An Unbelievably Large Rising Brown

This one is not around here but some fish like this exist here, most notably the South Fork of the Holston in TN. Its not uncommon to see fish like this, over 20 inches, rising to a heavy hatch. We caught one such fish last year, way over 20 inches, on a size 16 dry fly, 7x tippet; it was caught and landed on the South Holston by Lynn Roloff during the legendary sulphur hatch. She did a masterful job of landing the fish.

Down and Across Presentations

We do a good many trips on the tailwater rivers of East Tennessee, most notably the South Holston and Watauga Rivers, and frequently encounter situations where downstream presentations are required. The South Holston is this way. The down and across presentation using a parachute reach cast and with the fly landing slightly to the near side of the rise/fish is hard to beat. I find that whether I am fishing or guiding someone it is the deadliest presentation you can make on a larger, streamwise, mature fish that is rising. The reason is the cast produces plenty of slack which makes for a long drag free drift and it shows the fish fly first instead of tippet, leader, and line. Here Robert Ruzicka scores on a downstream presentation, as he did about 80 -90 times in two days of guide trips with me on TN's South Holston- - - -which could be called the 'Henry's Fork of the East'.

Wow Thats a Big Bug.......

These guys come off every year on streams that have them, it is the e.guttulata mayfly, better known as the "Green Drake", and because of its immense size relative to other flies we see it is a real meal for large trout. This particular bug was filmed on an Ashe County stream on May 27,2009 and what is funny is to see smaller fish try to take one down with two or three attempts. For a native trout this is a nice meal, the equivalent of a nice New York Strip for us. This mayfly is a burrower type, that is they are found in streams that have some mud banks or at least some bottom mud/sediments- - - and that is where they are found. The nymph is best imitated by a large Gold Ribbed Hares Ear or a Tan/Gold wooly bugger with the tail trimmed short. They can be from size 8 to 12 but this guy was a size 10. Only a few streams in our area have these flies, and where there's a fishable hatch of them its a known thing.

In our area several Ashe County streams have them, the Davidson River has them, and one of the best hatches occurs on Beaverdam Creek in Shady Valley, TN. In most places the hatch occurs between one week before Memorial Day to Memorial Day to one week after Memorial Day, or over about a two week period is when they can occur. The hatch is short lived. The spinners, a large whitish size 10 fly you'll see at dusk, is normally referred to as a 'coffin fly', and looks like a small piece of chalk hovering in the air. They are huge as well, and as you might have guessed, fish love to eat them. This is one mayfly you can hear fly by as well as see it fly by. For more information on Green Drakes visit Jason Neuswanger's excellent site here http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/771 .

Fishing an Idaho Early Spring Skwala Hatch

This one is unreal. I remember years ago seeing heads poke out of the water like this eating flies, it was on the Picabo /Nature Conservancy section of world famous Silver Creek, the "graduate school of trout water" that lies about one hour south of Ketchum, Idaho. A past trip with friends Daryl Knight and Brad Frazier was an amazing trip in terms of seeing huge fish and some incredible dry fly fishing. Enjoy!

Playing and Landing a Beast of a Rainbow

client Dr. Jim Kaley playing a huge rainbow in the NC High Country on a guided trip with me. He and his wife Martha landed 3 citation sized fish, 2 rainbows and 1 brown, along with over 40 other fish from 11-18 inches, all on a full day guided trip with me. It was a blast, well done Martha and Jim, the fish fear you!



Cause for celebration indeed, a nice fish comes to net.....after wearing Jim's arm out of course...! But a willing price to pay for a nice fish....we'd do it again? Absolutely!

Some Red Hot Rainbows......

Friend and regular Client Dr. Patrick Burney gets into a hot rainbow at Escatawba Farms in Covington, VA. These fish are Shasta rainbows, they are the hardest fighting rainbows you'll catch east of the Mississippi.

Wow Thats a Good One......

We have all done this before.....you see a big fish, you get excited, you make a cast and there in the middle of your soon to be perfect presentation a nice puff of wind from the wrong direction blows the line and rig into the rod and man what a mess you have. Its one of the joys of fly fishing......well, maybe not. Its probably one of the most stressful things about fly fishing, and on the wrong day it can put you in a bad frame of mind.........know what I mean?

I often get asked how in the world I manage to keep my cool untangling lines and rigs and fixing stuff when either less than perfect conditions or repeated bad casts cause frequent snafus like the one above. The truth is, it is sometimes nerve wracking no matter who you are, guide or no, but I will say the only thing that has helped me untangle some real bad messes has been the fact that I have made a mess of my own so many times and then had to fix it that I have gotten good at it- - -and because of my many mistakes. Mistakes are good after all!

Its great to know that with even a real mess you can learn something. Almost like there's a life lesson in every tangle. A tangle gives you time to stop, reassess the situation, make necessary repairs and adjustments, and rest the fish. . . all things that are worth doing. And sometimes you still get a chance to catch the fish.

Now lets see if I can go out on the water next time and put all of these wise words into action.......