On Saturday since none of the tailwaters had generation schedules that were suitable to wading I decided to try Little River in Townsend. When I got to the river there were no cars or people around, so I slowly geared up and headed down to the water. I got in and surveyed the area for activity, but saw nothing. So, I found a couple of decent runs and went with a double nymph rig with lots of weight to dredge the bottom. 45 minutes later still nothing, and I start moving upriver. It is about this time that I notice 4 guys coming downriver toward me, so I stay where I am at trying to delay the meeting as long as possible. Suddenly I see some movement downstream in the run I just walked out of and see two guys getting in the water with spinning rods. I thought they would see me and work downstream into the deep water where nobody was fishing. Now why would they do that when I was standing right there for them to come bookend and start casting around. I was having to watch out and not hit them on every cast as they continued to inch closer with ever step. After about 10 minutes of this mess, I just got out and called it a day. I went to LRO to check out what was going on and the parking lot was full. I have never seen that place so crowded, so I guess the nice weather brought everybody out of their winter hiding places. After leaving the shop I grabbed a couple slaw dogs and an A&W soda and made my way into the mountains for some photo ops of the new car.
On Sunday I met Scott and his brother Jason after church and went over to the Holston River. This river was not nearly as crowded, but it was still more crowded than I have ever seen it in the area that we fish. As the sunlight moved overhead the surface activity slowly began to pick up, and we were picking up the occasional fish on midges and streamers. However, we had to put them on their nose in order for them to bite. All of the fish were around 9" and appeared to be recent stockers, except for the last fish of the day that Jason landed. It was only around 14", but shaped like a football.
So, the good news is that there definitely appear to be some holdover fish from last year. That should make this spring's caddis hatch interesting when it heats up. I need to get back over to the Holston sometime in the coming weeks, but I am really anxious to get back on the Clinch again. I expect good things from that tailwater this year after two full years of the slot limit being in place and generation all winter long keeping people off the water. Should make for a fun sulfur hatch in May....
Until next time, tight lines and God bless.
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