Spring fever is catching here in the Smoky Mountains and across Tennessee. Fly fishers have begun to disregard the weather report and just go fishing! We’ve got it about as bad as anyone.
This is the time of year when we’re consumed with the mundane details of operating a guide service. We’ve been tending to details […]

We’ve had plenty of rain and some warm weather here in the mountains of East Tennessee. Local streams are just about where they need to be, perhaps even a little high, and more rain is on the way. For the first time in a long time our rainfall totals are caught up, even if it […]

2007 saw the worst drought on record for the Southern Appalachian region. Water levels were at historic lows throughout East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Many fly fishers wrote the park off as a disaster area and headed to other destinations. While we couldn’t blame anyone, we experienced great fishing […]

There are some new regulations that have taken effect and should help provide better fishing in the future. These regulations apply to trout in the Clinch River tailwater below Norris Dam and smallmouth bass in several East Tennessee rivers.
Perhaps the most promising regulation is the new catch and release slot limit on the Clinch. The […]

It’s been a long winter and we’re all itching to get back on the water. Here are a couple of video moments to help you remember what it’s like to be on the river when the sun is shining and the trout are rising.
The first clip was filmed by our good friend Carl Babcock in […]

Winter fly fishing in Tennessee isn’t that hard to endure compared to Michigan, Montana, and Maine among other places. That still doesn’t mean that it’s not cold though. We’ve had a string of days when the thermometer barely cracked 30, so needless to say, if you’re going fishing you’re gonna get cold.
Earlier in the week […]

We’re just getting over a bout with the cold here in the Rutter household. Our daughter Willow picked it up at a birthday party a couple of weeks ago, Charity succumbed a few days later, and I held on until the bitter end when I got it. We all seem to have turned the corner […]

Where Have Ian & Charity Been?
We’re still around and I suppose we’ve got some explaining to do. It’s been quite a while since we’ve posted anything and we’d like to assure everyone that we’re OK. Thanks to all who checked in to make sure we were still around. Some folks have made the reasonable assumption […]

Generation schedules on the Clinch have been optimum for getting out on the water and doing some fishing while wading, but the fish have been a little less than cooperative. I guided a float trip on the Clinch on Friday and it was among the tougher fishing days in recent memory. There were some missed […]

Charity and I returned from our Western trip a couple of days ago and are gearing up for the busy fall fly fishing season in Tennessee and North Carolina. We intended to post a few reports from the road but a lack of internet access and an abundance of fishing opportunities kept us from getting […]