Clinch Settles Into Typical Summer Patterns

Fog Burning Off Around 10:00

Made it out to the Clinch over the weekend, and the typical summer techniques and patterns were working well. My typical summer technique is dredging the bottom in slow deep water where midges are most often found. Sometimes I will even change it up and use a scud if there is vegetation present. The key is to be bouncing bottom, and that often requires fishing with an indicator as much as 7' above the fly and 6X fluorocarbon tippet. Also, as the day progresses, the fish tend to change from taking midge larva, to pupae, and then finally to emergers and dries. So, the fisherman needs to adapt to the changing conditions. Below are some pics from Saturday.

My First Fish of the Day - 16" Bow on an Olive Buzzer

First Victim to the Blood Worm

Blood Worm Strikes Again

Same Fish, Slightly Different Perspective

My Best Fish of the Day - 18" Bow

A Successful Release

Ended the day with about a dozen fish in 4 hours. Not what I would call a good day, but it definitely was nice to get back on the Clinch after a 3 month absence. Expect to see more reports from the Clinch now that the typical summer crowds should start thinning out. Plus in another couple months the browns will start staging for the spawn, and you never know when you will tie into a big one.

Until next time,
Tight Lines and God Bless

Recent Warmwater Outings

Not going to post a full report, but I have been primarily fishing for smallies, redeye, and carp the past few weeks. Below are some pics. Hopefully, I will be able to make it out to the Clinch again soon for a reunion. I also picked up a new 8-wt and reel after assisting with a flyfishing class at the Orvis in Sevierville today, and I plan on posting an evaluation after using it today for some Little River smallmouth.

Greenbrier Trip 6/12

Made it out this morning to an area that I really enjoy. I had intentions of fishing Elkmont this morning, but then figured that it would probably be quite crowded. So, I switched plans and went to a stream that I don't recall ever seeing another person fishing at. I commonly ask myself why I don't venture over to the various streams around Greenbrier more often, and I remembered today why. My thoughts on Gatlinburg remain the same today as in previous years, and I consider it a necessary evil to have to endure the traffic en-route to some very good fishing.

Fished from 8 till 11:30 today, never more than about 300 yards from my car, and the fishing was productive throughout. Caught fish on a variety of flies with most success on Para Adams, Yellow Stimis, and BHPT. It took me a while to get my reaction time back to normal after mostly fishing the Clinch for the past couple months, but once I got that figured out things really picked up. Next time I will have to walk farther up the trail before getting in the water, but that is easier said than done.

Still Waiting on the Sulfur Duns

Scott and I hit the water this morning from 7:45 till 11:00. Saw maybe three sulfur duns and six rises during that time. However, the fish were taking BHPT actively once again. Well, that is until the sun burned off the fog and made it's way overhead. Once that happened I had to dredge the bottom and fish deep structure to pick up any fish. Not too big a deal since that is how I typically fish my midges during the summer and fall anyway. The water was really high, even with the pulse. We fished thru it, but I don't recall a typical pulse bringing that much flow.

TVA website shows a pulse today at 7AM of 3385 CFS as compared to the typical pulse of 1200 to 1500 CFS that I usually fish thru. Do they have one small variable flow turbine and one large constant flow turbine? Just trying to figure out how they are able to have flows in the 1500 CFS, 3400 CFS, and then 6700 CFS. Or is the 1500 CFS number just a short 30 minute pulse kind of like what I have been told the SoHo does at times?

No big fish were caught this morning, as most were in the 9 to 11 inch range with the biggest fish being around 13". However, I did land my first brookie in a long long time there, and it was a decent little one. Surprised to see four other people on the water with us this morning. However, it is a holiday weekend, and that combined with the storms predicted for this afternoon contributed to our decision to head out early in the morning.

Good Morning to be out

I usually get off work on Fridays at noon, however today I flipped my schedule. I went to the river first thing and then went into the office. Note to self: just take a vacation day since you didn't feel like doing anything after an excellent morning of fishing.

I just have to tell this little story before getting to the fishing report:

Scott and I arrived at the river around 8:00, and proceeded to gear up. We walked down to the river and strung up our rods and tied our flies on. About 8:15 we heard a car pull up and didn't think much of it. I finished tying up quicker than Scott, so I started making my way downstream. About this time I look up and there is a guy walking quickly along the bank above me. He then slides down the steep bank (not at the access point I must say), quickly says I will go down here out of your way, and starts walking downstream in front of me. Keep in mind that I was already walking downstream. This guy had to have set a land speed record trying to beat me to a particular quality piece of water. Now, just for the record, I have to add that the particular location he was in a race to is a nice little section of water. It is not uncommon to have 25 or 30 fish days in this little 50 yard stretch of water. However, the vast majority of the fish there are small, in the range of 8 to 11". Scott was with me, and I wanted him to get into some action quickly before taking him down to some more technical water that tends to hold larger fish. Needless to say this guy streaked straight for this particular section without even having his rod together, and it was obvious that he had his mind set on fishing this particular location. We let him have it, and he didn't move from it for over 3 hours. I just wish the guy would have shown some common courtesy and etiquette by asking where we were going since we were there first. I wasn't even going to fish that section, I was going to send Scott there. I have met many different people on this little section of the Clinch, and this is the first time that I have encountered this type of behavior, and I hope it isn't a developing trend.

Now to the fishing:

The river bottom was covered with a thick layer of silt due to the lack of generation lately. The floating scum that was present during the last outing was not such an issue this time. I don't recall seeing a single sulfur hatch, but that didn't seem to bother the trout. They were aggressively taking BHPTs in every run we fished. We ended up catching plenty of fish, and of those a high number were in the slot. I counted 8 fish over 14", and 2 at 17". Before leaving I took a temperature reading, and it was a surprisingly high 63 degrees. I looked back on my fishing log for the past two years and don't see the Clinch hitting that temp until August during that time frame. Not only that, but the water was up over 10 degrees since my last outing just over a week ago. That is an alarmingly fast warm rate, and I feel that TVA needs to do something to slow this trend. The lake is nearly to full pool, so maybe they will start generating soon. I took a few pics, so I hope you enjoy.

My First Fish of the Day - 17" Bow

Scott with a nice 13" bow

Until next time, tight lines and God bless.

And So It Begins....

Made it out to the Clinch today for a few hours. When I arrived at 1:00 there was no surface activity, but that didn't keep the fish from actively taking a #16 BHPT in the pocket water and runs. However, most of the fish in this water was of the small variety, averaging around 10". They sure were colorful though.



Finally, around 2:00 some larger heads started poking through the surface sucking down sulfur emergers. I took this opportunity to try out a new pattern I have been working on, a cripple/hackle stacker combination. I was quite pleased with the results and eventually the fish started focusing on duns, so I switched over to a #17 sulfur thorax for those fish. Very few fish were taking dries, so I had to did quite a bit of stalking. I would take a break and have a drink and snack while watching for the most consistently rising fish. I would then coat my fly with frog's fanny and slowly move into casting range. It wasn't uncommon to make probably 10 drifts over the same fish before it would take. However, it sure made for some very rewarding fishing.



Just as quickly as they started rising to sulfurs, they quit. About 4:00 things really slowed down. Not long after that a couple other guys showed up and slowly started moving downstream toward me, so I leapfrogged them upstream into some historically less productive water. I piddled around there with no success, and so I elected to call it a day.

Until next time, tight lines and God bless.

Farm Fun With The Boys

The weather forecast for Saturday was fantastic. High's in the low 70's, low humidity, and clearing skies. Amy and I loaded Trey up to take out to my parents house to play with cousin Bryce.

When we got there I found out dad had already killed a turkey, so had to take a couple quick pics of it:


Afterward, the boys wanted to walk down to the barn and play in the stream. Along the way, they just had to stop and enjoy some dandelions:

Bryce Showing Excellent Form

Shortly after picking every dandelion around, we were confronted with our first slithering friend for the year.

This black snake was out sunning in the middle of our path, and so I took this time to educate the boys a little about snakes. I quizzed Bryce throughout the day about what he had learned and what to do if he saw a snake again while out playing. After our snake encounter, it was just a short walk further until the found the stream. What else would one expect to happen when you mix boys with water than a little rock throwing.

I figured I would take this opportunity to introduce the boys to a common resident of the stream.

Got a dirt hill, need somebody to climb or dig on it? They spent the rest of the evening playing in the dirt and throwing balls. As we were leaving I couldn't help but snap this pic as the sun was setting.

It was most definitely a boys day, and I enjoyed every minute.

BHPT Feeding Frenzy

My mom kept Trey Friday night, so that gave me Saturday morning free. I checked the generation schedule, and TVA was turning on one generator at 7AM, so that would give me till 10:30 to fish. I also figured since the window was so small combined with the cold temperatures there would be limited numbers of people out to start the morning. I was correct, only saw two other fisherman in the two hours and fifteen minutes I fished.

I started fishing in a run that my buddies were catching fish out of on Wednesday evening using a #16 BHPT and a #20 midge larva. After the first couple of fish attacked my BHPT, I cut off the midge and continued to catch a total of 8 fish out of the first run. After about 45 minutes, I couldn't get any more takes so I moved downstream to a couple places I know that typically harbor some pigs. I managed to catch a few more on my way, also on the BHPT before reaching my destination.

Average Rainbow

Before making any casts I checked my fly and found that the last fish had completely destroyed it. So, I figured this would be a good time to try out a slightly modified split case pattern that my buddy Brett Romer had some influence in.

I spotted a fish cruising around actively on the other side of some large rocks, and slowly fished my way out to him. Eventually I made my way to within casting range, and he inhaled my nymph offering on the first drift. He vaulted out of the water, and I could tell he was a very nice rainbow. After a brief fight I landed him, snapped some pics, and released him to catch another day. The fishing was phenomenal nearly the entire time I was on the water, with a total of 14 brought to hand, two break offs, multiple misses and long distance releases.

16" Bow

16" Bow

One unusual thing I witnessed on Saturday morning was three different rainbows clearing redds at the tail of one pool. I have watched browns clearing redds on the Clinch before, but never saw rainbows doing it. I have noticed that some of the smaller 6 - 8" bows in this area are brightly colored, refer to some previous posts. I wonder if we are seeing some reproduction taking place for once. Next time out, I will look again to see if the redds are still occupied. If TVA does maintain the current generation schedule, these fish are not sterile, and people leave them alone I would venture to say that this year could have some river born rainbows added to the mix.

Conditions:
Weather - Sunny, Calm, 37 to 60 degrees
Water - 51 degrees, clear
Flies - #16 BHPT & #16 Split Case