Skunk Off! Clinch Treatment

Made it out today from 3:00 till 5:30, and managed to catch 4. They were very tough again today. I would watch for a consistently rising fish and have to put it right on his nose before he would take. The first fish probably required 20+ drifts before it finally took my blackfly larva. The others didn't require as much effort, but still demanded a perfect presentation.

Water temp was 42 degrees, and the wind was brutal for strike detection. Made for a tough day, but at least I got the skunk off after last trip. A steady dose of blackfly larva is just what the doctor ordered to relieve the pain and irritation of a skunking.

The Clinch is fishing really tough right now, and is showing it's bipolar characteristic. Some days people are lighting it up and others you have to force feed the trout.

Conditions:
Weather - Cloudy, Breezy, 46 degrees
Water - Some discoloration, 42 degrees, receding water level
Flies - midge and blackfly larva

Trey's First Fishing Adventure

I was supposed to meet up with a buddy on Friday to fish the Clinch, but some external circumstances prevented me from doing so. Luckily, I managed to wrap those items up earlier than expected, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to take my son fishing and enjoy the mid-afternoon beautiful weather. He is 21 months old, and loves looking at my Flyfisherman magazines, watching people catch "ish" on Saturday's with daddy, and looking at fish pics online. I took him to a little remote park on Melton Hill lake to catch him a bluegill. It didn't take long for him to catch his first fish, and he wanted to participate in the landing, unhooking, and release of the fish. After about 10 minutes he needed to take a rock throwing break, before catching his second fish and heading home. It was so much fun, and I just tried to let him do things that would keep him interested and not bored. I look forward to taking him more as he gets older, as those are some of the fondest memories I have with my dad. Unfortunately those trips are few and far between now. Hopefully one day Trey will pick up the long rod, and I will be able to report on many more father & son trips. Here are a couple pics from the trip.

Trey's First Fish

Patiently Waiting

Trey's Second Fish

"Hep Momma, Hep"

Rock Throwing Break

Casting Practice

Taking the bad with the good

Made it out to the river this afternoon around 3:45, and was very excited about the possibilities. Dave hooked up with two bows within the first 10 minutes. However, we didn't realize that it would be 2 1/2 hours before another fish would take one of our offerings. The trout were rising quite regularly taking adult blackflies, unfortunately I did not have anything that they thought looked tasty. I fished for three hours today and never even got a single strike, I can't remember the last time that happened. It has been more than two years since I have been skunked on the Clinch, so I guess I was due. I threw everything I had at them, including streamers, with absolutely no interest. I took a water temp reading before leaving and it was 42.5 degrees. Surprisingly that was 1.5 degrees colder than when I last fished the Clinch two weeks ago. The overcast skies for the past couple days apparently have slowed the water warming trend.

This only adds fuel to the fire for my return trip.

Conditions:
Weather - Cloudy, Calm, 52 deg
Water - Clear, 42.5 deg
Best Patterns - ?????
Tackle - 9' 4 wt

Is Spring around the corner?

It appears we will have some decent weather for a few days. Has winter loosed its strangle hold on us finally? Winter is my least favorite season, and this past has been the longest, coldest, and wettest I can remember. Bring on the spring weather, flowers, birds, and good fishing.

Speaking of fishing, I made it out to the Clinch today for a few hours. I expected to see all the parking lots full, but was surprised that it wasn't all that bad. The generation schedule kept me off the lease, so I was limited to fishing near the dam. I have an area below the weir dam that I fish when I am forced to stay in that area, however it requires quite a long walk. I have never seen anybody in this area, so you can imagine my surprise when I showed up there today and found three other people fishing. So, I forced myself to get in amongst everybody below the weir dam. I tied on my clinch river typical tandem with a #18 midge pupae and a #20 midge larva point fly. I quickly picked up two fish, and then the wind started blowing. The waves created by the wind were so large that they easily overtook my little poly yarn indicator. Add to the fact that it was very chilly, and I chose to try my luck in another area I am familiar with.




I got out of the river and hoofed it way above the weir dam and got into a section of river that was deserted. I then strung up my sinking tip line and an olive streamer. Not long afterward I was into some more fish. I fished the streamer for about another 45 minutes before calling it quits for the day. My final tally for the day was six. Four bows and two browns, however none of them were of any significant size. The largest bow was about 12", but I did see some larger fish working the weir pool. Also, there was not much surface activity today, and I was a little surprised by that as well since I expected the sunshine to spark lots of midge activity.

I met six fishermen walking out today that all had limits of trout with them, and most of the fish were in the 12 to 13" range. This along with the number of fisherman just reminded me today why I prefer to fish down at the lease. The peace and quiet along with the quality of fish is just so much better. I am anxious to get reacquainted for the first time since probably August.

Until next time,
Tight Lines and God Bless

Finally some fishing weather

This past weekend my wife gave me a pass to go fishing Saturday and Sunday. I can't remember the last time I went fishing two consecutive days, but it was nice.

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.

Nothing Lately

Haven't been on the water in some time, and it doesn't look like I will anytime soon thanks to all the rain. Also, I have spent the past two weeks in Wisconsin for work, and that also limited my fishing time. If I get time later I will post some pics from Wisconsin. I actually drove over one of Wisconsin's blue ribbon trout streams on my way to the plant every day. Wish I had known that before hand. Not to mention all the ice fishing going on just feet away on the Mississippi River. That would have been an adventure I would have liked to try, maybe next time.

Just noticed that the title of my fly of the month has been incorrect all along. I have now changed it to the correct fly - Garcia's Rojo Midge.

Until next time, Tight Lines and God Bless

New Online Magazine

Check out this new magazine Aaron Otto from The Itinerant Angler forum put together with help from some other members. Really cool stuff here.

Sleeping in the Dirt Mag

Check out Aaron's blog at Sleeping in the Dirt Blog

January Day on the Clinch

Today I was heading to north Knoxville to pick up my son, and took along my fishing gear just in case I had time to fish the Clinch. I fully expected the river to be a mad house since it was the first Saturday that the generators have been turned off. My thoughts were confirmed when I came upon the parking lot at the weir dam. There was not a single open space, and I have never seen it that crowded. I made my way on up the road to where the horse trailers park and made my way into the water there. There were already 4 people fishing in this area, but I managed to find an open spot slightly upstream of them.

Very Healthy 14" Bow

I spent some time watching the water and saw a good amount of surface activity and chose to try a midge pupae and larva tandem. It didn't take long for the fish to tell me that they approved of my selections. I only fished today from 3:30 til 4:30, but managed to bring 8 to hand in that time frame. That is one of the most active days I have seen in a long time, and I am anxious to return. Talked to some others at the river and results were very wide ranging. Some had a terrible day, and others were slaying them. I think the biggest mistake newcomers make on the Clinch is they fish flies that are way too large. Basically they are failing to match the hatch. I talked to one guy there before who was very frustrated, so I asked him what he was using. He replied with San Juan Worm, #12 BHPT, #10 hare's ear, #14 Copper John, etc. I then told him that I never use anything other than streamers on the Clinch larger than a #16 and usually my choices are more in the #20 - 22 midge range. Which is exactly what I was fishing today.

First Fish - 12" Brown

Until next time,
Tight Lines and God Bless