http://www.ifly4trout.com/reports.htm

http://www.anglerguide.com/new.....?TR_ID=276

http://www.wildlife.state.nm.u.....report.htm

Interested in a "co-fisher" so we don't have to hoof it so far at the end of the day.

Anyone interested?

Compared to Ozark tailwaters, it wasn't too much different. There were more mayfly nymphs in the water than I'm used to so some of those pheasant tails in my box actually got wet. The S. Holston had mostly browns which was really cool and both rivers had healthy numbers of fish. The river beds were a little different. The banks were more muddy but the water was nearly as clear and laced with rock shelves running perpindicular to the flow. It made drifting challenging but I picked up a couple new tricks. CDC for one, is the awesomest innovation in small dry flies especially when dusted with Frog's Fanny. I've never been around so many fish caught on size 24 dries in my life. I think the tailless design helps them hook better. I also learned from those guys how to properly use a yarn indicator. I won't tell all their tricks of the trade but I've been missing out. It wasn't perfect for every situation but when you're drifting along side a boat or making short casts with a high stick I don't think a foam indie will ever do as well. It has great traction on the water that really cancels out quite a bit of belly in the line from bad mending. And you could get away with a much larger indicator than hard indicators just because it looks more like a foam bubble or goose feather floating along than some unnatural piece of angler paraphanelia.

We each caught a ton of fish, had great company and enjoyed a few cold ones on and off the water. If anyone is headed out to the Smokies or East Tennessee tailwaters stop in the Orvis store in Sevierville and say hi to Kris.

He wrote a more detailed report about the trip in his blog (with a couple goofy pictures at the end of yours truly)

http://www.flyfishtennessee.blogspot.com .

Cold, rainy and windy most days.  made fishing hard.  Add to that the big high dollar lodges had to take their clients to the rivers we normaly fish.  Simpson and Manahuala were to high to float.  But it di force me to get out and hustle up some new fishing locations.  Amazing what you can find when you get out and walk a little bit.

Even with the weather down there it sure beat here!

We were each armed with a 5-weight rod rigged for deep indie fishing, a heavier streamer rod with floating line, and a spinning rod. This turned out to be a pretty good combination as it allowed us to focus on deep water while still being to throw something at the shallower shoals as we came by them, but a second spool of sink tip line for the streamer rods would have opened up more possibilities. There was no magic fly we could find but the pattern seemed to be consistent once we figured it out – use whatever means you can to get down as far as possible. Most fish came from the shallow sloping sides, but more browns were along the outside bend banks. We were catching fish regularly on larger egg patterns, san juan worms, and deep diving cranks. The streamers weren't as effective because we both had floating line, but they took their share too especially on Monday night when we fished the opener at 1 am from the boat dock by the soccer park. We were drifting from as far up as we could (state park the first three days) down to a couple bends below white hole. A lot of boats were running back and forth for about 300 yards along the hellen keller hole on Monday and Tuesday. Despite giving it extra attention we found that spot to be more crowded and not much more productive than the rest of the river. Several people who we'd seen in that area later told us they hooked some nice browns. Most of ours came downstream. Joe caught the two biggest – 17.5″ and 18.5″. We also caught several nice rainbows up to about 16 or 17″. Numbers were 6 fish the first day, 12, 18, 55 (including night fishing, which was awesome), and 35 the last day.

http://smg.photobucket.com/alb.....titled.flv

Now, the fact that some of those salmon fight like ass is a different story.

Maybe when I get a bit better at it and learn the "local" water more than I do I'll invite you guys to come out to this side of Chi-town and give it one more shot.

Thats a great place to fish when the water is 1-2 units.

The water flows will be ideal for drift and wade fishing the remainder of this month.  Starting first of December expect high generation  should continue thru out the winter.  Streamers along the banks on full sinking lines will be good.  Also, shad patterns fished deep along with SJ Worms, Midges and egg patterns.

Stinnetti

I almost didn't want to post this because it's not a real report, but being halloween it's fitting enough, and I certainly thought it was funny as hell (pardon the pun) after the fact.

I had a nightmare about fishing recently. Yes, a nightmare. Psychologists say dreams are an extension of your real-life fears and emotions, or some other psycho-babble bullcrap. All I know is this was the most realistic dream I've had in years.

Have you ever seen the old 50s Ingmar Bergman film "The Seventh Seal"? It's dubbed from Swedish but my uncle made me watch it as a kid because it was a classic. Well the grim reaper from that movie came to collect me. Except he carried around a sickle which he didn't have in the movie. And he was super cocky. I challenged him to a fish-off. If I won, he would leave me alone and if I lost he would do his thing. He was so cocky he even let me set the rules, so they were this: We would fish the river of my choice (White) using only artificial lures or flies, and fish for four hours counting only numbers – size didn't matter.

As I was putting on my gear, he was perched on a large rock, dipping a rooster tail with a children's Zebco like a cane pole, looking totally out of place. I can say I was extremely nervous, but sort of woke myself up laughing at the spectacle before settling back into the competition. My wife would later say I woke her up with my laughter. Then, things got worse. In a foreshadow of my next trip to Rock Creek in Kentucky, I had forgotten to bring any smaller sized tippet. Then when I went to cast, I got wind knots that took forever to untangle. During that process, the Grim Reaper had figured out how to cast, and was catching fish. Just to rub salt in the wound, he even held up a couple of the larger browns. By the time I had gotten my knots untangled he was in the thirties and counting. The water started running muddy and I got so nervous I woke in a cold sweat, unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

Well it's not a real report, but I thought it was worth a laugh, and timely for the season. 

Happy Halloween.

The king now needs to return to my boat.