30 Jan 2016
Fair Weather Angler
Typically that title does not describe me, however, I have not been out fishing for two weeks and Saturday happened to be a fantastic day, so it is fitting. I wanted to testing out the Power T fishing rod, so I grabbed it and my fly rod and headed to “The Grates” at South Holston River, let it be noted that I rarely do well at all spin fishing for trout and the Power T rod I built is not designed for trout. It is a 7′ MH fast action beast of a rod. The line rating is 14-18 I think, so I put 8lbs test on there and went a fishing.
I tried tossing out a rooster tail and various other little trout type baits and I successfully fished for about a half an hour with it and got no bites. The trout were rising on what I thought were small BWO’s, so back to the truck after the fly rod.
I came down and put on a 20-24 BWO, when you get that small, I am not sure which one I am using, they are all hard to tie on the fly line. I had a few rises with this and barely hooked for the shortest time possible one, but they weren’t wearing it out by any means. I switched over to a #22 black fly.
This little feller gave the same results as the BWO without the split second hookup. I fished it a little while then went to a Griffith’s Gnat. This is when the above trout nailed it. Prior to this hookup, I had gotten a few misses and looked like them fish were serious about eating my fly. I was expecting the fish to be about 8″ (my typical trout), but as the fight began I noticed there was some size to this guy. Eventually I wore him down, he jumped up on the grates in a surrender position, photo taken, fish released.
I continued on with this fly, feeling pretty good. I had a few complete misses and one more hookup. This hookup lasted at least 2-3 seconds, but I could see the silver flash as he pulled and it was another pretty nice trout. I didn’t get him onto the grates but hey, it was still a fun few seconds.
The day was great, the crowd really wasn’t all that bad, and I caught me a fish. All in all I would say that this was a pretty good day on the river. Sunday is gonna be nice also, it may be a good afternoon to get out, but hey, that’s another story. Have a great week and God bless.
2016 Appears to be a Softer Year
The weekend came and I am still trying to get organized. I get off work late morning on Friday, I head home and decide to make a few phone calls. I am looking into Custom Rod Building, not for a living, but I really enjoy this process and thought that I could make 25 or so if much interest is out there. I get on the phone to call the insurance company and I keep thinking to myself why. The world just about requires insurance for everything as nothing is the fault of the person, but must be blamed. The phone calls haven’t gone well, but hey, there is always next week. I check out the rivers and just decide I need to finish this rod and not go.
Saturday rolls around and I check to see that South Holston finally has a window of wading opportunity. I ponder slightly and decide that a short window once a week does not usually produce serenity on the water, but rather a lot of folks just like me out there trying to catch one. I decided to hang out at the house, work on rod and begin another.
The same thing happened on Sunday afternoon when I saw the wind was blowing and it was not warm. I can’t decide if I am getting softer or if the awesome December temperatures ruined me. I loved the warm December and very thankful, but it has ruined my low 30’s fishing in January.
Anyway, what I did was my first UT (Tennessee Vols) themed fishing rod. The orange and white checkerboard took some time. I used trial an error to get the right combination and let me say, it looks pretty good. I typically don’t talk like that, but that split grip turned out better than I expected. I also put a Power T on the blank, this one turned out to show an imperfection or two, but I left it this way, seemed to give it a bit of a personality. So now I have a couple of displays of the same rod with a different set-up and will be a good comparison.
I put a reel seat on a fly rod blank and it should be ready to begin tying up. This will also take me a bit of time as it is for the daughter and she was wanting a thread weave on there. It will take me about as long to get the work done on paper as it will to do it on the rod. Anyway, I have been wanting to try out one of these blanks in a fly rod anyhow, so her wanting one just hurried up my process of getting a fishing pole.
Now I know what you are thinking, if I begin building these for others, this will allow me to obtain a multitude of fishing rods. I would say you are wrong, but I’m not sure. I still use the same fly rod that I built 20 years ago (also has the same fly line on it). My bass rod is a GL3 that I build about 20 years ago, still in use, however, this IM6 that I made for my son I think I like it a bit better, dare I say that I feel at least as much if not more when I use it. I tend to hold onto things, but as I have gathered information over the years, I think I may give a new rod a shot. Anyway, hope you like the pics and let me know whatcha think about the rod. Have a great week and God bless tfr@tnfishingreport.com
08 Jan 2016
Quick Trip
First I have a little recommendation, if you find yourself having trouble getting time to go fishing, perhaps you should start a blog. This way, you can always convince yourself that you are doing this for the blog, even if it is rainy, generating, and just not good conditions, you still can talk yourself into going for at least an hour or so.
Well Friday came and I have some things I really need to get done. I’m working on a rod and I tend to get a little overbearing in things not being perfect on the rod. I need to get that done as I may be venturing into rod building soon. Not planning on making a ton of them for the year, but building a rod is a lot of fun and you can do a few things to really make a difference in the sensitivity. But hey, this is about fishing, so let’s move on shall we.
South Holston was generating, Watauga was sluicing, I wasn’t feeling like going to the creeks or the lake, but I did know a place I could catch a couple. I headed to the Watauga where you can do just a bit of casting in a certain area (this is called my sluicing honey hole) and catch a couple.
I had seen a post on facebook last weekend of some eggs a guide had seen floating by him and I decided to match the hatch. I put on an orange colored egg and fished for about 45 minutes. I missed 3-4 and one was a big hit, but ended up landing 2 and fighting one for a minute or so before he got off. The current was pretty good, which is great when catching the size fish I catch, the fight is a bit more when the current is heavy.
I can tell you that all three of the fish looked the same, as you can tell two of them above. These aren’t the same trout but they sure look like it. The colors were really bright and good and for a 45 minute to an hour of fishing, 2.5 fish and quite a few misses was a good day. I saw some bugs coming off, but with my chores awaiting I decided to be happy with results and head home.
Hope your lines are tight all weekend, as for me, well I committed to chores on Saturday, yet I sit here writing this. I find my interest in fishing to be a little greater than chores, but hey, gotta take care of responsibilities. If you do decide to create and excuse but don’t want to write a blog, well, send us some articles, would be happy to post just as long as it is G rated. Have a great weekend and God bless.
02 January 2015
Bringing in the New Year
I got a late start on the New Year and didn’t get to go Jan. 1, here’s the excuse. The Vols were dominating a football game and I had to sale the truck that has been sitting here and gobbling up insurance money for no reason, we didn’t drive it much. It’s not a bad excuse, but this is the first football game of 2016 that matters.
So I figured to head to the South Holston on Saturday. Friday I thought I saw they were cutting off the generators at noon, well you can bet that it would be crowded, so I went with wife to a movie. Got back and got ready, check the generating schedule and they were shut off at 2:00, hmmm, I’m gonna have a crowd to contend with today.
I headed up to a “honey hole” and a feller was just leaving. This sounds like a bad sign as it had just got fished pretty good, but hey, nobody else was around. I cast about 45 minutes and did not get a hit. This was in a shady area (by shady I mean no direct sunlight not suspicious) and I was getting cold. The temperature was in the 40’s but it has been in the 70’s I need a little time to adjust.
I figured I needed to catch at least a fish, would hate to get skunked on the first day of fishing this year. Shoot if I’m gonna get skunked I might as well not eat cabbage on Jan 1 (truth is I don’t care much for cabbage and don’t partake). So I headed down to the grates, usually a feller can pull one out of there if nothing else.
I saw a few rising and put on a size 24 blue winged body dry. Let me say that tying a size 24 when your hands are cold is not easy. First cast I get the one in the picture above. It fell off right there in the spot of the pic, so I snapped it and let him go. I was feeling pretty good and continued fishing. Just a few minutes later I realized I should not have worn a sweater. When I went to gather my fly, it landed on my sleeve, I had to use the forceps to remove the little thing.
This little procedure apparently injured my fly I found out after fishing it for the next 20 minutes. I took a gander at it and thread was scattered about, no wonder the fish weren’t biting. I decided I had been there long enough, hadn’t got skunked, the sun is starting to get lower and I was tired. It was time to head to the house and lose in a PS4 game of golf to my daughter.
The year has started off pretty decent, got to do a little fishing and did not get skunked. The cold is coming and the crowds should dwindle, maybe next week we can get out there and get the ball rolling. Y’all have a great week, I am headed back to work tomorrow, if I was a betting man, I would guess that it will feel every bit like a Monday. God bless and a very Happy New Year to everyone.
