Tag Archives: Tennessee

Christmas Wish List

November 29, 2013 FlyFishTennessee Leave a comment

Okay, so I thought I would start a wish list of items or items that I would like for Christmas. Maybe my wife will catch wind of these and surprise me for the holidays (wink, wink).

The first company is Tn Fly Co or www.tnflyco.com . They are a Knoxville based fly fishing accessory company. The couple that run the company are both young and are into both photography and fly fishing very seriously. They are producing some great hats and T-Shirts, I wish I could get one of each!

Here is a little bio from their website:

“TN FLY CO (Tennessee Fly Company) was started in December, 2012 by avid (avid ≠ accomplished) fly-fisherman and Tennessee native, Cal Davis. Combining fly fishing, design and state pride seemed a daunting task until the Tri-Fly Logo was born. TN FLY CO products showcase a love for our world’s greatest sport while proudly displaying a haughtiness for our great State of Tennessee. Whether you are a fly-fisherman, fly-fisher woman or just someone that appreciates good design and local business, TN FLY CO offers something for everyone. Fish on!”

Very cool stuff from some folks that both love fly fishing and the great state of Tennessee!

South Holston, Tailwaters, Tennessee Fly Fishing, Why we fish

Who needs to go out west when you have the South Holston

August 19, 2011 FlyFishTennessee 3 Comments

Really, I get the same comments all of the time. Those comments are; “Where do you fly fish around here?”, “I can’t wait to go out west.” and “It’s just different out west”. Most of the time these folks have never fished the South Holston or Watauga tailwaters, or if they have, they have not ventured far from the popular areas such as the weir dam where the crowds are.

We are very fortunate in Tennessee to have some true gems such as the South Holston and Watauga tailwaters. You can get a true western fly fishing experinence right here in the east. Especially if your willing to take off during the week and either do some hiking, floating or hire one of our local guides, you can really get away from everything. The day we took these pictures we saw only one other boat and two wade fisherman all day. Pretty awesome if you ask me, oh and we caught a bunch of fish too.

We also got an odd surprise by the last picture. I think it is a Lake Trout, but not quite sure. I guess it may have come up from Boone Lake or gotten stocked by accident by TWRA.

South Holston, Tailwaters, Tennessee Fly Fishing

South Holston Oct 20th 2009

October 22, 2009 FlyFishTennessee Leave a comment

Tuesday was absolutely beautiful! Great sun, nice breeze and perfect temperatures. I love fishing in the fall. I met up with an old fishing buddy and the original plan was to fish the Clinch, however TVA had different ideas for us. We ended up driving up to the South Holston for the day as it was conducive to floating, plus I had been hearing of some great reports from other anglers and guides.

We put on the river around 9:30am and there were risers every where. Tiny BWO’s seemed to do the trick. Once the water came up the fishing slowed a bit. Towards early afternoon we got to a good riffle section and started getting into a bunch of fish. Every good pocket held a few nice fish.

Not long after fishing through the riffle, the water started to drop out and around 4pm we started to see a lot of rising fish. There was a combination of BWO’s, Sulphurs, Crane flies and Caddis hatching. Jake caught fish on BWO’s and I caught them on dry/dropper rigs. It turned out to be a great end to a day that had started off slow. We both rode home with smiles on our faces.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Tailwaters, Tennessee Fly Fishing, Watauga

Watauga 2/11/08

February 16, 2008 FlyFishTennessee Leave a comment

Made to the Watauga two weeks in a row. I had a regular customer, Ken, who had just purchased a new Orvis Zero Gravity Helios, this rod has been getting crazy reviews. Ken had never fished the Watauga or out of a boat. He purchased the rod to take out west this summer. I didn’t think the rod should sit in the closet until his Montana trip, so I invited him to go fish the Watauga from Dong’s drift boat. Also along for the ride was Clay Aalders Owner/Guide of Smoky Mountain Gillies. Clay hasn’t been guiding much because of the weather, so we’ve had the opportunity to fish together quite a bit.

The day started out really cold and unfortunately stayed that way. We were busting ice off of the guides untill about 1pm. Luckily the wind wasn’t howling and the sun would poke through the clouds a little giving us a short burst of warmth. We started fishing around 9:30am and I worked the boat fairly quickly down to the the old River Ridge campground, so that we could get out and do a little wade fishing.

Once down to the River Ridge area, Clay and Ken quickly began picking up fish on caddis pupa patterns. Fish ranged from 10 to 14 inches. We all consistently hooked fish for about 2 hours before moving down stream a little to the Caddis riffles. When we got down to the Caddis riffles we noticed one boat parked on top of them. Not usually a bad sign, but this boat had passed us almost 2 hours prior, so I’m sure the hammered the fish. All the same we stopped to fish it anyways.

I didn’t expect the fising to be off the hook, but to my surprise we all started catching fish. Both Ken and myself caught our biggest fish and we had a double. To add to the excitement, Clay completed his slam. I guess the group before us hadn’t spooked the fish as bad as I and feared. Fishing the rest of the day was a little slow, but I think everyone had already had a banner day and the rest was icing on the cake.

The flies of the day were Rubber Legged Copper John, IKO Caddis Pupa, and Cased Caddis. Fish to boat were in the 60 range and 10 to 16 inches. Another good day on the water with better friends.