# Dry Fly Fishing in February



## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Like many of you feeling cooped up and restless from the weather, my son and I were feeling the same and decided to head south to fish in Tennessee. In Cincy, just as most of Ohio, we had another storm Friday night that dumped another 6 inches of snow on top of the 8" already on the ground. My son and I waited until the storm subsided and gave the plows some time to clear the roads, we headed down to Reliance TN leaving out around 2:30AM Saturday. After a 3-1/2 hour white knuckle drive, we finally got through the winter weather around Berea Kentucky and the rest of the drive was good. We arrived to our place around 8:30 AM, it was a cold morning, too cold for my son so he decided to stay at the cabin and I fished alone that morning. The temperature was 40ish for the high and although they were not generating Saturday on the Hiwassee River, there was still a lot of water from all the run off of the melting snow. I started off using an Olive Wooly, got a couple to hand and then saw a few fish rising to midges on the surface. I switched over to a size 20 griffiths gnat dry and the fish were eager to take it. As the morning wore on, the surface action got slower, until some Winter Stones started hatching and then the fished turned their attention toward them. I did not have any in my box, I used a size 16 parachute pheasant tail emerger and caught several on that. Finally a little cold and tired from driving through the night, I decided to call it a day and head back to the cabin. I got up the next morning, made some coffee, tied some Winter Stones and was stoked to get back to the river. Sunday conditions were perfect, temperatures hovering around 60, little to no wind with plenty of winter stones hatching, some occasional caddis and lots of midges. My son and I fished dry's and had a ton of action all day, about 40 fish to hand total between the two of us with many LDR's. There is just something to be said about fishing dry patterns in February!










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## meathelmet (Aug 4, 2008)

Thanks for the story and pics it really made my night!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Great post! Getting a trout on a dry is on my bucket list this season!


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Thanks guys, appreciate the compliments. Trout is the fish I enjoy chasing the most with a fly rod. For me, when you are able to take them on dry's it is that much more enjoyable, especially when you have a trout that busts through the surface, going a foot or so in the air with the dry caddis that you presented, that is the ultimate. Granted you are not always going to catch monsters like you can with streamers or nymphs, you will still get some quality fish and ocassionaly a big one.

This trip really was a good one as it showed that spring is on the way. Aside from great dry fishing, we saw daffodils blooming, trees budding, hords of turkey's, deer and some wild pigs! The fact that my face and neck was sunburned was a bonus!


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## MIKE*A (Apr 12, 2009)

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Mike


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## sbreech (Jun 6, 2010)

Great pics! I love fishing in Tennessee.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I used to spend a ton of time fishing the Hiwassee, Clinch, holston etc. love the area and the fishing was always steller
Salmonid


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Mark,
I too have spent a lot of time on the same rivers, all are great fisheries. Growing up in Fairborn, my fly fishing adventures started on the Mad. I now reside in Cincinnati, I still go to the Mad on occasions but I now consider the Hiwassee to be my home waters. When I first started fishing this river, the Hiwassee was considered a blue ribbon fishery, but that accolade diminished when they made the river put and take. Over the past several years, TWRA has made great progress toward restoring it to a respectable river one again.

Because of the way they pipe water in this river, the water temperature warmer than the Clinch or the South Holston, by virtue of that there are great hatches all year long and can be fished with dry's almost all year as well. 

I started fishing the river about 16 years ago and just fell in love with the whole area. I always thought that someday I would move there or acquire a place to stay until I was able to call it quits in the workplace. I picked up a place several years ago, I head down there probably twice a month, I am located 7 minutes from the river. 

Here is a picture of my happy place.


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## meathelmet (Aug 4, 2008)

Do you rent? It really nice looking place.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

meathelmet said:


> Do you rent? It really nice looking place.


Pictures do not do this place justice believe it or not, the inside of this place is spectacular; it really is an awesome place to go to. It sits on top of Towee Mountain on 13 acres in the middle of the Cherokee National Forest, the view off the deck is great and it is totally relaxing. However due to all the personal items in our place and for security reasons, we do not rent it out. I do however offer weekend guided walk in trips on the Hiwassee or Tellico, which includes transportation from Cincinnati and back, meals and stay in my place for one or two people, 8 hours of fishing on Saturday guided by me and another 4 hours on Sunday that is unguided. I stay on the premises during this time and each guest has a private room. I have done more than two in the past but is just a little to hectic for me. PM me if you are interested, I can send information if you would like.


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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

This report has made my cabin fever worse than any so far  A trip down south may be in order!


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Was able to return to the river this past weekend. The weather was awesome, sunny both Saturday and Sunday with temperatures close to 70. Saturday the water was a little challenging, running on generator which made wading a little tougher than I like, but we managed to catch a fair amount of fish. With the higher water, we used few dry's, mainly streamers and midge patterns, the fish were pleased at the offering. Sunday was great, the water was turned off and we were fishing dry patterns once again as there was an abundance of rising fish. Here is a picture of a 15" rainbow and a 16" brown we got to hand








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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Great fish man! Dry flies have always seemed so intimidating but you are getting me pumped to try!


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Wow! Those are some awesome looking fish! As you describe the situation, those are not stockers! They may be descendents of stockers, but from their coloration and spotting those are genuine, wild, bred in the stream trout! Must be nice!


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Thanks Buckeyebowman, they truly are beautiful fish. TWRA stocks this river with over 100K fish annually so this river has an abundance of trout in it all times and there is certainly a possibility that these could be naturally reproduced. I have read several reports on the Hiwassee, all that claim there is no significant evidence that trout are reproducing in this river. One a number of occasions, I have caught fingerlings, both rainbow and browns that have lead me to believe otherwise. The one thing that I am sure of is that since they have instituted a delayed harvest program 3 years ago, the number of carry over fish have increased and they have certainly gained size! It is nice catching good numbers of healthy, fat and happy fish; hopefully many of them will make it and not end up in a frying pan now that the delayed harvest season is over.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

I realize this is no longer February, but I thought I would go ahead and add to this post since I fished the river once again and it was early March. 

I headed down Thursday to my cabin at the close of business this past weekend to fish 4 days, Friday through Monday. Friday and Saturday were both beautiful, sunny with temperatures reaching close to 70 both days. TVA was not running any generators on Friday, only a periodic pulse which means little flow and the kind of conditions I prefer the most. The water temperature was in the low 50's, it was gin clear so you had to be somewhat stealthy. In the morning hours there were a lot of midges hatching; fish were routinely sipping midges from the surface and I was able to get some takers using a size 20 Griffiths gnat. We had much more success swinging a double rig consisting of a zebra midge and B.H. pheasant during this time. As the day warmed up, winter stones were coming off, sometimes heavy hatches mixed in with a few Quill Gordons and Caddis. Not sure why but the fish were not rising much to the stones, I guess since there was so much activity under the water they were content on eating the larva instead of chasing a bug skittering across the surface. That was indicative as they normally passed on the dry and took the droppers we were presenting although we did catch a few on the dry. 

Saturday, was very much the same although TVA was running one generator for most of the day. When they are running one generator, a good amount of the river can be waded even though it comes up a couple of feet in depth as compared to when they are not running any generators at all. Caution must be taken during this time; a wading staff is advisable to prevent you from going down as it can be difficult to get good footing as you are moving in certain areas. Additionally, much of the water that can be fished when there is low flow is no longer assessable when the level increases but fish do move into other areas with the rising water so new areas now hold fish. On Saturday we saw very few rising fish, there was a good hatch of stones that lasted for about 15 minutes and again, nothing chasing them. We stuck to the same game plan of swinging nymphs through seam lines; that was the most productive method that day. In some of the deeper areas, we pitched some olive wooly buggers and caught a few on while do that.

Sunday the scenario changed dramatically; it was raining and the temperature dropped to the low 50s. The water was off from 9 until noon, but even then wading was challenging as you could not see the bottom due to the rain, dark sky and that the water was less than clear due to run-off. We thought for sure we would see a decent hatch of BWOs, it never really got going so we kept swinging midge patterns. Once again the B.H. pheasant tail was consistently producing the most fish although a caddis pupa was also doing a good job. A couple of times we had double hook-ups although never landed both fish as one would break free before he got them to hand. The rain let up around 1 PM, just about the time the water started to rise as TVA had started one generator at noon. (It takes the water approximately one hour reach the area we were fishing) We decided then to have our streamside lunch, bagel sandwiches with roast beef, turkey and pepperjack cheese washed down with some Gatorade. As we finished lunch, the water was running and with the additional run-off, it was a little higher than it was on Saturday. Not feeling like getting beat-up by the additional current, I told my guest to hop in the car, we drove downstream several miles ahead of the flow and were able to fish for another 2-1/2 hours on the low water before the rising water reached us. The conditions were identical, swinging the same nymph patterns through the pools were productive. Around 4 PM, the rising water finally reached us and we decided to call it a day. We headed back to the cabin for dinner and libations; a movie was in order to close the evening. 

Monday morning came with chilly conditions, overcast skies and a few sprinkles and the temperature starting off in the high 40s. The water was once again turned off, there was Midge hatches all morning with the fish sipping them off the surface. The water looked like raindrops were falling on it but it was the fish taking the midges, it was like nothing I have ever seen before. We tried every dry pattern we had, the only thing we could get them to entertain on a couple of times was a size 22 string body BWO. We reverted back to our B.H. pheasant tail and we were back in business, fish after fish was eager to take it. TVA was turning the water back on at 1:00, we decided that would be the time to call it a trip, head back to the cabin pack up and get on the road by 3:00.

It was great to see wild flowers blooming, trees budded and spring fully started. We caught well over 150 fish, most being rainbows along with several browns and a few brookies during the 4 day excursion. The best fish was a 21 male rainbow; unfortunately I had left my Iphone in my car and was unable to take a picture of it. Looking at the curved jaws on this fish (kype) and the beautiful coloration will remain with me for a long time. On Friday, I did manage to catch the fattest 19 rainbow I have ever landed on a size 18 zebra midge and 7x tippet. It probably was the longest fight I have ever had with a trout and I was relieved to be able to get it to hand and snap a photo.

Thanks for reading this long drawn out story, tight lines to you all!








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## Crawdude (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for posting! I thoroughly enjoyed the report.


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## ejsell (May 3, 2012)

Great report and beautiful fish.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Sounds like a great time Flyman! Thanks for the report!


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