# Incredible Day on the River



## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

My wife and I decided at the last minute to journey to our cabin this past weekend to prepare it for the winter months and to possibly get on the river. Looking at the water release schedule for Saturday, it allowed me to get things done around the cabin in the morning before the water subsided around 2:00 that afternoon. I got to the river around 1:30 and to my surprise, I only saw one other person on the water fishing. There was still a decent amount of water flowing but you could see that it had fallen several inches so I geared up and made my way out into one of the areas I like to fish. Generally with a good amount of flow, I like using bigger and heavier stuff such as wooly buggers so I started off with that. Several casts and I got my first hook up, a couple of casts later another fish. Working the wooly, I got 4 to hand and lost several, the day was starting off very productively. As the water continued to drop, I could see a hatch starting and the fish started going nuts, slurping these size 20-22 BWO's off the surface, the water was boiling. I immediately changed my tippet, going with 7X and tied on a size 22 BWO, it was game on. I could not believe how many fish were eating off the surface it was just unbelievable and they were all over the bug I had on as well. This hatch lasted a solid 3 hours before it died down, but in the mean time I had caught no less than 30 fish, mostly browns, some decent sized but the best was a fat 17" bow. I have only seen one other BWO hatch of this magnitude, it was several years ago while fishing the South Holston in Bristol Tn, this hatch was not as strong as that one several years ago but it was nothing less than awesome. Here are some pics.


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

Dang, that's nice!

Can I have directions to your cabin, lol?


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

WOW ! Looks like it was an Incredible day on the river &#128513; Beautiful Fish !


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## rockriv (Sep 18, 2012)

General location of cabin?


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Southeast Tennessee in the Cherokee National Forest, as the crow flies, about 8 miles from the North Carolina border and 16 miles from the Georgia border.


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## phishyone1 (Jun 27, 2008)

Im on my way.................


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## ducman491 (Oct 31, 2011)

That is a great day!


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## canoe carp killer (Apr 2, 2014)

What type of waders do u have there? Looked like you weren't overly warm dressed. Just wondering what your attire is for myself lol.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

Orvis breathables with Under Armour top, bottom, cap and a fleece vest, on 11-15 it was sunny, air temp was 51 degrees, water temp was 56.


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## canoe carp killer (Apr 2, 2014)

flyman01 said:


> Orvis breathables with Under Armour top, bottom, cap and a fleece vest, on 11-15 it was sunny, air temp was 51 degrees, water temp was 56.



Cool thanks. How much do those orvis cost? I saw their gloves on another thread and they look great


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

I believe I paid around $100 for mine, they were on sale when I purchased them. In about a month, the water temps down south will be in the high 40s at which time I will start wearing my neoprene waders. Generally speaking, the air temperature down there is anywhere from 7 to 15 degrees higher than southern Ohio on any given day. Two years ago on New Years Day, my wife, my son and I were fishing on the river, the temperature was 67 degrees and there was an incredible hatch of winter stones happening. That is one of the things I like most about fishing in Southeast Tennessee, you virtually can fish dry patterns year round and the fish are always looking up.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

I decided to head back to the cabin one last time for the 2014 year and season, weather and flow reports looked promising so I headed out Friday at the close of business. They mixed up the flow on Saturday, they were running two turbines from 8 am until 1 pm so I headed down stream several miles where it would take about 3 hours for the water to catch up to me. The morning was cold, and with minimal flow, the fishing was a little slower than I had expected but got 7 to hand before the water reached me. It was 11 oclock; I headed back to the cabin for lunch and to wait for them to cut the flow back. At 12:30, I drove to the dam and suited back up. Right on schedule they cut one turbine off, the river level immediately started to drop and I was able to get in the water. First cast produced a nice 11 brown, several casts later I had a nice fish on but broke off my 7x tippet. After an hour, they cut the second turbine off and the water continued to drop creating lots of pools and seam lines. There was some midges hatching, you could see some rising fish so I tied on a size 22 Griffiths gnat which I was able to get some takers. Fished some water that I have not fished before which was fun and Saturday produced around 20 fish total. Sunday the schedule was one turbine from 8am until 8pm so I decided to sleep and hit the river around 10ish. it was overcast, cold and breezy and I only saw 3 others on the river that morning; major difference from Saturday, when they turned the water off, people were everywhere. I rigged up a size 24 bead head zebra midge under a strike indicator and on my first cast had a hit that I missed but I felt good on the choice of bug I was using. I worked several runs that I know holds good fish and was able to get a decent amount of action. The wind made casting difficult and with the heavier flow, you had to work hard at mending and stripping to make drifts look natural and to get a set when fish hit; it did not help matters any that my finger tips were numb. I missed a bunch in my 3 hour stint but did get a dozen to hand. No monster fish on this trip, nicest fish went 14 but I was happy with that catch to be on water once again. Here are some pics of a few that I brought in that were fat and happy along with a Bald Eagle soaring overhead. Merry Christmas and tight lines to you all!!


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