May Mayfly Madness.......whew thats too many M's

It happens every year, sometimes its May, sometimes April if its early, sometimes June, on the SoHo in East Tennessee it can even be December or January. Its mayfly madness. In this case, one in particular. It causes not only a great rise of trout, but normally sane people to stay up all night long tying flies, driving six to seven hours and fishing 1o hours all in the same day, to laying out of work or calling in sick. Sulphurs........



There are three flies in particular, and they come in #14, 16, and 18. Not only do the fish love them, fishermen love them. These three flies comprise what we call the "Sulphur Hatch" and is one of our main events every angling season.

May 2008 was no different.....we have some incredible rises of trout. One trip was with Dr. Tom Wolff of Winston-Salem, a great friend and customer of 20 years, and his brother Dave who drove down from Pennsylvania to join us on the South Holston. Late in the afternoon, when the water hit that magic low to mid 50's temperature the bugs poured off.....and there were rising fish all over. And a few hours later we were witness to one of the heaviest spinner falls you'll ever see in the East. And then there was the annual TN Tailwaters school and trip, this years trip was off the chart. Peter Spirito came all the way from Port St. Lucie, FL, and Lynn Roloff from Greensboro, NC, and we were joined two days later by Joe Craig of High Point, NC, and Ron Davis from Winston-Salem, NC. The hatch was blanket and quite unlike it has been in many years, we had two 100 fish days and some fish over 20 inches on the dry fly. For the three days total it was a 300 fish trip, and the best part is 98% percent of the fish were on dry flies.............................and the bugs are still coming off. Better finish typing so I can tie up some extra emergers and get some shut eye before joining my group of three guys for another great time fishing the sulphur hatch.....I love it!

Fishing with a true American hero.......

His name is Porter Halyburton. And on Monday, April 7, 2008 I had the pleasure of guiding Porter and his friend Dr. Don Lucey of Greensboro, NC. We had an incredible day, a perfect day to be honest. It was a day with many fish, over 100 in fact, and also some nice fish. That was the story for our trip.

Only for this decorated war hero, it wasn't so perfect some 43 yrs ago when he was shot down 60 miles north of Hanoi and spent the next 7 1/2 yrs as a prisoner of war. After graduating from SMA and Davidson College, Halyburton volunteered for service in Vietnam. A Naval Flight Officer, his F4B Phantom was shot down over North Vietnam on October 17, 1965. His story is one of the most incredible stories of faith, hope, forgiveness and courage you will read.

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam War, the lifelong achievements of Porter Halyburton were recognized by the U.S. Navy. His military decorations include the Silver Star, three Purple Hearts, the Legion of Merit, three Bronze Stars, seven Air Medals, a Navy Commendation Medal, and the POW Medal. A recent book, Two Souls Indivisible, tells of his friendship with a fellow pilot, an Air Force Pilot, African-American Fred Cherry. The Vietnamese, knowing that racial tensions were at a high in the US hoped to create animosity and torture by making Porter take care of Perry who had been injured when he was also shot down. The plan backfired, Porter and Fred became close friends and survived the horror of being POW's.

Some great background information is available on the details of Porter's story. Porter's bio is very interesting, and incredible might be a better word for it. What a great story to give hope in the world we live in today, unfortunately our media won't tell you the other side of the story....that is what our great servicemen past and present do and have done day in and day out. All the media tell you is the negative, not the positive and how these men are the reason we can live in freedom here today. But then, of course, the media never has been a friend of the truth anyway. An agenda, sickening bias and sadly little more can we expect from them.

Hats off to all our servicemen and thank you for the price you were willing to pay for all of us, even those who would speak bad of you and would put your lives in danger by not giving you in the field what you need to get the job done. We honor you and appreciate your sacrifices for our freedom, it isn't free like some people think.

The Joy of tying and fishing a huge fly.....

Just a few nights ago, I was checking out a few new foam cutters I got in a big shipment of fly tying materials and was thinking about how much fun it is to tie a large fly. Not as what we normally think of as being large, say a 10 or 12, but rather a 4 or 6. Ever tie a size 6 dry fly for trout? Better yet, ever fish a dry fly that large? If you have you are certainly in the minority. There are few people who live somewhere that trout regularly eat bugs that large. But believe it or not, there are places that fish love to eat bugs that large. Like the Snake River, one river we'll be floating on our Wyoming Sampler trip in August of this year. Not only do fish eat flies that large, they absolutely kill them- - -those fish, many of which are native fine-spotted cutthroats , are mean and crash the surface in pursuit of a big bug or fly.

One the lower Snake, I remember one summer when I was fishing with two good friends from High Point Burt Whicker and Larry Pritchett. Not only do these fish eat big stuff, but they like the flies fished with an active retrieve. I mean its the kind of fishing that makes you feel like you are at home on the New working a popping bug. And the strike, well you'd better have a good hold on the rod or it might be taken away from you. Simply put, these cutthroats think they are bass. I have fished a lot of places out west, and this is the only place I've ever seen fish feed that way most of the time. I can even remember the final day of our wilderness float where the first fish slurped down a size 4, yes a size 4 (almost 2 inches long, and a dry fly!) chernobyl dry I'd just put a whip finish on less than an hour before.

I must say, I wouldn't trade small fly fish all together for fishing big flies---fun as they are. I still love to see big fish rising to tiny bugs. There's nothing like it. But an occasion visit to the other end of the fly spectrum I'll take..........and enjoy it just the same.

Angling Legend George Harvey passes on.........

Monday March 24, 2008 marked the passing of one of the truly legendary anglers and fathers of American flyfishing, George Harvey (center in photo above, shown between Joe Humphreys, also an angling legend, and George Daniel, Winner of 2007 U.S. National Fly Fishing Championship). He passed away at age 97! Known the world over for his great impact on the sport he challenged the fly fishing world with new ideas about fly design, presentation, and his ever popular philosophy and design of what we now refer to as "slack line" leaders.

Though I never had the privilege of meeting him, I certainly feel like I did through some of his works and also by using what I feel is a must for folks looking to fish our area tailwaters and improve their presentation skills- - - the slack line leader. George's leader formula runs almost perpendicular to the assumed best Ritz formula for a leader which is a 60-20-20 formula. This leader is 60% butt, 20% taper, and 20% tippet, just the sort of thing that makes a fly line transmit tons of power into the butt which then turns over the taper and tippet and makes for a nice straight as an arrow landing........exactly what you don't want when fishing over tough fish that have little patience with drag, micro-drag, or less than perfect drifts.

George had a better idea. His slack line leader took into account that when you fish over tough fish that require long and drag free drifts, you want a leader that turns over but does not straighten. And you want to use a cast that is an open loop aimed high, just the opposite of the "high line speed, tight loop, throw it a mile philosophy" that is all too often the rave today. George's philosophy is a butt that is smaller in diameter, and overall shorter, and that transmits less power from line to leader to taper to tippet. A long mid-section and long tippet completes the formula and results in a leader that turns over but never fully straightens, and that often lands in a controlled "pile" that gives loose curves all the way to the fly and gives the long, perfect drifts that tough fish love.

George's leader philosophy really hit home to me almost 20 years ago when I was first trying to figure out the deal on Virginia and Tennessee tailwaters. Once I learned the formula, began using it, and combined it with a reach cast my catch rate went way up. And some of those impossible fish started to fall to my slack line presentations. All of a sudden those fish weren't so impossible anymore.

One of the recipes I find that works well for making a George Harvey dry fly leader, and one I have used for years is as follows: 15 inches of .017, then 15 inches of .015, then 15 inches of .013, then 12 inches of .011, then 12 inches of .009 (2X), then 14-18 inches of 3X, 14 -18 inches of 4x, 20 inches of 5X, then 18-24 inches of 6X or 7X. If you don't tie your leaders, Frog Hair fishing makes a commercial knotless George Harvey Slack Line Leader that is pretty good. But I must say that a knotted, hand-tied leader is superior to the knotless ones, in my opinion.

You can learn more about George Harvey, his life, and his many great contributions to our sport here . Thank you George for all the ways you enhanced our enjoyment in flyfishing.

Fishing High Water.....

HIGH water.....I'd say to some its a boon, others a bane, for us a BOUNTY! I must admit, seeing a bank full river gets me excited. I know a lot of folks don't share that sentiment, and I certainly don't mean flood stage, but I mean high, fishable water.

When you guide for a living, you often aren't at the luxury of having time off to fish when the conditions are at their best. Often, its right the opposite......even downright nasty conditions that would make even a duck or a polar bear question the decision to be out and about. But its amazing what having less than what most people consider ideal conditions will do for your ability to adapt and change your tactics and techniques and still catch fish.

Over the years I have learned to not only adapt but to really enjoy the challenge of catching fish when the cards are stacked against me. I mean, I love it when everything goes right, perfect weather, no wind, plenty of bugs, lots of feeding fish- - - don't get me wrong I'll take that any day. But then again when things are like that I think maybe we should catch fish. But what about the days when others would take one look at the river and automatically assume that they aren't going to catch fish with the river so high and off colored. I mean the kind of conditions where one might take a quick look and say, "That's it for me, I am headed home." All too often I've heard that, even had guide trips where I knew we could really do well but the folks I am taking didn't share the same positive outlook. And I'd be thinking inside my head......"....if only you knew what the conditions would do for us today, not only will we catch fish, we could have a day you'd remember the rest of your angling days.

Like Escatawba. This is one place where spate conditions mean a real bounty if you know how to rig properly, read the water, and present the fly properly. I mean you can really catch numbers of fish you'd never catch when the stream is normal or low and clear. And then there's the Smith River.....legendary brown trout that are as selective as any on planet earth, except for when Town Creek at the upper end of the special reg area gets stirred up. In that stretch of river which regularly stumps even the most skilled of anglers we fish wooly buggers and literally tear them up. I once guided a good customer Ray Matherly of Dunbar, West Virginia, where we fished during a tropical storm. Heavy rain, wind, and all. Ray still wanted to do the trip, and I was charged by his "trooper" spirit. And the whole time I was thinking this could be a day that we really work those fish over. And so it was........final count Storm 0, Ray 30 ......30 browns and an unexpected largemouth bass of about 12" at the mouth of Town Creek. Yes, there are times that you can occasionally have your way with those fish. And lastly, there's the South Holston. Let a heavy rain come and make the river cloudy and the same fish that were darn near impossible become suckers for the right nymph (a flashback pt nymph).

So the next time you hear of some heavy rain coming, pack the rainjacket, make sure you have some streamers and flashback bead head nymphs, a box of split shot, and a "trooper " spirit. And, one last thing............Let it pour!

Roanoke River Spring Shad run.....

It happens every spring......just so happens it happened a little early this year. The annual shad run on the Roanoke River that is, and if you've not gotten in on it it is a hoot for sure. Often called a "poor man's tarpon" by some, these fish migrate from the ocean back to the freshwater rivers from which they were born. In North Carolina, we are fortunate to have several coastal rivers that get them.....the Roanoke, the Tar, the Cashie, the Neuse....just to name a few.

Five or six weight fish they are, and on anything lighter and you have a nice battle on your hands. Some of the larger fish are 2 to 3 pounds, and give an impressive fight even on a stiff rod- - - and if you are lucky some of the better ones you will get a jump or two out of them as well.

I recently went down with two friends, one Rick Trautman, Men's ministry pastor at our church, Westover Church here in Greensboro, NC, and my good friend Brad Ball, also from Greensboro, NC. All in all we guessed between 75 and 100 fish were caught during the day. Rick christened his new fly rod well, catching several nice fish and the largest fish, about a 3 pounder. Brad christened his 5wt as well, catching the first "other than trout" species on it. I, lastly, broke the only fly rod that I had. While fighting a fish, I broke the reel seat and reel completely off and heard the reel and the pieces as they hit the casting deck. I spent the rest of the time with the reel taped to the butt of the rod with first aid tape! It was ugly!!!! but I guess in a pinch you make the best of what you have. I was just happy to be casting some, as the recovery from a car accident and surgery have been on going for the past three and a half months. Catching a fish was a bonus, and well, its just a rod and it can be fixed.

At the present rate you have probably two weeks left to catch the run, after that it will be stripers. . . and tons of them. So don't miss it while its here!

Too Funny not to share.........

When I saw this billboard, it took a second (I know, I am slow) to hit me but then I laughed so hard I almost laid an egg. The fact that there's a moose on the billboard didn't bother me, the lonely moose hardly gets consideration anywhere......even though he is one of the most majestic creatures of the American West. Few things scare him, almost nothing could.

I was thinking if there had been a cutthroat on that sign instead......wouldn't we all have been in an uproar? Or maybe a brown, or maybe a rainbow, or shall I dare say it......a native brookie?

Isn't it interesting how putting a trout on that board, or for that matter any fish we're passionate about, would be a lot different to us because we love them?

It makes me think about a backcountry trip about 15 yrs ago I did with a customer into the Shining Rock Wilderness. It was his invite, him taking me camping and fishing. And it was a great experience. I'll name no names so as to protect everyone. But we hiked in what must have been five or six miles. He was already there, had set up camp, and was ready to feed us when we got there. His wife had met me at the trailhead, as she had also driven up after gettting off work early. When we arrived, we could smell the aroma of something great.......After enjoying about 90%of it, it was brought to my attention that this was brook trout, natives, the kind we rave about......I can't tell you the mountain of guilt and shame that came over me as I thought...."Oh, no, folks at home find out I have eaten a native brookie I am in some deep stuff."
In any case, it was a big deal at the time, but I still think about it.....it must have had some effect --I mean to still be writing about it to this day, even now. My defense was, and there was truth in it, that I had no idea that he had caught trout and that they were native brookies until I almost swallowed all of one. Isn't it funny how we readily let someone else have it and so quickly let ourselves off the hook. As I swallowed the last bite I think I must have been planning my statement of defense.

I must say though, that it was pretty tasty, I imagine a lot like what spotted owls and bald eagles taste like. And no, I haven't eaten those..................