19 Dec 2013
My hours for the week were completed this morning, work has been  extremely busy for a couple of months, but it is vacation time now and hoping to wet a line. The day was fantastic, beautiful weather, and the generators stopped at 2:00, South Holston River here I come.
We arrived as the water was beginning to fall and realized that my fishing buddy and I were not the only ones with this idea. I passed the bridge parking lot and heading to the weir, I think I had fished this once or twice a long time ago, but thought the crowd may be smaller upstream.
The first place was across to the other side of the island, the trout were breaking and jumping all around. The spin fisherman, I think he was throwing a rooster tail or something along those lines, was doing quite well, while I was simply practicing my casting. The fly box got a significant amount of touches as many patterns were thrown, still no hits. I did get to cut another anglers knotted up fishing line that came floating downstream and wrapped around my line. As much joy as this brought me, I would encourage you not to throw 30′ of line wadded up in the river, put it in your pocket and help a brother out.
Anyway, I ventured around the area finding sandy/muddy river bottoms that would allow my wading boots to completely be covered. The fishing was slow, well not for everyone, just my buddy and I. Then I headed to the grates near the bridge. I walk up with a #20 black fly and toss it into the water and immediately the #1 fish above. It was a nice one and I got pretty excited.
The beast was released to fight again and apparently he told the rest to avoid the black fly. Well I figured this was his plan and switched to the old faithful peach egg, boom, here came the rainbow. Another release and the fishing continues. I reckon I missed about 6 over the next half hour. The strike indicator (I usually just call it my bobber) had to be removed to allow the bead head to sink and pull down the egg. This hinders my catching of the fish and increases my misses.
The final colorful brown that is in the above photo was my final fish and it was a doozy. The pic really does not do it justice as far as size, but a fine gentleman with his son netted the rascal for me and I was able to take the pic. It was a great day and good Lord willing I will be able to get some more pics in the next few days. Hope everyone has a great week.
06 Dec 2013
I should have began this earlier, but I have gotten busy here at the house, I may explain at the end. Friday came and I got off work that morning. After hearing what the doctor said about the daughter (just bruised ankle), painful but praise the Lord no surgery. I called my fishin’ buddy and headed to Stoney Creek.
Went back to the place I had found to pull off on 91 and started there. I decided to head downstream while my buddy went upstream. While he was getting his waders ready, I began fishing. I typically get dressed in waders and all at the house because the excitement is so overwhelming when I get to my spot of the day that I tend to forget too much.
I tossed in a tellico with a red egg trailing. The red egg was hit as soon as it landed in the water. The shock prevented me from landing the little thing. I fished near the truck and got a couple more hits and finally caught the one you see above, then shortly after, headed downstream.
I understand the rules that I should be fishing upstream, but I did hit land and walk past the spot to fish. The walking was a bit tough in the beginning and fishing tight. I found a little spot and did a little “bow” fishing. Grabbed my fly, pulled back a bend in the rod and let it fly, it actually worked and I got a hit in that spot. I continued to a nice run.
This was an area that looked extremely promising, but getting to it and being able to fish it, well that was an adventure. The bank was slick, steep, and I thought I was going swimming a few times. This was a lot of work and I was unable to fish it very hard, so we headed to a new spot.
The remainder of the day consisted more of exploring and very little fishing, but it looks like a fantastic creek. The rain the night before left the creek a little dingy and things were a little tough, but we found a few spots, one near a bridge that looks like a must fish in the future.
However, fishing time may suffer in the near future. My storage room is getting cleaned out and hopefully sometime in 2014 I can begin working on rod building. I had done this in the past and enjoyed it tremendously and think that I may start attempting this again. If so, I plan on video some of the work. Also, we are attempting to expand the borders of our fishing reports. We are seeking guides, bait shops, & marinas to reach out to our bordering states. If you know anyone interested in exchanging a page on our website for a fishing report, have them drop an email to us at: tfr@tnfishingreport.com
