Watauga & South Holston reported activity

Tightliner · Jun 4, 2009

Reports are that both the Watauga and South Holston are peaking on ephi (sulpher) hatches. That is if they maintain pulse schedule. I cant stand it, so....... Time for a road trip

! Head up tonight and hit the Holston tomorrow for a full day drift, then on to the Watauga. Hopefully they dont blow us out with flow ::;

. (if they do we'll break out the #00 and stalk a few Brookies

.) We'll see....

Later..............................................

injun joe · Jun 4, 2009

Tliner,
Do y'all camp when you go up there or do you have a place to stay?

Tightliner · Jun 4, 2009

injun joe said:
Tliner,
Do y'all camp when you go up there or do you have a place to stay?

A nice cheap motel :biggrin2:

. Looks this might turn into a Sunday trip as well :fine:

. I'd hate to waste all that drivin for just 2 days

. Boy do I have a good wife

.

Later..........................................

Jarred · Jun 4, 2009

Have fun!!!!!!!!!! Don't catch em all.

Tightliner · Jun 8, 2009

Update

What an awsome river :biggrin2:

. BIG early morning and mid day sulpher hatches. No stockers...... beautiful wild fish. Fishing on the S Holston was so intriguing that we never made it to the Watauga for meat haul. VERY technical river :banginghe

. Size and color had to be exact. Presentation HAD to be perfect. At 0 generators, fished the #00 with a 9ft leader and #7 tippet. Even with this delicate of a presentation, it was still a huge challenge. Once the water came up, lots of fish rising to thousands of small yellow sail boats. Get any where close or slap the line on the water, the fish were down! Broke out the #6 Z-Axis for long distance. It took a 12ft leader with an extra 3ft of 7x fluoro tippet to even get in the game! Mostly browns. These were the most colorful fish I've seen in quite a while. Next morning (Sat.) @ 0 generators, took a while to figure out, plenty of rises and refusals. Stopped and settled a while and observed. Amoung thousands of sulphers, crane flies mixed in

. Switched over and picked up fish till they started releasing. Water came up, broke out the Z-axis again for some LONG distance casting. All-N-all, one of the finest peices of water I've fished since the Bow. Lots of fish, lots of bugs. But beware, have your act together on this river or be prepaired for frustration!!!!!!!

Later..............................................

Tightliner · Jun 19, 2009

Bitteroot???????

Tightliner said:
What an awsome river. BIG early morning and mid day sulpher hatches. No stockers...... beautiful wild fish. Fishing on the S Holston was so intriguing that we never made it to the Watauga for meat haul. VERY technical river. Size and color had to be exact. Presentation HAD to be perfect. At 0 generators, fished the #00 with a 9ft leader and #7 tippet. Even with this delicate of a presentation, it was still a huge challenge. Once the water came up, lots of fish rising to thousands of small yellow sail boats. Get any where close or slap the line on the water, the fish were down! Broke out the #6 Z-Axis for long distance. It took a 12ft leader with an extra 3ft of 7x fluoro tippet to even get in the game! Mostly browns. These were the most colorful fish I've seen in quite a while. Next morning (Sat.) @ 0 generators, took a while to figure out, plenty of rises and refusals. Stopped and settled a while and observed. Amoung thousands of sulphers, crane flies mixed in. Switched over and picked up fish till they started releasing. Water came up, broke out the Z-axis again for some LONG distance casting. All-N-all, one of the finest peices of water I've fished since the Bow. Lots of fish, lots of bugs. But beware, have your act together on this river or be prepaired for frustration!!!!!!!

Later..............................................

BITTER.........Yall in for the trip up? Lets nail down the details soon! I've been slaving at the vise making some unique pattern based on my last observations, they should be killer :shoot:

! A few small details should give those big browns a bit more assurance. They tend to rise and eye ball the fly REAL close before chowing down. The next two weeks should be peak Ephi season. JUST DO IT (beg for forgivness later

)!!!!! Check the release schedule closly, that will make or break the trip.

Later.......................................................

Bitteroot · Jun 19, 2009

Me and Toby talked again last night.. it is definately in the works! :cheers:

Did you make my reservations at "Caddis Trail Lodge"? :bounce:

StandHunter · Jul 2, 2009

Fishing still good

Just recently got back from a weekend trip on the South Holston and Watauga rivers in TN (6/26-28/09) and the fishing is still really good.

Drove up on Friday and got to our cabin and had to get on the river. Waded the Watauga that evening with 1 generator running and hooked up with several nice brownies in the 12-14 inch range. Caught 'em on a dropper rig with a size 14 parachute sulfur dry and a size 16 bead head prince nymph

Saturday was awesome. Waded the South Holston and caught over 20 fish (mostly rainbows) and missed another 10 or so. No generators running from 7AM-1PM, pulsed 1 from 1P-2P and none again from 2P-3P. After that they generated for the afternoon. Again caught all of the fish with the same rig as above (all but 3 on the nymph). Sat afternoon and Sunday AM it was back to the Watauga with the same results, but instead of a prince, the action was good with a size 16 sulfur nymph. They weren't generating on the Watauga Sun AM from 6 A-2P.

Still several sulfur hatches going on on both rivers throughout the day. Seemed to be sorta small (size 16-18). Anyway, it's a great trip to make. Beautiful rivers and some of the best trout fishing in the southeast.

Good luck to all

Tightliner · Jul 2, 2009

Ditto on the river.Great fishing. Was headed up tomorrow but had a sickness in the family

. Should have another stream report from my buds soon. Sure hope to make it back up while the ephi's are still on!

Later................................

Tightliner · Jul 6, 2009

Well.... The ephe's are still on (so my report says)( got a call from my bud while he was on the river... rubbin it in of course ::ke:

), only the fish are more selective and the # of bugs fewer. Think I'm headed out Wed. night to give some new emerger patterns a test on Thurs and Fri. Also want to try those new crane fly patterns. The yeller fly season there is windin down, hope the hold on for a few more days ::;

! Always got the Wautaga as a back-up plan

.

Later.....................................

Watauga & South Holston reported activity

Tightliner

Senior Member

injun joe

Gone But Not Forgotten

Tightliner

Senior Member

Jarred

Senior Member

Tightliner

Senior Member

Tightliner

Senior Member

Bitteroot

Polar Bear Moderator

StandHunter

Member

Tightliner

Senior Member

Tightliner

Senior Member

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