Tennessee Fishing Report

Gotta Love the Brown Trout in May

The Caney Fork River- Center Hill Lake is in eternal draw down, that is the feeling I am getting anyway. But, if this year is anything like last year, when the lake hits the right level the Army Corps will turn the water all the way off.  That's just an observation and I don't know anyone who is sure what they will do. But we keep hoping the water turns off sooner than later.

Where the Boat Leaves From

With the Center Hill in eternal draw down streamers on sinking line is the best way to chase the fish in the Caney Fork. The water flow can be tough on both anglers and the person on the oars, the payoff can be big, real big. But be aware the goose egg is a reality as well.

A Usual Suspect

The Elk River- This river went from eternal generation to 100 CFS in a matter of one day. The fish took a couple days to get their wits about them and are now eating. We fished some hoppers the other day and had action along one short stretch. The rest of the river was entirely nymph fishing which is the usual for the Elk. 

The "Bearded Guy" with More Brown Trout Goodness

The Smoky Mountains National Park- The Park is fishing good right now. The fish are looking up and thus eating dries. Yellow, yellow, and more yellow is the color of choice. If it is early in the day and they aren't responding to the dry just drop a nymph off the dry and pick up fish down low. There aren't many types of angling that beat dries in the Park. 

We have started booking trips again and June is filling up already. Anglers can reach us by phone, email or text to get a good date on the Middle Tennessee rivers, as well as East Tennessee. 

Tennessee Smallmouth Report

The Elk River has been spilling for the past thousand days several weeks. Today the future generation returns to normal on the Elk and we will be out there in a couple days. Center Hill Dam is still releasing 7900 CFS into the Caney Fork with no downturn in the future schedule that I can see. Eventually we will be back on the Caney though and hopefully fishing our dries to those rising rainbows and browns, while the brookies keep us entertained in between. 

Mark Puts the Stop on One of Many Fish That Were Caught

So, how do we keep ourselves entertained? Pack the drifter for a quick trip to one of our favorite warmwater streams chase smallies. This particular morning started a little on the slow side as the guys tried some favorite streamers. Then we pulled out the big flies and the fish went to work. The first fish to wake up was a long and toothy critter that came quickly then slowly fell off the fly at the boat.

Donnie's First...on a Streamer

Shortly after that we produced several follows, drive-bys, and then started picking up fish. The fish came to the fly with regularity. The fly of the day is multicolored but if I had to narrow the colors down I would say it is chartreuse and orange, for the most part.

There Were Lots of Turtles, as UsualHow

Donnie has been on several trips and when there was mention of smallmouth he was ready for a new challenge. Donnie worked on his streamer cast which continued to get better and better. Then we worked on the retrieves as he got dialed in. For his first fish Donnie threw the fly to the bank and began the retrieve across a shoal. The fish came up from a slot, shot across the shoal, and then accelerated a little more for a perfect take. Donnie witnessed the chase and the take, soon we were taking photos of the fish....and Donnie.

Warmwater fly fishing is a lot of fun. for anglers. It is a lot of fun and we have warmwater connections in East Tennessee and can run trips in Middle Tennessee as well. For the anglers who booked and then had to re-book trips, thank you for hanging in there with us as the wettest Spring in recent memory continues to grind.

Early Morning

If you've hung around through this report this long it is worth mentioning that several of the fish we caught on this trip came up from cover to follow the fly. We would wait for a split second, but keep the fly in motion, to let the fish catch up. When the fish gained some distance on the fly we would try to accelerate the fly (sometimes we could execute and sometimes not) and the fish would then need to make a decision. The decision was to let the prey go or accelerate for the eat. Several times, when we could remember, this technique worked well.