Yesterday I took Jesse Overbay a Knoxville local on the Clinch for a little fly fishing. We have been trying to get on the water for a long time but our schedules never matched up. The generation was perfect and the Lord blessed us with a beautiful fall day. Even the air temperature was nice and warm. Jesse has done some fly fishing for bass and bream on the lake but this was his first time fly fishing for trout. Not long after we launched the boat Jesse had already picked up a few nice trout. Here are some pics of Jesse’s first couple of trout.

There were a lot of small black caddis coming off all throughout the day, but the fish seemed to be feeding mostly on nymphs and emergers. We caught most of our fish with size 16 and 18 pheasanttails and size 20 caddis emergers. We caught a few on the adults too, but just here and there. When it was lunch time Jesse grabbed a bite to eat so I took a few casts at a fish sipping midges and was surprised at what was on the other end of the line, a nice brown.

With all the rain we had early in the week it made the water from I75 bridge down kind of muddy and I was afraid that the fish wouldn’t be feeding much. They were in fact and we picked up even more fish through this stretch. On top of that Jesse caught his first brown trout, so it couldn’t have been better. I still remember catching my first brown up in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at Metcalf Bottoms on a stimulator. All in all it was a fantastic day and Jesse caught a lot of fish, so needless to say there is going to be another addict out there with us. Have a great day and thanks for being with us.

The past week we have been on the Clinch with clients and ourselves wade fishing and floating. The fishing has been good everywhere, with lots of caddis coming off. TVA has been periodically running water so the bottom is free of didymo which makes it easier to wade and brings out the bugs. Hugh Hartsell and I took some clients to the clinch earlier in the week and the water was a little high and off colored. The fish still seemed to respond to our flies just had to go up a size bigger. This was the first time that I met Hugh, it was a lot of fun and he is a great guide and an even better person, not to mention a great fly tyer. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I actually left the camera in the truck for the first part of the trip, so I didn’t get pictures of the fish that Walter (the man on the right) and his wife Honey caught.

The next night my buddy Harris and I went night fishing on the Clinch. The wind was strong and the air was pretty cold, but evidently the fish didn’t seem to mind.  When we got to the river we noticed fish rising to something and the fish moving around all over the place. We didn’t stay long because some clouds blew in and covered up the moon, but before they did we managed to catch one big bow.

Today Tyler and I floated for a few hours after church and had a lot of love from the trout. It was a beautiful day and the temperature outside was perfect, the Lord blessed us with a perfect day. There were a lot of caddis coming off in sizes 18 and 20 and lots of midges. The trout seemed to eat more of the midges but occasionally we would hear a loud splash from a fish coming out of the water for a caddis. Pheasanttails and midges worked pretty good and of course we had to throw streamers, the trip wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t chuck some meat at trout. All fish were caught on nymphs though and for the most part we caught fish the entire float. Tyler managed to get a grand slam too which is really cool because it doesn’t happen very often. Every fish we caught was colored up, especially Tyler’s brookie. Here are some shots from today.

Thanks for joining us in the fishing report and we hope that it will help you on the water. We would love to take you out for a day on the water so book your trip today.

I thought I would take a trip to Anderson County yesterday and check out the sulphur hatch on the Clinch. As soon as I got there I realized that everyone else was thinking the same thing. I actually stepped in the river around 4:00 pm.  When I got to the river I didn’t really see that many bugs coming off, so I tried some nymphs and did ok with them. I noticed 1 fish sipping emergers in a small riffle and realized at that moment that I forgot my box with all my emergers in it. The nymph did the job though and I was soon hooked up with a nice rainbow.

The nymphs worked well all through the afternoon, I was throwing a size #14 pheasant tail and a #14 sulphur nymph. I tried them with and without weight and it didn’t seem to matter to the fish because they are so focused on the bugs that whatever they see, if it matches, they will eat it. An emerger would have been perfect, but I made do with what I had. I noticed a pretty nice fish eating in a spillway and made a few casts at him and was soon rewarded with a nice brown.

When the sun started going down the adults were really coming off and the dry fly action was just right. When it gets darker the fish won’t be as picky with the patterns you throw at them. However, I would still throw something that matches pretty close to the size and color. I was throwing a comparadun sulphur with CDC for the wings and they seemed to like it. I noticed the fish rising pretty much all the way until dark. Here are a few more pictures of the fish we caught . I hope we have been of some help and thanks for joining us, hope to see you out there.