinations to much virtually any mayfly in the country then you really need to check out these DVDs. They not only show you how to tie the 14 basic patterns but also include recipes to match any mayfly hatch you may encounter streamside. The main downfall of these DVDs is the same for any tying program. The information is crucial and necessary and there is no better way to learn than by watching, but when it comes down to it, watching people tying on a video is not that exciting. However the organization that this will bring to your fly boxes and tying will be ample reward for the time spent watching. In the process, all but the best tiers will probably discover some new idea that will prove useful in their general tying as well.

I watched these while I tied which I found to be just about perfect. You can pay enough attention to gain the quality information contained in them but still accomplish something else useful at the same time.

These programs are perfect for use in conjunction with the "Hatches Made Easy" that James Marsh has on his Fly Fishing the Great Smoky Mountain and Yellowstone websites. If you haven't stopped by those sites in awhile, be sure and check them out. He has been making daily additions detailing the various hatches so there is plenty to see...

Caney Fork

Today I finally made the trek down to the Caney Fork for a few hours of fishing in the rain. The river is in great shape, and as long as we don't get too much rain the generation schedule should only get better. Best of all, there are plenty of quality fish in the river now after several months of higher flows. The fish are strong and healthy and hopefully a little dumb although today didn't prove that latter point at all. Unfortunately no big fish were landed, but the 10-14 inch rainbows were still a blast regardless. The fish I didn't land were the ones I will be going back for. I had strikes or briefly fought 3 fish in the 16-18 inch range and saw several that were much larger. Next time the outcome will be different...

Tomorrow I'm making the drive over to the Smokies for the day. It should be fun and I'll try and have a report up as soon as possible if anything exciting happens and probably even if it doesn't...

Busy

School's out!!! You would think that I could go fishing even more but not so. Probably my grades will reflect the abundance of fishing lately, but it was definitely worth it. Between moving home, graduation weekend for friends (mine will be later this year), and thinking about a summer job (why can't I just go fishing instead of doing something less important like working?), the fishing scene has been really slow. With a trip to town to search for that all-important job looming in my immediate future, the chances of fishing aren't all that great. On the other hand, THE CANEY IS FINALLY WADEABLE meaning that I might have to prioritize. Clearly, checking on the status of the river is much more important than landing that job. I can always put off work, well not always because it costs a lot of money just to get to the river, but perhaps one trip to the river is needed before I work too hard...

Twice the Fun

What's better than catching a fish? That would be catching two fish, at the same time that is... The white bass and hybrids were slamming baitfish in the shallows last evening. The fishing was just plain silly. Basically, it was as easy as waiting for a school of fish to come by busting bait, toss my flies in, twitch them a couple of times, and hold on. I had multiple fish on more than once but only actually landed one double.

Late in the evening, some slightly larger fish started coming up. I stuck one really good one but couldn't get a solid hookup. Finally I got a good one on and after a solid fight I landed a good fish. The rain was starting to pick back up about this time so I called it a day...one of my better ones lately...

New Poll

I'm trying to get a feel for how often everyone visits my blog. Do you check daily and are always disappointed with the lack of daily updates or do you only stop by once in awhile to see what's happening? I'm debating putting more time into this blog but want to know if it is worth it. Just vote over on the poll and let me know how often you stop by...thanks!!!

Back on the Tennessee

My curiosity has got the best of me the past couple of evenings. I've been heading down to see what is happening and today was finally a good one! Things started off quickly with a fish on within 3-4 casts and it never really slowed down all that much.

The highlight of the day was my first crappie which has been one of my goals for fishing down there. All that's really left now is a smallie and a striper. I'm about ready to give up on the striper until next winter but we'll see. The smallie is another story, and I should be able to get one of those but time will tell.

The Skipjack are still around. Last night I hooked what probably would have been my best one yet but it threw the hook a minute or so into the fight. Tonight I found a good spot where the action stayed hot for the last hour or so of daylight... Hopefully I'll have time to try again here in the next few days but with finals next week, that may be difficult. Also, it is possible that the Caney Fork might have a wadeable window this upcoming weekend. If it does, I'll be heading down to see how the fish our doing...

A Walk in the Park

That's exactly what I did this past Sunday. The weekend was spent camping at Elkmont which was great as always albeit a bit expensive. They seriously need a student rate so poor college students like myself can enjoy some time in the park without breaking the bank. I guess I just need to start backpacking instead of car camping...and now I'm off topic...

One of my favorite ways of fishing is to hike in on a day trip, sometimes up to 15-16 miles roundtrip. Sunday's goal was not that optimistic. I'm out of shape after a lazy winter so 10 miles roundtrip seemed reasonable. The trailhead at Elkmont was reasonably busy when I arrived at 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning. An hour later, I was 4 miles deep in the backcountry and ready to start fishing. The stream temperature was about 48 degrees and the clouds hinted that the air temp might not climb much as the day progressed.


A double nymph rig seemed reasonable considering the conditions and I tied on a GRHE with a softhackle dropper and a couple small split shot. After a couple fruitless casts, an energetic rainbow hit the Hares Ear and the day progressed nicely in similar fashion. An hour later I had caught 10 fish and was getting hungry. During lunch I began noticing that every time the sun poked through the clouds bugs would start flying up from the stream. After I started fishing it began to make sense. The rocks were all covered with newly hatched yellow stoneflies. It was too cold to fly quickly so they were waiting for the warmth of the sun to take to the air.


This revelation brought out my trusty Tellico nymph as the new dropper and the catching continued. Not long after lunch I hooked and lost the best fish of the day, a brown pushing 11 inches. I missed a nice brookie as well but the rainbows kept coming to hand at a steady pace.


Somewhere after 30 fish I began to wonder if they might hit a dry and out come a yellow Neversink Caddis. The fish must have been starving, because they attacked it with reckless abandon. The time was slipping away unfortunately so I finally called it a day and started the trek back to the trailhead with another amazing day on the water under my belt. By 7:00 p.m. I was on the road back to Chattanooga with a great sunset in front of me and a relaxing weekend behind...

Big Trout

That's right, big beautiful rainbow trout. Unfortunately I'm not the one that caught them. There's nothing quite like battling a large trout on a fly rod and Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground seemingly hit the jackpot on a private pond making the rest of the world (or at least those of us that fly fish) envious in the process. Definitely check it out, but I warn you that anything related to work or school will be difficult to near impossible as you start daydreaming of that upcoming trip where maybe, must maybe, you will battle your own monster trout...

Bassin'

Finally got a little bass the other day while fishing the Tennessee River. Took a bright pink fly...go figure...



The interesting thing I saw on this trip was a really nice crappie one of the spin guys had caught from shore. My experience with these fish is limited mainly to spinning gear way back in the day, but I have caught a few small ones on the fly. Hopefully I'll find some nice ones soon though, because they're a blast to catch...

The highlight of the day really wasn't the fishing, and the fishing wasn't bad. It was the sunset I saw while standing nearly waste deep in the choppy waters with fish rolling on the surface out in the current. The cool northwest wind was blowing that foretold the near-freezing temperatures that are forecast tonight and tomorrow night. Herons occasionally sailed gracefully over the scene and ducks were working along the shoreline. As it grew closer to dark, bass started coming up in the shallows busting baitfish. All in all, it was a perfect way to spend the evening...

Hiwassee Hatches

For the first time in awhile, I made it over to the Hiwassee again. The day was fairly predictable when it came to the bugs. Morning action was largely on midges along with a few fish on softhackles. In the afternoon, there were caddis early on transitioning to BWOs and Hendricksons between 3:30 and 4:00. A buddy took a couple stomach samples and the morning sample was all midges whereas the afternoon sample was mainly BWO's along with a few larger mayflies. The fishing was good for numbers but not much on size for me. One guy I was fishing with had a really good fish take a caddis dry but lost it quickly. If you're looking for a quick trip, the HI is a good bet right now but you'll mainly be catching stocker rainbows. I'm looking towards the mountains for my next trout excursion where I hope to find lots of wild fish rising lazily all day long in remote pools that rarely see a fly...stay tuned for more as this develops...

A couple of the bugs...