26 Nov 2013
First comment is sorry the pics did not turn out real well, but if you live in East Tennessee and remember the weather yesterday, you may give me a mulligan. I used vacation this past week and planned on catching a few fish. The wife and I headed the Gatlinburg for an overnighter. We had a great time and saw a lot of deer at Cades Cove.
Monday I check the generating schedule and see if I was going to have a partner. Partner says, have you seen the weather, I said no because honestly, it didn’t matter, I was going fishing. South Holston was generating but Watauga was not. Tuesday came and son it was a mess. Air temperature is cold, rain somewhere around 2″ expected and the only time I had been to Watauga was after a rain and it was muddy, I didn’t even get a bite.
I begin tying a few flies up and check South Holston again. Low and behold they turn them off at 11:00 am, good times have come my way. As I pull into the parking lot, there is no one there and the water is just coming down. Now I would have thought my chances of seeing Bigfoot would have been greater than a day of fishing at South Holston without seeing another angler. I thank the Lord and head into the water.
One of my first few cast I hook up, it was brief and caught me off guard, but I continue casting. After a while of getting soaked and hands getting cold I finally get a tight line. The trout almost appeared as if it went after my strike indicator, but I caught it in the mouth with my olive colored bead head hare’s ear type fly. Sorry, I know that is not the official name, but I don’t know the official name. Anyway, this was the bigger fish above, it was a really nice rainbow. I never had to get him out of the water, just used forceps.
I continue fishing missing quite a few but not a bunch. The day ending catching 3 more with each of them coming on a red egg. I finally got way too wet and cold and decided to pack it up. I determined at this point that the weather conditions were absolutely perfect for fishing South Holston River. There was a great view, fish biting, and solitude, just time on the river. The weather is my excuse for the photos, maybe next time they will be a bit better. Have a great Thanksgiving and may God bless.
10 Nov. 2013
Sorry for the delay in posting, time is flying by right now. I went fishing Friday the 8th of Nov, however, there was very little to tell. I hooked three, but only got to feel them fight for a split second before they got off. However, after church Sunday, I went back to South Holston River to see if I could do a little better.
As I went downstream a bit, and by a bit I mean just a couple hundred yards, I decided to give it a try. A couple weeks back this area had put a few in the net which gave me some hope. I was using a rust colored hares ear (bead head). You may be asking why in the world are you using this, well the color was similar to a pheasant tail and what the heck. Anyway, trailing this nymph was a peach egg, but enough line to change colors if needed.
After fishing this spot for about an hour, I had landed 8 trout. the pics are not very good up above but thought folks might be tired of looking at my net. I really need to do a better photo job. One of the trout was a nice one, I figured it to be in the slot limit and was significantly bigger than my typical catches that day. Or any day for that matter.
The peach egg is the only thing that I landed a fish with, after doing pretty well I began to move, you know looking for the huge trout. Well after moving around I didn’t do well at all, just cast practicing. I did discover that I could throw my strike indicator off in my back swing and in my forward swing. I thought this to be a talent until I saw the indicator hit the current and take-off, hmmm looks like a trip to the fly shop.
Lord willing I am going back out on Friday, taking same bait until I stop catching fish. I will try to get this updated a little quicker this time, but hey no promises, when I get time I usually run up to the river. Have a great weekend and God bless.
03 November 2013 (just a few of the pics were posted)
I would like to first offer my apologies for not posting more in the journal, this entry is a week late. My “real job” has required overtime and my time has been somewhat consumed. I have however been able to sneak off to South Holston River a couple of times so let me share.
The pictures above are not repeats or in any specific order. I have tried to at least get the pics online even if I didn’t have my mind available for the eloquence that so many have come to expect. But I have basically been using two flies to trick the ever elusive trout into a bite. The first is the peach egg, I have done really well on these in the past couple of weeks. As one day the generators were flowing, not full but too much to wade for this guy, I tossed in my fly and watched as I got hits on at least 8 cast in a row and multiple hits on a couple of cast. Interestingly enough I did not feel all of those bites. This has been stated to me in the past that a strike indicator was a must, but today I saw it firsthand. In speaking with a gentleman at work the following week he talked like a strike indicator is a must to catch any fish. Of course I have always been too tight to buy one and thought, dang, I must be good to catch two fish a trip.
Well I head up to the river again and tell my partner we gotta stop and get a strike indicator. He informed me that he had a spare and I could use it. What a day that was, started with a peach egg and the fish were glad I did. I must have caught 8-10 trout, all rainbows I think, and the majority on this peach egg. The red ones didn’t work, nor the yellow ones, but the peach was the ticket.
A few of the fish were also caught with my sinker. Now before you write me off, let me explain. The way that I tie my eggs, they just have a hard time getting down at all, so I use them trailing a bead headed hares ear, not sure if an apostrophe belongs there or not. This way they will get down a little bit and hopefully be a little more productive. Well above the bridge and metal that folks stand on in the river, the hares ear was a hit. I caught a couple on an egg up there, but the majority of fish there were on this hares ear.
Sorry to make this so short but gotta go. Anyway the lesson that I learned was that I had probably gotten a lot of hits in the past that I was not even aware of getting, thank you strike indicator. However allow me to give a warning to anyone that may begin using them. The strike indicator is making me ever more aware of my slowing reflexes. I caught at least 8 fish, but missed more than you can shake a stick at. The indicator goes down, I say to myself, hey, you’re getting a bite, then I lift. By the time all of this is processed, the fish is gone. When I feel the bites I think it is a surprise reflex (startled) that just pulls the line and rod on its own. Therefore the strike indicator is also telling me how poor of a fisherman I am. With this new luxury tool that I now have in my possession, I hope to hone my skills to the point that I frequently produce double digit catches. Hope everyone has a great week and God bless.
