Poll Results

The polls are closed to v0ting and the dry flies are the winners. There is nothing like catching a big fish on a dry fly and apparently others agree. 84% of the anglers, who answered the poll question, would rather catch a 20" rainbow on a dry vs. 16% of the anglers who would rather catch a larger 22" rainbow on a nymph. ***

Dry fly fishing can be some of the most exciting fishing, in the world of angling, and when a big fish comes up to  the top to eat, the excitement cannot be beat.  This year we have gone after and caught more large fish on dries than ever before. It all started with the cicada hatch, which was epic. A quick trip to Michigan to fish the Hex Hatch at night on spinners! Then we moved into a short hopper season that produced some nice tailwater fish as well. As we do every year we spent some days in the Smokies fishing Thunderheads and other dries. Throw in some more tailwater trout on Parachute Adams (the planet's most recognized dry fly) and rounding the Summer out with Isonychia patterns and spinners.  This year has a been a good year for dries. Are we giving up on dries? No way! We are going to continue to fish dries, even when others gave up on them months ago.

The down and dirty streamer season is just around the corner as the first cold front of the year is moving in as I write this report. The hail earlier in the day and the approaching front will remind the fish to start building protein for a long Winter.  The thoughts of tailwater anglers everywhere are turning to the shad kill. There are some techniques that I tried late last winter that produced some good fish during the shad kill, and those techniques should work just as good as the shad move toward the dam in mid-winter.