14 Sept 2013
The boat is in the shop, it is thrashing real good when running. Good news, it is not a broken rod nor is it the lower unit. Not good news, thinking it may be the crank shaft, this is not a cheap fix, so I told him to put it on the back burner. Once he gets this thing running good, I will probably put it up for sale, but it will be running great before that, my conscious will not allow otherwise. By the way, I heard from a young man that the stripers were still hitting in Bluff City. I haven’t been there but let me know how they are doing. Also, David Tipton has been sending in some great Boone lake fishing pics of bass. Buzz baits have appeared to be working for him, he has done quite well. Good luck and send us some pics: tfr@tnfishingreport.com
So why write if the boat is down? Cause I do still have waders and a fly rod. I considered a spinning rod because they have been doing pretty good on night crawlers on the South Holston as far as I have seen, but I have this bead headed hairs ear type fly that I tied up. I say type because I am not 100% sure what it is but here is a description. Black and yellow tail, green body with gold ribbing, and soft hackle. I had been doing pretty good with it and tied up a couple that was as close as my limited skill set will allow and took off.
I head to the Dam but it is way too crowded so I head downstream. I pull off at an available pull over, most of them were full and wade out. I holler at an angler about 50 yards away to see if I am going to be bothering him. I tend to get peculiar looks when I ask if it will be alright, but hey I figure common courtesy should be given where ever you are.
I get in a spot that I know they will wear this fly out, they did just a couple weeks ago. I make some cast and I get nothing. The search begins for the fly of choice. I see a sulfur flying, no real hatch or anything hitting the top but I give it a try. I do this with multiple flies and get nothing. So I tie back on my hair’s ear type fly with a bead head blue winged olive pattern (not sure of exact name). Second cast I get bit and the fly is gone, I think there was a weak spot in the line.
I begin thinking spin fishing, so I have a brown worm, think San Juan with brown instead of red. Make a cast and bang I catch the smallest of the two above. Now I am using this one with the bead head hair’s ear in order to get it deeper. I make another cast and it gets caught on a rock and line had to be broken. So two hits, two flies, one fish caught both flies gone.
I don’t have another brown worm so I put on another bead head pattern and trail a San Juan worm. A couple of cast into this and I get the bigger of the two above, it was a blast. After releasing the trout I look and my worm is destroyed, literally hanging by a thread. I try a few more things and get small hits on a red egg and a wooly bugger, but nothing significant.
I ended the day with an opportunity to tie more flies. As typically I am still on the lake this time of year, I have my work cut out for me. Hope everyone had a great weekend of fishing and if you catch any, send us a pic and let us know what they are hitting.
