# If you live in Ohio and have never fished Tennessee



## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

What's stopping you? A friend I fish with started fishing eastern TN a few years back and fell in love with the area. It wasn't long before he coaxed me into going and the place is truly amazing. Great fishing, great people, beautiful scenery, good food, incredibly easy travel to get there. From Athens, I can be there in under 5 hours, barring major traffic. There are slob trout in the South Holston and Watauga, and I can honestly say I usually don't catch them, but I have a heck of a lot of fun catching fish to 15-16". The only thing I don't like is that the fishing usually requires fine tippet, and I hate 6x and smaller with a special passion. I got off work early on Friday to drive down and meet my friends who were there a day earlier. Remember what I said about traffic? Yea, this cost me about half an hour.










I got to Bluff City with enough time to fish for about 90 minutes before heading to the campground where we usually stay. It didn't take long to find fish (it never does), and I brought several rainbows and a small brown to the net that first night. The setup was pretty typical. 12' 6x leader, 6x fluorocarbon tippet, a CDC sulphur emerger as the "dry," and a size 14 split case pheasant tail as the dropper about 14" behind the emerger.










The primary factor that determines where we fish down there is the TVA and their generation schedule. If they are running water on the South Holston or Watauga, it gets really tough to wade. Dangerous, too, in a lot of places. On my last 2 trips to the area, I didn't get a wading schedule for either big river, but fortunately we hit some small mountain freestone streams and still caught a lot of fish. This time, it was like the TVA rolled out the welcome mat for wading anglers. We fished both tailwaters the first day, and I fished the Watauga again yesterday until shortly after lunch before hitting the road back to Ohio. Something I did this time that was new to me was carry two rods. I bought a Vedavoo rod holster and it worked great. I carried a 9' 5wt rigged with a dry/dropper setup, and a 10' 4wt rigged with a tandem nymph rig. If I came to slower water with rising fish, I threw the dry/dropper. If I found good nymphing water, I switched rods. Here are a few of the fish that cooperated for a photo over the weekend.





































This one was fun. I started playing with skating the CDC emerger on the Soho and catching a lot of fish on the skate. This was the best fish that ate the skating emerger.










I was hoofing it back to the car yesterday and stopped one more time at this riffle where I caught a ton of fish, and picked up several more.



















Here's the star of the show, a survivor that made it past the thousands of trout trying to eat it. This little sulfur landed on my hand and hung out for a minute.










On Saturday, after leaving the water and getting ready to go get dinner, a black bear cub swam the Soho and ran through the yard where we were parked. It was running, I was running, not the greatest photo.










And if you're ever in the area, you have to sample the magical herbal soda of TN, Dr. Enuf. I stopped at a grocery store on the way back and got three 4-packs to bring home. Good stuff.


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## slimdaddy45 (Aug 27, 2007)

iVE always wanted to learn to flyfish but just never got around to it now Im old but some day I might get a fly rod and try to learn but nice fish looks as you had fun river ever gets in good shape I'll head down to Whites Mill to see if I can catch another big flathead out of there my biggest is 56.5# out of there


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

slimdaddy45 said:


> iVE always wanted to learn to flyfish but just never got around to it now Im old but some day I might get a fly rod and try to learn but nice fish looks as you had fun river ever gets in good shape I'll head down to Whites Mill to see if I can catch another big flathead out of there my biggest is 56.5# out of there


I feel like I've been saying "when the river gets in good shape" since 2017. 

Never too old to start fly fishing, it's a fun way to fish!


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

Great report and some great fish.
I've considered fishing some Tenn tailwaters but always end up in the Smoky Mnt backcountry, maybe next time  those are certainly some nice browns.
Love the idea of the rod holster, I find myself carrying two rods often, a heavy rod for hybrids and light rod for skipjack, (I had no clue that device existed) definitely getting one soon.
Good luck and good fishing !


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## Flathead76 (May 2, 2010)

You should check out the tail waters below center hill lake. State record Brook trout came out of there a few years back. The minimum size limits are crazy to produce trophy fish.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

garhtr said:


> Great report and some great fish.
> I've considered fishing some Tenn tailwaters but always end up in the Smoky Mnt backcountry, maybe next time  those are certainly some nice browns.
> Love the idea of the rod holster, I find myself carrying two rods often, a heavy rod for hybrids and light rod for skipjack, (I had no clue that device existed) definitely getting one soon.
> Good luck and good fishing !


This is the one I used:

https://vedavoo.com/product/rod-holster/

I'm not sure if any other companies make them or not, but this one worked great for me. Just be mindful when walking under low hanging limbs!


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Flathead76 said:


> You should check out the tail waters below center hill lake. State record Brook trout came out of there a few years back. The minimum size limits are crazy to produce trophy fish.
> View attachment 309029


So many good rivers, tailwaters, and creeks in that state, and so little time! They are spoiled down there.


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

TheCream said:


> This is the one I used:
> https://vedavoo.com/product/rod-holster/


 Thanks ! Ordering one this week. I've been carrying my 2wt tucked under my left arm while wading, makes stripping and photographing a little difficult, plus I've dropped it several times, once in some pretty fast water, luckily I was able to snatch it before it was lost 
Good luck and good fishing !


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Catch any brookies there? My special dream is to go on a trip to the mountains to catch some of our special native brook trout. Not that I’d object to browns and bows, but specks are on my bucket list.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

kingofamberley said:


> Catch any brookies there? My special dream is to go on a trip to the mountains to catch some of our special native brook trout. Not that I’d object to browns and bows, but specks are on my bucket list.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


There are good brookie streams in the area, but I've never seen one caught from the South Holston or Watauga. I'm not going to say it's impossible they are there because weird stuff happens, but I've never seen one there. If you want brookies, the best bet is to go up in the mountains to a smaller stream. I catch a lot of brookies in the mountains of WV when I get down there, and they are gorgeous fish when they are wild.


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## privateer (Apr 26, 2012)

Be prepared to do some mountain hiking if you want to catch the native Brook Trout. I did more hiking and climbing over boulders than fishing and you need to have lightweight fishing gear and move like you are hunting as the water is clear and the fish are wary. I like a nice 5'8" #4 weight rod for the mountain streams. But will go up to 9' #5 weight for the tailwaters. If specifically targeting big browns, typically during discharge from dam on tailwaters, will go even bigger than #5 for throwing streamers. My son and I will be guiding in East Tennessee tailwaters next year from our new Stealthcraft driftboat and if you are in shape and brave enough to chase the brook trout, that will be in the Smokies.


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

kingofamberley said:


> My special dream is to go on a trip to the mountains to catch some of our special native brook trout.


Almost anywhere in the Smoky Mnts above 3000ft will get you into brook trout. I favor the N.C side of the mnts but plenty of good streams on the Tenn side. There are a couple streams in Ky that are closer that contain brookies but the fishing isn't on par with NC/ Tenn imo.


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## privateer (Apr 26, 2012)

garhtr said:


> Almost anywhere in the Smoky Mnts above 3000ft will get you into brook trout. I favor the N.C side of the mnts but plenty of good streams on the Tenn side. There are a couple streams in Ky that are closer that contain brookies but the fishing isn't on par with NC/ Tenn imo.


make sure you check the regulations. most of those streams on the TN side are artificial only once you get that high AND they are single hook. while not that big a deal if fly fishing, if using spinning gear and using small spinners like mepps - you will have to change out the hook to a single or cut off 2-shanks to make it a single hook. it is violation to even possess lures with other than a single hook in these areas. dropper flys are permitted and it is pretty effective to have a dry with a nymph behind it.

if targeting brookies, we will even mash down the barb so that we don't harm the fish when releasing.


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

i was gonna move to Tennessee, ended up in wisconsin instead. a small town called hudson. 25 miles east of minneapolis. the fishing is great. we're at the north end area known as the driftless. a lot of spring creeks with wild trout. the musky fishing is good too.


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## privateer (Apr 26, 2012)

and


Patricio said:


> i was gonna move to Tennessee, ended up in wisconsin instead. a small town called hudson. 25 miles east of minneapolis. the fishing is great. we're at the north end area known as the driftless. a lot of spring creeks with wild trout. the musky fishing is good too.



initially, i traded two bad weeks up north (february) for two bad weeks in south (august). however, now my schedule lets me have the best of both worlds. i get to be in the south for february and in the north for august AND the fishing is great in both locations. sometimes it is better to be lucky than good...


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I've fished east TN in the months of Jan, Mar, May, June, Aug, Oct, and Dec and I haven't hit a bad month yet.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

TheCream said:


> I've fished east TN in the months of Jan, Mar, May, June, Aug, Oct, and Dec and I haven't hit a bad month yet.


Awesome report Cream, glad you had another great outing down south! The nice thing about the tailraces of TN is that the water temperatures for the most part remain fairly consistent throughout the year which promotes a stellar entomology base; hatches and dry fly fishing can take place year round. I will say with the inordinate amount of rainfall over the past year (2018- 68" new record) and 25" already this year, timing is everything. This past weekend including today's rainfall, almost every tailwater system is currently running full capacity with some spilling as well as the reservoirs are rising. If anyone is planning on a trip south, make sure to check the conditions of the rivers at https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Lake-Levels especially if you are planning on wade fishing.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

flyman01 said:


> Awesome report Cream, glad you had another great outing down south! The nice thing about the tailraces of TN is that the water temperatures for the most part remain fairly consistent throughout the year which promotes a stellar entomology base; hatches and dry fly fishing can take place year round. I will say with the inordinate amount of rainfall over the past year (2018- 68" new record) and 25" already this year, timing is everything. This past weekend including today's rainfall, almost every tailwater system is currently running full capacity with some spilling as well as the reservoirs are rising. If anyone is planning on a trip south, make sure to check the conditions of the rivers at https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Lake-Levels especially if you are planning on wade fishing.


And I'd even add to that, check it throughout the day if you're there. We've had it swing both ways down there (supposed to generate and they stopped, supposed to not run water and they start generating) and unless you check the app/site you don't know. Unless you're in horn's reach of the dam, in which case you'd get that audible warning. My favorite thing about that area is that there's so many options that if they are generating water you can still fish in other streams that aren't TVA-controlled.


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## flyman01 (Jan 23, 2013)

TheCream said:


> And I'd even add to that, check it throughout the day if you're there. We've had it swing both ways down there (supposed to generate and they stopped, supposed to not run water and they start generating) and unless you check the app/site you don't know. Unless you're in horn's reach of the dam, in which case you'd get that audible warning. My favorite thing about that area is that there's so many options that if they are generating water you can still fish in other streams that aren't TVA-controlled.



All valid points, I too have been confronted with a changing flow schedule that affected the day, mine has been toward the worse and not better. Keep in mind, this is the exception and not the norm even though it is on the TVA website that conditions can change without notice. For those visiting down here and wanting to fish a tail water, an alternate plan should be in place beforehand in case of the “what if” comes into play and TVA decides to change the schedule on you and the river is no longer safe to wade. Typically if there has been heavy rainfall for a couple of days and the tail water is running heavy at the hands of TVA, other streams and rivers not controlled by them will too be unfishable so the “what if” for such times is void

When looking up the tail water on the TVA website, know which Reservoir from which the river is created IE- the Clinch River is Lake Norris. I say this because I cannot tell you how many times people who come down here to fish the Hiwassee River – my home waters, and looked up the Hiwassee Reservoir and yet the Apalachia Reservoir creates the portion of the river known for the fishing. Yes, there is only one “P” in the name, and by looking up the incorrect reservoir, people arrive only to find the generator(s) running or end up getting caught by the surge and have a long walk down the railroad tracks to be able to cross over the man bridge.

Keep note of the latest generation schedule that was posted close to the time you are getting on the river; phone service is not always possible depending on the river you are fishing. Areas on the Clinch have no service as does the Hiwassee, unless you are close to the damn you will not hear the siren go off when they start generating and you can be caught off guard. A treatise has been written for just about every tail water that informs you the time it takes the water to reach points below the dam once generation has started. Google the river and flow rates and you should be able to find this information for the river you desire to fish; it is valuable to know this. Be safe and enjoy the Tennessee rivers, great fishing to be had in the mountainous settings.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Along those same lines, the Watauga River near Elizabethton is controlled by the Wilbur Dam, not the Watauga Dam.


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## privateer (Apr 26, 2012)

when they do release water from Norris to Clinch river, for example. Above the weir dam, the initial wave close to the dam is a 1' wave of water. that could catch you in a bad spot if you are near the dam and far from shore. below the weir dam, the water comes up more gently and how much is dependent on the number of generators started. Of course this more gradual rise of water is so gradual downriver that you may not notice it until you have to get out at the nearest point. on the Clinch, that means going onto private land and some of the folks along the river are not too happy when you do...


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

Patricio,
I have a friend who has done business a couple times in the last year and fished the "driftless" area. He could use some help to have more success. Would you be willing to share info with him to help him out next time?
Thank you,
Rickerd


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

sure. where does he do his business? 



i mean where does his business take him?


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