The Holston

Well, kinda embarassing...my little speil about keeping up a blog...I have't really managed to get out much since then. Oh, there was a couple of on the spur moments to Metcalf Bottoms and high stuck a few nice fish - but on a whole, no real adventures to speak of.

I did however, manage to hit the Holston below Cherokee Dam with a buddy of mine who had borrowed a little Native Drifter from a fellow guide. A few weeks ago (obviously past due for a true blogger) we tried to float from the dam to a take out called Nances Ferry. Getting up at the crack of dawn and drive the hour to get there (after dropping off a car at the take out - no shuttle service here) we arrive to a locked gate to the boat launch. Irritating to say the least. So we plodded on down to Nances Ferry and waded some. Our target was smallies seeing as how the Cherokee is primarily a winter/early spring fishery. Temps get to warm downstream because Cherokee Lake is not as deep as some of our TVA impoundments and so the generations aren't as cold year around. In the fall as temps cool, TWRA puts in a ton of fingerlings in a 14 mile stretch that by spring are a chunky footlong trout and fun to catch. They don't seem to be particularly choosy about thier fly, but it tough not to fish anything other than a caddis.
The general consenses is that if this water would maintain a decent temp, some of these fish will survive the over harvesters and this tailwater, with all is bug biomass, would rival even the South Holston - our current blue water gem...
Mid summer reports from local guides said that there were some actually some holdovers - and they looked healthy. Then we were hit with a drought. But the irony is that it has cause more generations and the water has been more favorable.
So we decided to take the boat to a little unknown ramp at Indian Cave and salvage a float. He was after smallies, but after catching a few healthy trout at Nances - trout was on my mind.
Even as we put in, I notice rises in the slack water below us. I tried for a few, but the gin slow water and boat put them down...
We did find some nice shoals that had feeding fish and there were other waders about, and the trout were there. I was astonished to say the least.
As we drifted down, we hit pockets of trout here and there...our guess was maybe they have gravitated to the various springs that dot the river. Some areas were void of trout, but carp were everywhere and a few smallies.
It was a hot day, 95 plus if I recall correctly - man those currentless stretches were brutal as heat exhaustion on the oars was imminent threat. I don't know how many bottles of water I drank that day, but I was still thirsty several hours after making it home late that evening.
towards the take out, we anchored at a nice set of shoals...not more that 10 ft from the boat I picked up some nice 'bows and a beauty of a brown that I actually saw leap moments earlier. Seems there were some caddis coming off and there was no hesitation to thier takes of my EHC.
The smallmouth seem tight lipped and none came to any streamer pattern tossed their way.

It was a great day, though hot and humid. It's amazing how you forget those things when you're catching fish. I hope that these fish will hang on through the continuing drought. Next spring this stretch will be slab city.

A new years resolution...

Here it is another new year. A resolution I have made besides the obligatory get-in-shape or contribute to world peace, is to keep a better record my fly fishing pursuits. I wish I had kept a better detailed log of my past 9 years of fly fishing various east Tennessee waters and other states (not too exotic of locales mind you). From my very first little rainbow caught above Tremont (Great Smokey Mountains) on my hand tied flies to seeing monster browns rising to a blanket sulphur hatch from a Clacka on a one generation flow on the South Holston tail water. The back country camping trips in search of specs with a buddy into the Smokies and the visits to my folks in NW Montana and catching westslope cutts and greyling in Glacier Nat'l Park and "guiding" my dad to his first fly rod trout...time flies (no pun intended) and everything seems to blend together. Every now and again , I wish I could reference or even relive a particular moment from a past outing. Not just the critical info of weather,water temps, flies and tactics used, nor just a brag board of fish I've caught - but mostly reliving a good time with the people I've been fortunate to catch fish with or the various introspective observations of life and fishing and everything in between (epiphanies if you will) that I swore to remember but have all but forgotten...
And so, this is my grand attempt to start a new journal. After seeing a few blogs, I've decided to try my own. Maybe seeing it "published" can spur me to keep up with it. Though the sad part is as the saying goes: no man ever fishes as much as he wants too - I really don't have the time like I used to to get out and explore a stream. Which is another reason why I wished I kept better track of my past endeavors. My life (as I'm sure I'm not the only one) is infinitely complicated. I have a wife who has just started grad school, a 5 year old son learning and participating in seasonal sports , a 4 year old daughter starting in cheer leading, a job of raising 40 teenage boys that litterally has be busy 60 - 80 hrs a week all the while being a Mr. Mom to my own kids and 3 days a week teaching a basic black and white photography class... the combined chaos kinda keeps me off the water. I'm lucky to get out once or twice a month. In addition, the next two years , 2/3 of our income will be gone and that really hurts the water seeking budget. Can't help but long for "the good ol' days" of which now I have trouble remembering, hence all of this...
Documenting those glorious fleeting moments of freedom when I actually do get out to wet a line, surrounding myself with like minded friends and maybe even catch fish or two might help me back row a little against the swift currents of life, casting to the past a little bit more before drifting downstream into the final take out.