Technically, we fish year round, BUT, it's our off season and that affords us the opportunity to do some fishing on our own. The river is fishing extremely well right now honestly. Consistent afternoon BWO hatches bring the small/medium size fish up from 2-4pm. During the day nymphing with a pheasant tail and a 22 black fly larva or midge is producing good results. TVA hasn't been flowing water recently but when they do, a big nasty streamer pattern is always deadly effective when fished with a T-300 sinking line down deep and fast. Your best results for numbers will be in the upper river but the bigger fish live down lower and your odds go up because the lower section isn't pressured that much (comparatively). All in all, we aren't running many guide trips right now, but it's a great time to be on the river and we'll be happy to take you on a wade trip if they aren't running water.

Technically, we fish year round, BUT, it's our off season and that affords us the opportunity to do some fishing on our own. The river is fishing extremely well right now honestly. Consistent afternoon BWO hatches bring the small/medium size fish up from 2-4pm. During the day nymphing with a pheasant tail and a 22 black fly larva or midge is producing good results. TVA hasn't been flowing water recently but when they do, a big nasty streamer pattern is always deadly effective when fished with a T-300 sinking line down deep and fast. Your best results for numbers will be in the upper river but the bigger fish live down lower and your odds go up because the lower section isn't pressured that much (comparatively). All in all, we aren't running many guide trips right now, but it's a great time to be on the river and we'll be happy to take you on a wade trip if they aren't running water.

Well, winter has finally set in. We woke up to a few inches of snow this morning, wind blowing 30mph and 12 degree temps. It looks like it'll be a short cold spell though. The South Holston is still fishing very well if you can brave the weather. Staying sub-surface is your best bet unless you see heads up. The BWO's are hatching daily, but the fish seem to be more keyed into the emergers. RS2, BWO emergers, midges, and blackfly larva/emergers are all taking nice fish. You have to stay small though. The largest fly I'd fish right now is a size 20. Good luck and Tight Lines!

Well, winter has finally set in. We woke up to a few inches of snow this morning, wind blowing 30mph and 12 degree temps. It looks like it'll be a short cold spell though. The South Holston is still fishing very well if you can brave the weather. Staying sub-surface is your best bet unless you see heads up. The BWO's are hatching daily, but the fish seem to be more keyed into the emergers. RS2, BWO emergers, midges, and blackfly larva/emergers are all taking nice fish. You have to stay small though. The largest fly I'd fish right now is a size 20. Good luck and Tight Lines!

The Watauga River fished extremely well this past weekend. We fished the upper stretch from Wilbur Dam downstream and focused on the streamer rigs. We were fishing deep sinking lines (300 grain) and stripping a 3-4" articulated baitfish and had an average of 10 strikes an hour. Nothing HUGE was caught but a few good 2-3lb brownies were taken. Concentrate on sweeping the tailouts with the streamersin this post spawn time. Pockets of slack water next to moderate currents also produced really well. The other great thing....we were the only boat on the river! Hard to imagine that on the watauga isn't it!

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