September 29 We're finally back from our Western fly fishing adventures in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho! We've barely gotten upacked and our fall guide schedule for the Smoky Mountain region kicks into gear tomorrow. We've returned to some beautiful fall weather. It was 45 degrees on our porch this morning and it was a sunny day that only made it into the low 60's. Perfect fishing conditions. While we were gone there were several substantial rains so the creeks are in great shape. Furthermore, tailwater fishing is in good shape as well. The relatively dry summer in the region has kept lake levels in Norris Lake somewhat low. As a result, generation from Norris Dam has been subdued for this time of year for the Clinch River. Our buddy Tim Doyle floated the Clinch today and reportedc an excellent day on the water. Most fish were in the 12" range with one rainbow around 17" and one large brown probably in excess of 20" that came off. Dry fly fishing in the Smokies should be great with the weather we're having and even if the fish won't rise they should take a nymph well. Fall is prime time for small olives and small dun caddis. We'll also be keeping an eye out for pre-spawn browns on the move . We're on the verge of getting into our fall floats on the Tuckaseegee on North Carolina. This delayed harvest river provides some excellent action on nymphs and streamers and fishes well thoughout the winter.

Our Western trip was a great success. I'm trying to put together an online journal of our travels with photos from all the great places we fished. We floated the upper Bighorn in Wyoming, the Madison in Montana, and the Henry's Fork in Idaho. In addition to that we waded multiple locations on the Madison plus some spots in Yellowstone National Park. We've got a ton of nice photos that we'll be posting. I plan to have it up by the time I get the next newsletter done.

September 5 I've wanted to get things updated. Goodness knows we've got plenty to report, we've just had a lot of things to do and only a little bit of time. Charity did a Casting For Recovery weekend at the Green River Preserve in North Carolina. This is a cause that has become near and dear to Charity's heart. She always has such a great time teaching breast cancer survivors how to fly fish and sharing her enthusiasm for the sport. In fact Charity is currently one of several women organizing a CFR event in Tennessee next spring. While she was gone I was Mr. Mom and did pretty good flying solo for an entire weekend.

Once Charity returened we had some guide days up in the Smokies and the fishing has really come along nicely. It seems that the heat of summer has left us and we're in the pleasant weather of the fall season. It's also been pretty wet so the streams are in excellent shape. I even saw some olives hatching on Little River the other day, a precursor of things to come! All of the streams are currently fishing pretty good. It's cooled down such that the large streams are productive, but it's still warm enough so that high elevation brookie streams will continue to fish well. This trend should continue well into October. Tim Doyle has done a few floats over on Calderwood Lake and reports that while the lake is as beautiful as ever, the fish aren't as easy to hook as they were last year. He's had folks hook a blend of smallies and trout. Interestingly enough, the trout have been browns and brookies. We've seen at least as many browns as rainbows this year. Perhaps even larger fish to come in the years ahead?

I took Townsend resident Fletcher Spence and his fishing buddy Jack for a float on the Clinch. While the fishing wasn't overly easy, it was pretty good for early September. Most of the fish were relatively small, but four measured at least 14" on a measuring tape and pulled fly line off the reels. If we didn't measure them we could have easily exaggerated that they were at least 16". I recently bought a new digital SLR that is taking some great photos. Unfortunately I'm digitally impaired enough that I'm having a tough time getting the photos from the camera disk to the web site. There are a few steps in between and they're different than what I typically do. I know there are at least two of you who are reading this and are gritting your teeth and smacking your forehead while yelling "What a dope!" Tom at Trout Underground is one, but he's on a brook trout/smallmouth trip in Maine and is possibly in a remote enough location to miss this post. The other is Grant my web guru.

Speaking of Grant, he might just be able to talk me through some remote posts from Montana's Madison River. Charity and I leave in the morning for 17 glorious days in Yellowstone Country. We'll be hosting 2 groups of anglers on the Madison and are looking foward to seeing everyone there. We're staying at the Slide Inn only a few yards from the Madison. We plan on the usual routine of hitting our favorite spots but are also have tentative plans to float sections we still haven't fished as well as a possible streamer flinging foray down the Jefferson River. Looks like we'll also spend some time on the Henry's Fork just over the state line in Idaho. I'm planning to keep the reports rolling as Tim Doyle is covering our trips here in Tennessee. We'll see you on the road!

August 23 It's been a while since we've been on the Clinch and about as long since Charity or I have had the chance to sling big streamers. Right now TVA is lowering Norris Lake so flows are very high, but recreational flows on the weekend make for good fishing. We put in last Sunday at Miller's Island with one generator flowing under us most of the day. Someone fishing around Clinton could have waded until 1 or 2 o'clock. Cloudy conditions with intermittent drizzle put a dense fog over the cold water. In fact it was actually a little chilly, at least if you've grown accustomed to temperatures 85-95. We didn't have a thermometer but I'd guess temps were in the low 70's plus it was damp.

Things started out pretty slow while Charity rowed and I would cast, strip, strip, strip, repeat with little action. Barely a mile down the river we both spotted a couple of pods of fish and took a break to fish something more reasonable than the oversized #2 streamer with two birds worth of marabou and enough rubber legs to make it appear epileptic in the water. Only the rare rise even tipped us off to the fish, but we could clearly see them holding from where we were anchored. A #16 Beadhead Pheasant Tail got several eats from standard issue rainbows of 9-11". After satisfying the bloodlust to hook a few fish we decided to go back to the streamer. Most of the fish that chased it weren't really in the category of fish that could effectively eat it. We had a bit of discussion as to whether or not we should downsize, because after all plenty of fish seemed interested. Again the decision was to hang in there. We've seen plenty of gargantuan browns in the Clinch over the years and been fortunate enough to catch a few. The concensus was to go for quality over quantity.

Late in the afternoon we finally began to attract to fish that could actually wrap their jaws around a big fly. Most flashed the fly, only followed, or my favorite, I'd miss them. The best fish of the day was a brown we taped at a hair under 16". In typical fashion, there was no follow or any sign that anything would happen, only a THUMP that came out of nowhere. I've always said a following fish is a good sign, but only one out of four or five will eat. The longer they look, the less the chance they'll take. I always hope for an impulse shopper not a tire kicker or label reader. The last hour of the float we got a number of good flashes and missed several nice fish. I'm guestimating (which is always dangerous) that the best fish we saw all day was a brown 18-20" that ate but didn't get hooked. We also anchored up on a pod of fish that can always be found rising. We hooked a few small ones on dries to remember what a bent rod felt like, then went back to slinging meat.

Both Charity and I guided anglers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Monday. Weather was clear and warm, but pleasant at around 3000' where we were fishing. Charity took Zane Rope and his girlfriend Jessica. Both have fly fished before but were relative novices. By the end of the day both had numerous strikes, plenty of hook ups, and managed to land a variety of rainbows, browns, and brookies. I took George Delancey for a day on the water. George spends plenty of time fishing in warm water but had only limited experience with trout and none whatsoever in the Smokies. After a productive morning of hooking up rainbows we headed to a more remote location in search of some wild and native brookies. That was one of George's goals, to catch a Smoky Mountain brookie. He caught several as large as 7", pretty decent for a small stream, and even managed to catch a couple of 10" browns in the same area. The weather seems as if it will be moderating in the coming days. Fall will here soon with trout rising to small olives, spawning browns, and floats on North Carolina's Tuckaseegee.

August 18 I've been itching to do more fishing, yet do something a little out of the ordinary. Charity has had several big design projects going, but has commented a couple of times that she might as well do that since it's so hot out.Tim Doyle and I took a quick smallmouth trip just across the North Carolina state line to the Cheoah River yesterday. Cheoah River is backed up by Santeetlah Dam which almost entirely cuts off the flow. A few streams feed the riverbed so it has a much lower flow than in naturally should because of the dam. At first glance it looks like a trout river because of the boulders, rock ledges, and white water but the water temperatures favor smallies in the summer. I've fished the river close to the mouth on Calderwood Lake and Tim has never fished it beyond the mouth so we were pretty excited, plus it was a good opportunity for me to string up my new Scott G2 9' 6 weight. I'm really looking forward to getting that rod on the Madison in a few weeks.

I tied on a #8 White Zuddler and there were smallies swarming it in no time! Most of the fish we caught were in the range of 8-10". I'm always a fan of fishing streamers, especially ones like the White Zuddler because it's every bit as visual as dry fly fishing. I had a couple of pretty nice fish hooked that came off. One memorable bass slid out from a boulder and probably moved 15 feet to eat the fly. It was a solid fish that came off after a couple of splashy jumps. Tim landed a couple of good ones that were about a foot long. It was a neat river to fish with plenty of eager fish, but it was pretty rough going. Rougher than most Smoky Mountain trout streams of the same size.

August 16 We're doing a little fishing, a bit of guiding, and plenty of work. The weather has cooled off to merely average, a break from the mid 90's that have been so prevalent through most of the region. In fact, several rainy and cloudy days kept temperatures in the 70's for several days. My old friend Roger Sederberg was in town last weekend and I took him for an easy day of fishing on Calderwood. Roger recently moved away from East Tennessee to his native Indiana and seems to genuinely miss the mountains. The combination of August fishing conditions, weather, and the fact Roger had never been to Calderwood prompted me to suggest it. While the conditions were perfect, fishing was pretty slow. An intermittent drizzle and calm wind led me to believe we would massacre fish, but it wasn't quite like that. We got a few browns to follow and a few missed strikes by trout we couldn't identify by the quick tug, but the catching didn't even come close to matching the scenery and relaxed nature of the day.

Yesterday I took Rick and Mary Misischia fishing on Little River. Both are pretty new to fly fishing and completely new to fishing mountain streams for trout. After some casting on the grass I put them on the water with live ammo. The cooler weather and recent rain had the fish active and responding nicely. At one point Rick hooked his fly on a boulder. I took the rod to show him how he roll cast the fly off, but while my efforts managed to free the fly it seems to snag something on the back side of the boulder. I waded on over to free the snag and the leader raced across the river. The new "snag" was a decent brown trout. The fish have to be pretty active to catch them like that!

While there was only the slightest hint of insect activity, dry flies worked well enough that we never tied a nymph on all day long. However, anyone who likes to tick the bottom might consider drowning a #8-10 Tellico Nymph. There were plenty of fresh husks on the rocks. They hatch at night, but evidence of their presence is undisputable. The big Yellarhammers fished by the old time guys probably imitate a drowned adult that has laid eggs and died. Or it could imitate the nymph. Hard to say since not a single fish has ever told us what they were thinking.You might also check out a new article I've posted about fly fishing during tough summer conditions. The heat will last for at least another month so I hope this helps you hook a few more fish this season.

August 10 I've got more free time on my hands than I'm used to. That's given me time to not only get another report in this week, but even go fishing for myself! Charity has a big project cooking with one of her clients so I headed over to Snowbird Creek just over the NC state line with my buddy Doug Sanders who lives just down the street. It was one of those days of fishing that I used to do so often, but as our guide service has gotten busier I don't have the time to do. We guess we put in a round trip of 10 miles. Snowbird is one of those great streams that requires a hike to reach the best water and has a great population of rainbows and browns. A large waterfall divides the stream from "the usual backcountry stream" to the largest stream in Southern Appalachia that is purely brook trout. We started off in the mixed water with brown trout on the brain. We landed several nice rainbows and browns up to about 9" and had a couple of browns in the 12" range put their nose on the fly but refuse. By mid-afternoon we scratched and scraped our way up a steep slope of thick rhododendrons to find the trail and get upstream into the brookie water. If you don't know why they're called rhododendron hells, try belly crawling through the tangles with a pricey fly rod in one hand, an expensive camera hanging around your neck, and images of copperheads and rattlesnakes slithering through your imagination. While it wasn't a fish on every cast, the fishing was still very good, particularly for mid-August. By the way, I brought 2 cameras along, but of course, nothing out of the ordinary jumped in front of the lens.

Congratulations to our good friend Tom Chandler over at Trout Underground. Someone somewhere with more free time than we do has named his site the best fly fishing blog on the net. Check his report about his unusually rewarding evening on his home water, the Upper Sacremento near Dunsmuir, California.

August 8 The first week of August has been relatively busy from a guiding standpoint. I think most people have been trying for that one last getaway before the back to school rush. Anyone that lives anywhere in the Southeast knows that it's been oppressively hot and high humidity just knocks the wind out of your sails. Fortunately the high country of the Smokies has remained quite pleasant. In fact, every angler we've taken has commented on the pleasant temperatures on the stream. The sound of thunder rolling over the mountains has been common every afternoon. While most of the region is suffering from the heat and a slight drought, the Smokies are receiving plenty of rain. In fact, I saw that doppler radar estimated as much as 5" from one storm in the vicinity of Calderwood Lake the other day. TVA is running quite a bit of water on the Clinch and Holston right now, so those floats aren't much. The Clinch does have guaranteed schedules on weekends that are very good for floats. The water stays cold no matter what, but the weather really needs to cool down for that to be very pleasant for the angler since there's not much shade.

As usual we've focused our attention on the smaller waters at or above 3000'. We've been in a blend of rainbows, brookies and browns depending on the streams we've fished. Charity took some anglers up in the park for an afternoon of instruction with some casts over brookies. These guys are now firmly enthusiastic about fly fishing and ready to do more. Later in the week she took the Chaffen family out for a morning of instruction. Ron, who I've guided before, really wanted his wife Sherry and daughter Madison to find an appreciation for the sport he loves. Madison's fly fishing career started off with a bang when she hooked and landed a 11" rainbow. Pretty good for the Smokies, not to mention her first fish. Sherry also did very well and even managed to hook and land a fish with no instruction at the end of the day while Charity was working with Madison.

Wish I had a camera on me more often this past week. We've had some great wildlife moments. The other day I was just getting out for about an hour to get some fresh air. The combination of heat and tubers didn't really make fishing the river near the house a decent option so I took a short drive on some back roads around Townsend and the park. Drove past a bear in a bee hive! That was perhaps the best wildlife photo I could have ever gotten and didn't have any of our cameras in the car! It was right next to the road with bees all over him. He'd shake his head when the bees got in his ears, but seemed rather unconcerned otherwise. Yesterday I took my daughter Willow for a short hike and splash session in the creek. On the way back down the trail I noticed a copperhead coiled beautifully on a mossy log a few yards off the side of the trail. The contrast of the snake's copperish tan bady on the bright green moss should have made a beatiful photo, but again, no camera. And only 24 hours since the bear incident. You'd think I'd learn!

Thanks for all the nice comments several of you have made about my article on fly fishing with terrestrials in the summer issue of Fish & Fly. I was a bit confused at first since I had forgotten about the piece. It was submitted months ago. In any case it has some good information that you may find useful for fishing in the dog days of summer into early fall.

We're starting to prepare for our annual pilgrimage to the Madison and Yellowstone Nat'l Park. I'm gathering materials to get some flies tied. Charity and I also plan to spend some time over in Idaho this year too and try to learn more abou the Henry's Fork. This is a river we visit about every other year for a few hours, but never really get serious about. I don't know if we'll be able to tear ourselves from the Madison during prime baetis conditions, but we'll try to sample the Fork as well. We're also in the process of planning for Turneffe Flats Belize in February. I've been checking on flights for that. We're heading down after the fly fishing show season is over and will be in need of a good amount of time on the water and some warm weather too.

July 30 It's been quiet enough that Charity and I have been able to do some fishing for ourselves and get some work done other than guiding. On Friday we took the new boat out on a family outing over on the Holston River tailwater. Willow really enjoys getting out on the water so it's not too big a chore to bring her along. We just took turns fishing and playing with her in the shallow water. While the dry fly fishing is only a shadow of what it was a few months ago, there were still enough risers for us to keep the dry fly rod rigged. We used one of my old favorite rods, the Scott G series 8' 4 weight which, in all honesty, was a little on the small side for the river and the strong fish. We should've been using a 5 weight, but we got the fly on target even with a light breeze and the fish really felt good on the light rod. This might be the last time we fish the Holston for some time. I saw on the news the other day that TVA will start to draw down the reservoirs so generation will be at a maximum, not the best schedules for the Holston or Clinch. That does provide excellent float conditions on the South Holston though.

The heat is supposed to return to the 90's again this week and we're scheduled for several wade trips so we'll be back high in the Smoky Mountains where it remains comfortable. We had a good rain yesterday so water levels are good. Water temps on Little River are OK, but the fish are pretty tightlipped until you get above Elkmont. Terrestrials are the way to go for those who hang in along the road downstream of Elkmont.

July 27 Our new boat has arrived and we're so excited! Paul, the Hyde delivery driver called Tuesday from St. Louis and said he could meet us that evening off of I-40 or we could meet him the next morning. We couldn't stand to wait any longer and met Paul at around 10 PM. Willow took it all more calmly that either Charity or myself since she slept in car seat while Paul unloaded the boat and we hitched it up to go home. Our old Hyde served us well but it was time for a new one and this one is awesome! It has a complete walk-around interior. No benches to step over. The back seat position also has far more room than our previous boat. The boat also has rod racks which allow each angler to keep 2 fly rods rigged but stowed out of the way and easily within reach. This means you can fish a dry and still have a nymph and streamer rigged and ready to go. We have at least as much dry storage for all your gear and duffles. Each seat has a storage box under it plus there's storage under the stripping deck. There are also 2 dry storage boxes that run the length of the boat under the rod racks.

By the next morning the boat was floating down the Holston. Ben Shawley caught the first fish from it. I'm thrilled to say it was a 16" rainbow that was hooked on a dry fly, so that feels like a good omen. Fishing started off good but got pretty tough later in the day in the heat of the day. We hooked up several more nice fish, but all either broke off or just came loose. I had the boys cast some small streamers at structure along the banks and one nice smallmouth was hooked. Brian Shawley snagged up in some downed timber. I took the rod, rolled the line to free the fly then stripped the slack in while explaining to Brian how he could do the same when it happened in the future. I barely got the line tight to find that a 15 pound carp had picked up the fly. Brian took the rod but never really had a chance since the fish screamed into the timber and broke the tippet. Only one float on the boat and it's already got some good stories. We can't wait to make some more.

July 24 Another week of fun in the sun with a fly rod in hand! We've really been all over East Tennessee and a little bit of Western North Carolina in the past week. Streams in the Smokies have really fished pretty well as long as you're in the right place. That can be tougher in the middle of summer than it is earlier or later in the year when the water is cooler, more bugs are hatching, and we don't have to share the water with swimmers and tubers. I 've had some folks up on Little River around Elkmont and also over in the Greenbrier section of the park. Fishing has been OK on Little River, but this is really the toughest time of year outside of the coldest days of winter to get on fish. Water levels and temperatures have been fine and the fish aren't getting stressed. The bugs aren't very plentiful right now so the fish generally take it easy and don't have a greedy attitude. This isn't the case in the highest elevations where trout stay active throughout the summer. Kurt Krueger had a banner day catching some nice brookies and rainbows last week. We walked in a good distance and found plenty of green trout that rarely refused a fly. We've also been floating quite a bit this week.

Charity and I floated on Calderwood Lake one day this week. Charity got one very nice brown and we had a decent number of follows in a relatively short time on the water. The next day Tim Doyle and I went to Cheoah Lake and also stirred up some nice fish. This is the time of year when the lakes do the best. Right now I'm going to rate Cheoah better than Calderwood. More on that later. I floated Dick Davis and Nathan Taylor on the Holston River over the weekend. Conditions were good, but the fish were about as tough as they've been all season. Only a few caddis were hatching which led to only a few rising fish. All the fish we caught were pretty nice though and all were very strong. Nathan went to a streamer and caught a couple of smallmouth, one of which was very nice. The next day we went to Calderwood Lake. I hate to say it, but it was about the toughest Calderwood had fished for me. Nathan had a flurry of nice strikes and follows at one point, but the trout seemed to be taking the day off. I knew of one spot where there were a good number of smallmouth piled up and moved the boat there. Sure enough Nathan hooked up with several and missed some more. Dick also got in on the action and brought a smallie to the boat.

A few more things.... Anyone interested in beautiful scenes inspired by fly fishing shoud check out my friend Brent Golden's web site which showcases his brilliant fly fishing art. Brent is a talented fly fisher and photographer and much of his work focuses on our tailwaters in Tennessee. I also contributed an entry to the TroutUnderground a few days back. Many of you already follow this blog, but I think even more of you would enjoy it. It's out of Northern California, but fly fishing in that part of the country seems pretty similar to what we have here in Tennessee with a slight shift in background scenery.

July 17 For some reason I was under the impression that the week would be pretty relaxed and easy going. Looking back over the past week I'm not really sure where I got that idea. Last Tuesday I trailered our Hyde drift boat to the Caney Fork in middle Tennessee and slipped it into the water for the last time. I met David Perry and his fishing buddy Anthony who took the boat off my hands. While I've waded the Caney on a few occasions, it was the first time I had floated it. While most of the fish we caught were relatively small we saw some better fish and witnessed one huge brown trout run all over a school of bait fish. I spent most of the day fishing from the backseat and instructing the boys how to row a boat. They'll do great. The Caney is a forgiving river to learn on and the boat has landed in fine hands. We've all been fishing a bit further from Townsend when venturing into the park. The heat wave that's got a stranglehold on the nation is forcing us to hit our high elevation haunts. Water levels are actually pretty good so I'm not really worried about the fish getting stressed, they're just not very frisky in the larger streams in the lower elevations. I took Brad Wallace out for his first taste of fly fishing Smoky Mountain style on Wednesday while Charity did the same with Lee Booker. Brad got a grand slam on the Carolina side of the park while Lee had a big time with the brookies on the Tennessee side. Charity reports that Lee caught 3 of the best brookies she's seen in some time. On Thursday I took Lee on a float down the Holston River. We're still waiting for our new Hyde to deliver so I borrowed our good buddy Tim's boat. While the number of fish actively rising was pretty modest, Lee managed to raise a decent number on dry fly. Most of the risers would come to the caddis pattern I tied on for him. Nymphs drew strikes from trout in fishy water with no evident rises. Several of Lee's fish were around the 14" mark and pretty zippy. We were blown off the river a little early by a couple of storms with lightning flashing over head. On Saturday I took Lee over to the Carolina side of the park. Charity and Tim were also in the vicinity with anglers. All of us later agreed that activity was much better in the morning and took a serious slide in the afternoon by comparison. While Charity and Tim's anglers fished dries most of the time, I kept Lee casting beadheads in the pockets. It started out pretty good and I hated to mess with a good thing. An hour or so after lunch Lee flipped his nymph into a pocket that looked about the same as any other on the river. The indicator stopped, he set the hook, and I swear it looked like part of the bottom came up and started to move around the pocket. I'm sure Lee knew he hooked a substantial fish, but I flipped out. It was a brown that I'm going to give a wide estimate of 18-20". I'm sorry to have to estimate it, but I got a real good look a couple of times before I really hit the road and took off down the creek. While Lee was certainly sorry to lose a nice brown like that, he was more than pleased with the opportunity to encounter such a fish in the Smokies. The outlook for the coming weeks is essentially HOT. We'll probably begin to move our float schedule more and more to the lakes where the high ridges provide some shade to fish in, not to mention this is the time when the lakes typically start to fish really well. Last season we hooked plenty of rainbows, a few browns and the odd brookie on Calderwood. We may fish Cheoah more this season. Browns and brookies are more common there than Calderwood. We're also experimenting with the Pigeon River. This is an awesome smallmouth fishery that we fish more every year. Keep checking in and we'll keep you posted.

July 10 Mid-July and we're just about in the summer doldrums. No real hatches to talk about, although the fishing is still pretty good on a number of our rivers and streams. The biggest thing for me is that I've been on all the real good water during the best times of the season, so it doesn't bother me to do something a little out of the ordinary once things start to calm down. Hiking into remote brook trout streams can be fun, but I had the urge for something new to drift. Tim Doyle and I had a great time on the Pigeon River fishing for smallmouths last summer and scheduled ourselves for a tentative float. Water conditions weren't forecast to be ideal (although it turns out they were) so we headed for brand new water, the French Broad River. Here in Tennessee, the French Broad isn't known as a fly fishing destination but more of a whitewater river. It's pretty mild in a raft or funyak, but has plenty of thrills if you're rowing a drift boat. We found a suitable place to get Tim's boat in the water, but had a drop of about 2 1/2' just down the river. The drop wasn't the issue so much as all the boulders and standing waves. After some scouting I slid the boat through a tight little S curve between a ledge and boulder. I'm sure the ride won't be as scary in subsequent floats. The river was pretty muddy and the fish weren't exactly jumping in the boat, but we still managed to hook up with enough fish to keep it interesting. In fact, every smallie we caught might have been "fish of the day" on other smallmouth rivers. I also caught one catfish, a relatively rare event on fly.

July 6 It's been a little while but I was back on the Holston River, one of my favorite tailwater rivers here in East Tennessee . Not only is it beautiful, but I can generally expect not to find any rattlesnakes. I could tell I've spent too many days up in the Smokies. At one point today a cow ambled along the river bank and my first impression was, "Man, that's a big bear!" I floated John Bryant and Mike Mullins. Today was John's first experience with a fly rod, although he's no stranger to fishing for trout. While Mike has had more experience with a fly rod, John's instincts seemed to serve hime well as he outfished Mike. John has Parkinson's and his hands have a slight tremble. Mike claimed that John must have used this to put a life-like wiggle on his nymphs. Fishing was a tad tougher than it was last month, but the fish were still eating well. There weren't near so many fish rising, although there were still plenty on top. The Beadhead Pheasant Tails were the fly of the day though and scored the best. I've attached some photos from the day including John hooked up with his first trout on a fly, one of the best fish of the day, and a beautiful damselfly that took a break on the oars.

July 3 It's one of the busiest weeks of the guiding season. I'm sure you could poll guides in all parts of the country and this would be a time frame that would be busy for all because of the 4th of July holiday. We've all had successful guided trips with anglers of several skill levels. Charity was out on the water with Mike and Jan Bryant of Cincinnati. We met them at the Buckeye United Fly Fishers (BUFF) fly fishing show back in February. Mike is one of the main folks responsible for organizing the show and does a phenomenal job putting on one of the best shows we've ever attended. They fished the North Carolina side of the park and Charity reported excellent water temperatures and active fish. In fact they scored on dry flies almost all day long. I took David and Marci Beaver on the same day. Marci has wanted to learn to fly fish for some time so I spent a day with them and showed them how much fun you can have with a fly rod. Fishing the area known as the Sugarlands, we were moving towards one of my favorite stretches of water just off the beaten track when I saw something and froze. Lying on the forest floor was a timber rattlesnake. I turned around and suggested we should go somewhere else without saying why. I was concerned that the snake might give them the heeby jeebies, but they insisted on knowing what it was. I told them and they were quite excited to see it. It was a beautiful specimen and the situation was perfect to view it safely. The snake never seemed threatened and maintained its relaxed position. Marci went on to catch a few small rainbows and one brookie while missing a good number of fish. Tim has also been out on the water quite a bit. Tim is a real terrestrial man in the summer and his customers have caught some nice brown trout in the 12-13" range on beetles. The Bouergois brothers from Louisiana had a great morning of fishing with Tim and saw a few fish up close caught on Tim's patterns.

June 30 After a few days of guiding, work on computer issues, and even some fishing for fishing's sake I've got some good stuff to throw out. Won't go into the boring specifics since you're reading this to escape the daily grind, but I desparately needed to update my software. In the process of doing so I managed to goof up my disk space and had to get some help to get that sorted out. Won't ever get that day back, but I'm glad everything is working again. We're also going to try to work on getting some photos along with this. I'm not really a big fan of point and shoot digital cameras. They're not near so versatile as the film SLR's we've used for years, but they do provide photos that can be uploaded to the site in as long as it takes to plug them in.

Water levels in the park have been excellent. Things were on the high side for a few hours a few days back, but things are really nice. North Carolina got far more rain, but I don't think anywhere in the park got more than it could use. We've been staying true with the dry flies on guided trips, but I have to admit to using nymphs when I've been out on my own. A #8 Tellico has been my best pattern. Haven't gotten anything out of the ordinary, but it has been extremely consistent. It should be too. Golden stoneflie are beginning to move around quite a bit now and it won't be long before their husks litter the boulders. We've seen a few so far, but there are more to come as the summer goes. Wednesday was Willow's first birthday so Charity and I made it a point to set that aside as a family day. We had a really fun day of fishing together on Little River. We actually do this pretty often and Willow seems to know when we've caught a fish and watches with interest. Should have had a cool shot of Willow looking at a rainbow I showed her, but the delay of the digital camera missed it and was a blurry shot of a trout flopping into the water as Willow flinched. Charity stayed righteous on the dries, and I hate to admit it, but she kicked my butt while I tight lined big nymphs hoping for a big boy. I eventually got around to pointing the camera her way . As you might expect, she did the most damage with the old Parachute Adams.

While the rainbow seen here wasn't the most impressive catch of the day, it did stay in her hands long enough for me to get the camera in operation. Later in the day we stopped at the Crusher Pool, notorious for picky trout not to mention so large specimens. None of the really large fish were out and about, but on pretty nice brown was actively working the foam line just off the retaining wall. Charity took time with Willow while I focused my efforts on the fish. He looked at just about everything I threw, but wouldn't commit. I put my favorite summer fly, a #16 Foam Ant on and the brown put his nose on it 4 times without eating. An oddball tactic that has worked from me in the past while fishing terrestrials worked on this particular fish. After 4 excellent drifts that came right to the fish, I cast the fly about 3 feet off to its side. Interestingly, he charged the fly and ate without so much as a second glance. I tip-toed my way down the stone wall as I have a million times before and carefully landed the fish without falling in the river. As Charity popped off a shot of me holding the foot long brown she asked, "See any snakes in the cracks in the wall?" I kind of froze up right then. While unhooking the brown I replied, "Not so far.... I'll tell you when I look around."

June 25 I had a little trouble getting things up on the net thanks to some web hosting issues this week, so you can see what's been going on by reading the post I wrote several days back. The past few days were pretty hectic as I did a couple of floats on the South Holston. This isn't a regular float we do, but it is among our offerings. We typically float the South Holston during the Sulphur season when flows are good and we have anglers that want to go to the extra effort. That was just the situation this week. Our good friend Peter Petruzzi got some beautiful eats on dry fly last Thursday. The first was a rainbow that might have gone 16-17". Unfortunately that fish was self releasing so the estimate is as good as we can do. Next he caught a beautiful brown that was easily 17" that ate a Sparkle Dun. In that same location there were 2 exceptional browns that were rising deliberately yet steadily in an exceedingly difficult drift line. Peter did a great job of casting and mending to get one of the fish to eventually eat. Unfortunately that fish had the old teflon lips and the hook didn't sink in. Peter spent most of the float concentrating on streamer fishing which was OK, but not great, especially for a river known for its population of nice brown trout. The next day I took Mike Stiehl and his fishing buddy Sid on the same float. Sulphur activity was good in momentary fits, but generally slow. The guys had the same shots over the two big browns, but nada. Mike did an exceptional job of getting some beautiful drifts in this spot. Unfortunately his timing never really meshed with the timing that the fish chose to rise. However, late in the day we got into several pods of actively rising fish and both Mike and Sid hooked some reallyy nice ones. Both guys stripped streamers for a portion of the day. Mike seemed to have the hot hand in this department. Sid liked to say that Mike got to show the fish his streamer first since he had the front seat most of the day, but Mike liked to credit it to superior angling. These guys were both long time, hard core anglers who were lots of fun to row over fish.

As far as the Smokies are concerned, the weather has cooled off nicely and recent rains have gotten water levels back in line from the low point they were reaching. Terrestrial patterns have really hit their stride and do best in sunny conditions. Lower elevation streams like Little River along the road require far more from an angler to consistently hook trout. This is a great time of year to explore waters in the backcountry. No need to pack waders since wet wading is comfortable. Be sure to pack along a rain jacket regardless of the weather forecast. Summer is one of the wettest times of year since short cloud bursts are common.

June 21 Summer has officially arrived according to the calendar, but I could have told you that based on the recent weather. Temperatures in Knoxville have been 90 plus for the past few days and we're in a bit of a dry spell. Thunderstorms are forecast for the next few afternoons and they will certainly be welcome. The water level in the streams has fallen off dramatically, although it's not grim. It is making it tougher on anglers who struggle to make the first cast perfect. Poor casting isn't turning up any freebies under these conditions. Charity and I took the Siegels fishing last weekend and hit some of the largest, yet highest elevation water we know to keep them in some good fish. In what seems to be the current trend this year, Charity's contingent seemed to land the nicest fish, including one fat brown of about 12". Very nice for the water we were on. I took Ron Scarbrough of Jackson, Mississippi up in the Smokies for a couple of days of instruction and fishing earlier this week. He took to it very well and surpassed his expectations for learning so much in such a short period of time. I would have liked for Ron to have hooked up with some more nice trout, but he managed to land one of each species we have here in the Smokies. Today I took Tom Ellison who's been a long time fly fisher with a checkered past with regard to success. Turns out Tom needed some fine tuning since his casting was okay. Once he understood the method to get a good drift then learned to read the water he really started to turn the fish. Tom told me at the end of the day he landed 19. I know he broke off 4 and there's no telling how many he missed. Great day! Charity and Tim will both be on the water in the coming days so we'll keep you posted. We may manage to get on Calderwood Lake over the next week and might even find ourselves floating for some smallmouths.

June 15 I'm finally back on the water after something of a forced sabbatical. Had wisdom teeth removed last week after years of arguing with the dentist, but after coming this far with a nearly flawless dental record I experienced oral surgery. The recovery might have been OK had it not been for the stomach virus I picked up from our daughter Willow. I rarely come down with anything. It just might be because I'm able to combine all my maladies into a single event. While the pain and suffering for the whole combination was relatively short, trust me, it was brutal. If I could do the whole thing over I'd probably ask the surgeon to just keep me under for about 4 days. Now that I've regained my strength I can report the fishing has been pretty good. Charity took Lee Hagan up on Little River several days ago while I convalesced and reported a pretty slow morning session with some nice hookups in the afternoon. In fact, Lee hooked one brown that peeled a fair amount of line off of his reel before self releasing. How is it that Charity's anglers always seem to hook the good ones!? I'll leave that question for later. I took Randy Nygaard and his step-son Nick out in the park yesterday for a day of instruction and fun. They're currently rebuilding their whole lives after hurricane destruction in Mississippi and the time off in the mountains apparently did them a world of good. Fortunately the fish were all over their flies and as a result they picked up many subtle nuances of how to read the water and how to get good fly presentations. Most of the fish were pretty small, but they were absolutely struck by how many fish they saw come to their flies all day long. Our good buddy Tim Doyle has spent the past few days working the lakes over here in the Smokies. Things are picking up on Calderwood. Tim's anglers have picked up a few brown trout and even one very respectable smallmouth bass over there. Most of the trout have been smallish but the scenery is unparalleled plus the combination of a cold water lake deep in the bottom of a mountain gorge keeps the temperature pretty comfortable during the heat of summer. A couple of other items to keep in mind.... We've firmed up dates for our trip to Turneffe Flats in February 2007. This will be a great trip with lots of tailing bonefish and permit and screaming reels. Charity and I have recently been named to Hyde Drift Boats Pro Staff and will soon be upgrading our boat to a snazzier, updated model. Anyone interested in permanently taking over the rower's bench of our trusty boat can do so for $3K. Anchor, oars, trailer, and cover are included. Take our word for it, this boat still has some big fish left in it. Shoot us an email or call if you want more info.

June 9 The weather has become somewhat more mild, but fly fishing is quickly moving into summer mode here in East Tennessee. Wet wading is now a viable option in the mountain streams, but lots of folks are keeping the waders on anyway. I floated Jim Andress 3 consecutive days on the Holston River and it was easily some fo the best fishing we've had all year. Every day there were an extremely high number of fish brought to the boat. Early on the second day Jim hooked and landed a rainbow that was in the neighborhood of 17-18". We didn't measure it, but we did measure several fish that topped 16" that day as well as on day 3. Generation schedules are shifting around a little bit, so we're beginning to shift things up as far as which section of the river we'll float, but the extra flow will keep water temps nice as cool as we move into the warm months. Charity has been up on the park working the water and guided Elisabeth Funk to her first several trout on a fly rod. She has a little more to learn, but that will all come with experience on the water. Charity said she was a real quick learner and even missed on extra nice brown that was somewhere in the 12-14" range. We've got a few open days on the calendar over the next week so I expect we'll head over to Calderwood and Cheoah Lakes to guage activity over there. These are both great lakes for trout fishing during the heat of the summer. Water in these lakes is anywhere from the mid-40's to the high 50's even during the dog days of summer. While there are some opportunities to cast at rising trout, the most action is had by casting Woolly Buggers to likely spots. Fish average 10-12", but there are plenty of larger fish. We've boated rainbows and browns that pushed the 20" mark. Brookies are also a possibility, particularly on Cheaoh.

June 1 Who turned the heat up? Things have warmed up over the past week and we're more or less at the point where you can wade the Smoky Mountain streams wet. While temperatures in Knoxville have cracked the 90 degree mark a couple of times in the past week, it's still very comfortable along the streams in the Smokies. Fishing in the small streams will be excellent and the cool air high in the mountains feels great. The heat has been more of an issue on our float trips. However, the Holston is still fishing very well. We're hooking up on caddis emergers, beadhead nymphs, plus a few streamers. Fly fishing here in Tennessee should continue to be good in spite of the recent heatwave. The forecast for the coming week is much milder, but more importantly we're getting a steady diet of afternoon thunderstorms. This will keep water levels in the Smokies good, plus it will keep reservoirs filled for good float schedules on Tennessee's trout tailwaters. Things have been so busy that we haven't had a chance to get on the South Holston yet, but we've heard good things. One last thing... If any of you are fans of the slaw dog, particularly those served at Townsend's Parkway Grocery, you should check out www.troutunderground.com . There has been a running conversation about the merits not to mention socio-economic details of our favorite "on the way to the river lunch." We're also in the planning stages for Turneffe Flats, Belize in February 2007. We'll post details as soon as we get them finalized. Shoot us an email if you want more details or read Permanently in Paradise, an article about our previous expedition.

May 24 Another busy week and the weather has been somewhat erratic. Looks like we're heading into that time of year when a thunderstorm will boil up over the mountains, drop some rain for a few minutes, then peter out. As a result the water is a tad high, but generally clear. Dry fly fishing has been very good and the nymphing has really been great. Fishing a couple of larger nymphs with a split shot and dreding them through deeper runs has been very productive. Dry fly fishing can be good under these conditions, but you really need to know where to present it. If you put it in the right place and get a decent drift you can expect success. Streamer fishing can be pretty good after one of the heavy rains. Those of you who know us well know that we like to fish some big meaty flies when the conditions are right. Last Saturday evening we had an extremely strong storm here in Townsend with marble sized hail. Immediately after I grabbed the thunder stick with a big white Zuddler and fished some of my favorite spots on Little River. I managed to land one brown around 18" and had a larger fish eat, jump, run, then come unhooked. Not a lot of action, but the quality was certainly there. The Holston continuest to fish well. Not only are caddis hatching, but there have also been some Light Cahill mayflies and some craneflies. The caddis seem to be at the top of the menu. The good dry fly fishing should continue for about another month. Generation on the Clinch has been somewhat erratic, but when it's been right the streamer fishing has been some of the best in recent memory. There have been some really nice fish coming to the big streamers. Again, not a lot of fish, but good chances at some really large ones.

May 17 We've been experiencing something of a blackberry winter here in East Tennessee and the Smokies. Morning temperatures have been in the 40's and daytime temperatures have been in the 60's, only the 50's in the mountains. However, this has not put the fishing off at all. Generation from Cherokee and Norris dams continues to be favorable for floats. The caddis hatch on the Holston has now been supplemented by Light Cahills that hatch late in the afternoon into the evening. As a result, the Holston has been our first choice to float. Trout typically rise all day and any lull in the hatch can be filled by fishing a nymph. Fishing has been terrific in the mountains. I took the Longs out for a few days of fishing out of the way places in the Smokies and they did terrific. Over the course of two days they caught lots of rainbows, a brown trout or two, and a good number of brookies. By spending a little time hiking in the mornings we left the crowds behind and had large stretches of stream entirely to ourselves. Rick Shelton absolutely killed them yesterday on the North Carolina side of the Smokies. We started the day fishing nymphs. After hooking and releasing a number of fish we switched over to the dry fly. Fish rose to the fly almost everywhere we went. One particularly memorable moment was when a large brown, possibly better than 16", rose under the fly and inspected it before refusing. We tried to entice the large fish with a variety of flies but never saw him again. That's OK though. Rick caught so many fish he probably lost track, but he still has one more to go back for.

May 9 Once again, we've been guiding fly fishers all over East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountain region. Fishing inside Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park has been pretty good in the past week. Light Cahills, Sulphurs, Yellow Sallies, big stoneflies, and Hendricksons have all been hatching in good numbers. My neighbor Doug Sanders caught a 15" brown on a Comparadun one evening just before dark on Little River. The most notable moments in the park over the last week or so were Scott Melton's big afternoon when we lost count of how many trout he hooked over 4 hours. Scott had ideal conditions and learned about nymphing even though most of his fish came from dries. Whit Whittle and Victor Sharpe both managed to come up with a grand slam of all trout species in the Smokies. Whit managed to get the brown with style at the end of the day. In a slight drizzle, late in the day, and the water beginning to stain, Whit hooked up and land a 16" brown on a white Zuddler streamer. What a strike! Tailwater action has been mixed. Tom Chandler of www.troutunderground.com along with Rich Margiotta had the unfortunate circumstance of having TVA generate water on the Holston River when they didn't schedule it. Tom caught one fish on a caddis emerger and missed several more before the unscheduled rise of the water. We tried again on the Clinch. There was a smattering of Sulphurs, but not enough to get the fish to rise with any consistency. Tom had 2 really good shots at hooking big fish on a streamer, but missed them. Let me just take this opportunity to remind everyone to wear their polarized glasses. Seeing the fish eat the fly really makes a difference. Caddis are still hatching extremely well on the Holston. Eric Hustedt had a great day of dry fly fishing. We're still seeing some nice fish rise on the Holston. That's still our #1 float. We're keeping an eye to the lakes now as well. Trout fishing on Calderwood and Cheoah Lakes will only improve as the season progresses. Smallmouth fishing on the rivers is also improving and is always excellent through June and into the summer.

April 30 Another hectic week is behind us and we have quite a bit to report. Water in the Smokies was on the high side for most of the week. While high, it was fishable every day but Thursday. As a result, we had to pick and choose our spots and fishing was tough for our anglers. Nymphing was the way to go and a good drift was necessary to keep the nymph at depth. Friday was a bright sunny day and fish would rise to dries by afternoon, but nymphing was still the way to get strikes consistently. The most important element to success this week was a long rod. Long rods allowed the anglers to flip weighted rigs easier and high stick the nymphs with a drag free drift. Those with shorter rods had a tougher time. On the bright side, floats on the Holston were simply amazing. The caddis hatch is at its peak. Tom Passis and Jeff and Jane Cutter all had tough days in the Smokies but followed up with incredible days of dry fly fishing on the Holston. The number of rising trout was mind boggling and I can't honestly say how many fish were landed, hooked and released themselves, and missed. In fact, a missd fish was no big deal because you could be sure of another strike. Jeff boated the best fish we've seen so far this year on the Holston. He brought a 17" rainbow to the net and lost a larger fish when it broke him off about 30' into a sizzling run across the river. All this was on small caddis dry flies. I also float Gig and Jean Brummel down the Holston for a great day of dry fly fishing earlier in the week. Gig followed that up with a float on the Clinch. Time constraints didn't allow Gig to stay out for too long so we opted for a short float on the upper section of the river. We had a great flow but no sulphurs or even midges were hatching. We followed the bouncing strike indicator for a while to no avail, then decided to go for broke. Gig cast some bulky streamers and was impressed by the number of fish he stirred up. Most were relatively small, but he did get one solid whack on the fly without a hook up, boated one beautiful brown around 12", and moved a very nice fish that kept its distance. The forecast for the upcoming week promises better conditions in the Smokies, plus our rivers are in great shape heading into summer!

April 23 We've got the day off thanks to high water up in the Smokies. The rain started late on Thursday, came in waves on Friday an really poured down on Friday night. We got fishing in on Friday. In fact it fished pretty well. I took Rick Moore of Birmingham up in the park and we did very well fishing nymphs in the rain through the morning. By lunch time the water had started to rise and become stained. We switched to streamers and used a short line method that isn't well known, but can be devastatingly effective. By the sixth or seventh cast with the streamer Rick had a vey nice fish erupt on the fly, even clearing the water. Not sure who missed who, but it was cool no matter what. Had another similar size fish roll at the fly and a few smaller fish take pot shots. We eventually went back to nymph fishing but action had certainly slowed since the morning. Charity had an instructional trip in the afternoon. After showing Tory and John the basics of casting she got them on the dingy water. Charity saw this as a great opportunity to show them the basics of nymph fishing and get shots at nice fish. John landed a very nice rainbow. Late in the day Charity found a patch of relatively clear water with hatching bugs. Tory missed several fish on dry flies here. By the way, there are a ton of new bugs hatching. Everyone's favorite, the Yellow Sally, is hatching well. There are also Hendricksons and some huge March Browns. Big stonefly husks are showing up on boulders. Plenty of bugs to go around.

April 19 It's been a while since I've had a chance to update the report. I'll have to condense it down because we've been guiding almost every day and been on a lot of different water. Just in the past week we've done floats on Calderwood Lake and the Holston River, plus fished a variety of mountain streams. Calderwood had ideal conditions, but for whatever reason it didn't fish well at all. That was about a week ago. We bagged the lake and opted for the feeder streams that come into it. Those fished extremely well and my angler finally managed to drum up a rainbow on the lake as we were headed back. The Holston River just keeps on getting better and better. Caddis hatches are becoming more consistent and the fish are staying up on the surface longer. Nymphing is still good, but it's hard to fish a nymph while fish are on top! The mountains are fishing very good. We're getting behind on rainfall, but the streams are not low. The weather forecast for the next week shows afternoon thunderstorms, which account for the bulk of our rainfall from now through the summer. This should keep things good. Dry fly fishing has been good and the nymphing has been extremely consistent. There's been a lot of folks talking brook trout as the national park has just opened virtually all the previously closed brookie streams. It's still a little on the early side for some of the highest elevation streams, but we're catching some of them too. We're on the stream or river almost every day, so we'll try to keep things updated.

April 10 Spring seems to be here for the long haul now. Fishing is decent in the mornings with nymphs and dry fly fishing getting better in the afternoons. Today I saw the biggest variety of insects yet. Small dun caddis in the morning, Quill Gordons and March Browns in the afternoon, and some Hendricksons late in the day. Yesterday Charity had Brett & Christine Corbly on the water. Both were pretty good casters and all round great folks. Their overall catch rate wasn't great. They drew a decent number of strikes and but had a tough time getting hooked up. Cold water temperatures probably kept them from getting more strikes but they had a great time and learned lots. I took Jim and Judy Paznokes. They also had a great time on the water. Judy caught her first trout on fly and Jim learned quite a bit about fishing in streams while catching a few himself. We had a pretty good flurry of activity late in the day with a few good fish on and more missed. Today I took Bill Fidler up on the river. Bill is an avid angler and has fished with me on a number of occasions. He tagged several nice browns on nymphs this morning. We switched to dries in the afternoon and got over some steady risers. Actually, they were more like jumpers or blasters. Anyway, Bill got some great drifts and got some superb action. Bill noted that the fish which were jumping out of the water were pursuing mayflies that were flopping on the surface. He did this little twitch and drag thing that got some explosive strikes. Great day on the water.

April 8 The weather has kept us hopping! You may have seen on the news about the wild weather we've been having. A strong front came through yesterday afternoon with high winds, heavy rain, hail in some areas, and even tornados though not close to us in Townsend. With the looming grim weather forecast in the background, Charity and I scrambled to get some trips rescheduled in anticipation of what was coming. I probably could have gotten a float in yesterday, but hated to risk it since my angler will be in town for the week. Charity rescheduled her trip for today for tomorrow. In the aftermath things weren't so bad. Water did rise in Little River, but honestly I think the water will actually be about where it should be for this time of year. While high today, it was somewhat fishable. A few mayflies even hatched. I did a fly fishing seminar and demo for Buckberry Lodge today at Elkmont. Only had time to fish one pool with the group, but I almost caught a fish with a large audience. More like I missed a fish with an audience. Should be good tomorrow and the weather forecast for this week is great. We're looking forward to it as our calendar is full of wades in the Smokies plus a few floats.

April 6 I managed to get Greg Norris and his son Frank rescheduled after a blow out day on Monday. We fished over at Greenbrier. Started with nymphs in the morning. The fish were on them but the guys had a tough time connecting. There was a bit of a slow stretch after lunch, but a quick mayfly hatch had fish literally jumping out of the water. The guys managed to bring 9 to hand in about an hour and a half and had several more shake free. There were some really cool eats when trout would jump out of the water to pounce on the fly.

April 4 We've had quite a week of fly fishing here in the Smokies and East Tennessee. We had a great group of guys in from Atlanta and Charlotte who had a great time in the park. I fished them one day with Charity and Tim took them with Charity the next day. This was their first time fishing in the park. We showed them quite a bit about how to work with the wild trout. Obviously things paid off when Mark Bartolemeo hooked and landed an extraordinary brown of almost 18" on a Prince Nymph with Tim. Our best fish of the season for a client this year in the park. I've done a couple of floats on the Holston as well. We're doing best with nymphs early. Some days the fish get up on midges early, but more dependably in the afternoon. On Saturday I took John and Elaine Purdy on a Holston River float and we saw the best caddis hatch of the season up to this point. The caddis were hatching well for about an hour and there were some slashy rises in the riffles. This hatch will continue to increase and should peak in about 3-4 weeks and stay good for several more weeks. Sunday I took Mike Massone from Indianapolis fishing over on the Oconaluftee and Bradley Fork. The fishing was best with nymphs early, but a sparse hatch of Quill Gordons got the fish looking up in the afternoon. Mike had a pretty good afternoon, catching a good number of fish and missing a few more. We had several lines of thunderstorms move through Sunday night and water conditions were high in the park on Monday. I took Greg Norris and his son Frank up into the park Monday morning, but decided that we should bag the day and try to re-schedule for later in the week. We're going to try again on Wednesday. For a day off together Charity and I headed to North Carolina's Snowbird Creek. It's been a number of years since we've been and we looked forward to spending some fishing time for ourselves and getting back to a place we haven't fished in about 5 years. Fishing was a little slow compared to what we've been used to on Little River, but it was a beautiful day. We caught a ton of small browns but never felt like we got into the groove. We kept going back and forth between nymphs and dries. Everything worked, but nothing just killed them. We fished some long, deep runs low on the stream late in the day and did very well. I caught a couple of rainbows 10-12" on a Prince and two browns 13-14" on a Pheasant Tail. Charity caught about 3 nice rainbows about a foot long on the Prince. Interesting how the rainbows ate the Prince and the browns the Pheasant Tail. Might have been coincidence, but we wondered if there was more to it.

March 28 Whew! The season is under way! We've been all over the place already and March still has a few days left. I could say the same about the weather as well. Brad Dunn and his father Mike came down and fished last Saturday. I sorry to see the weather called for highs in the 30's with snow showers for the Smokies. For once the weather man was dead on. Brad brought one decent rainbow to hand on a nymph before lunch, but the snow picked up intensity and the fishing seemed to die. We were eating lunch in the car with the heat blasting. I told the guys we could go a little longer, but I hated to keep them in the wet and cold if the fishing wasn't good. Fortunately the next place I took them had a few mayflies on the water with rising trout to meet them. A few fish were brought to hand and more missed. Mike even landed a nice brown on a dry fly in a blinding snow squall. A great effort by Brad and Mike! On Sunday Charity took Carol & Cathy, a pair of neat ladies, up in the park for some instruction and fishing. The weather was supposed to be better, but it wasn't that much better. The ladies did pretty well learning how to cast and present the fly. Fortunately there was a tremendous hatch and Charity was able to put them over plenty of rising trout. They even put flies on specific risers. Fish were hooked and missed and a good time was had by all. While Charity was in the Smokies I was floating Doug Dahlberg down the Holston. There was an impressive midge hatch and plenty of fish were up sipping on the surface. Doug missed several fish on dries and nymphs early in the day. There was a lull in the activity just in time for lunch. Afterwards I had Doug swing a Woolly Bugger in several runs and the skunk was kicked of the boat in short order. Midges started to hatch again along with a smattering of caddis, enough to fish a small caddis. Doug did much better with the dry fly fishing and brought a good number to the boat. Yesterday I took Ben Whittington and his buddy John down the Holston too. The weather was much more pleasant, but the fishing was a bit tougher. Ben nailed a few fish early on nymph, but we struggled as we went into mid-day. There were a few pods of rising trout, but they would go down after a few casts. Both Ben a John caught some fish, but they had to work for them. Nice effort! Our April and May are filling up, but we still have some dates available. Hope to hear from you.

March 24 I'm supposed to be teaching a couple of prospective new fly anglers how to make a fly rod catch trout right now but instead I'm writing this report while a cold,wet snow falls here in the Smokies. There's a heavy snow warning for the park and if it's doing this at our home at 1600' elevation I'm sure it's coming down real good at Elkmont and points higher. We've postponed today's anglers until tomorrow and rescheduled them with Charity as I've got another set of anglers to take care of tomorrow. Yesterday Charity and I packed up our daughter Willow and headed over to Calderwood Lake. It's been last fall since we've been there and we were going to meet our old friend Tim Masincupp who is camping along the shores of the lake this week. I used to guide with Tim and Charity used to work in a restaurant with him before that. In fact, Tim introduced the two of us and is the root of all the good things that have come from that meeting. I'm sure you're reading this for fishing info, not nostalgia so I'll try to stay on track. The weather was cloudy, cold, and breezy, atrocious conditions for fishing on the lake so we eased on down the lake to one of our favorite creeks and hiked our way up. We were mostly outfitted for lake fishing and only had one fly rod appropriate for creek fishing. Tim had a spinning rod because he had broken his fly rod in an epic episode he'd rather not have told in a public forum. We pretty much passed the fly rod back and forth as we hiked up the creek with Willow urging us on from her kiddy pack. There were some Blue Quills hatching along with a very few Quill Gordons. I was fortunate enough to have the rod in hand when a fish rose. I dropped a Haystack about a yard upstream and he ate it like a good trout should. It was about a 9" rainbow. Tim had several follows on his spin tackle over the course of the day, but no eats. Charity speculated at times how a nymph might fare, but after several days of helping her anglers catch trout on dries back on Little River she was hungry for some dry fly action too. Unfortunately this stream wasn't the place for that to happen, but we had a great time catching up. Later in the evening at our local Trout Unlimited meeting I spoke with Doug Moore who works in the Orvis store in Sevierville. His report was that Little River fished great yesterday. Oh well, I guess we couldn't bear any more of the great fishing on our home water and had to travel for something less. I'll check that in the "paying dues" column.

March 22 The fishing and guiding have really heated up, but the weather has been up and down. Last Friday Charity and I guided a party of 4 anglers based out of Elkmont. All were relative novices, but we had them on fish in no time. The Quill Gordon hatch got under way just shortly after we got on the water so fish were rising all around. My anglers, Michael and Phil, really got the hang of fly fishing in the park and were getting multiple stikes from a run by the end of our time. Charity's angler Scott missed one very nice brown that Charity believed to be over a foot long. We were both on the water again this Monday and Tuesday, but the weather was pretty crummy on Monday, the first day of spring. The day started with sleet that turned to snow then ended up as rain. Fishing wasn't half bad at first as both parties got some fish hooked with nymphs. After lunch things were just plain miserable and Charity's gang decided to stop before they got absolutely miserable. My guys kept at it, but might have been wise to bag it. However, we hit the water again the very next day and conditions couldn't have been any more different. The sun was shining, skies were blue, and mayflies were hatching in profusion. The dry fly fishing was absolutely insane for a few hours and everyone caught some and missed some more. My crew got on one exceptional brown of possibly 16" we found rising. John did a good job of getting the difficult fish, but the hook didn't find his lip when he ate. From here on we expect things to stay hot or at least get more consistent. The only thing to put fishing off might be a flooding rain, none of which are in the next week's forecast.

March 16 We'd like to thank all the great folks at the Hendersonville Fly Fishing Club who hosted us back on Tuesday night. Charity and I saw a lot of old friends and made some new ones. We haven't been back out on the water in the past couple of days, but have some reliable reports to pass along. Our good buddy Tim Doyle says that the conditions Charity saw on Little River the other day are still in effect. Quill Gordons and Blue Quills are both hatching in profusion. He was trying to show a guide customer how to "dap" a dry fly from a high point to imitate a mayfly struggling to hatch or laying eggs on the surface. The fellow he had was trying to do it but the breeze kept the fly from ever getting on the water. However, one fish couldn't stand it and actually jumped out of the water trying to snatch it. Rocky Cox also told me the fish are red hot on the Holston right now. He had some good dry fly fishing to report in addition to great fishing on small nymphs.

March 13 We've got plenty to report today. I took young Wyatt and Gavin Franks to the Holston River for a float / wade combo day of fishing and Charity took Barbara Hunt in the Smokies. A strong cold front approaching fast kept the wind up all day, so I felt like my anglers would have better opportunities hitting several prime spots hard. We floated along with the boys casting Woolly Buggers from the boat. Wyatt had the hot hand and seemed to draw strikes all along while Gavin got a few follows and nips. I put the guys in some prime riffles and switched to small beadhead patterns. Gavin began to hook up more frequently while Wyatt kept his streak alive. Cloud cover built through the day as well as the wind. Fishing usually picks up on the Holston as the day progresses at this time of year, but the fish seemed to get a case of lockjaw as Wyatt only picked up one fish after 4:00 and Gavin only got a couple of follows on a Bugger from the boat. The guys did great for their first time fishing from a boat. Barbara booked Charity because she was "tired of fishing the Smokies without catching anything." She was also interested in learning how to fish a nymph. Charity had her checked out on high-sticking nymphs in no time and trout struck her beadheads all morning long. After lunch there was an excellent hatch and Charity switched Barbara over to dry fly fishing. The hatch was so good that they actually worked one pool for about an hour, getting strikes the whole time. Barbara was excited about the rising fish and thrilled to finally crack the code on catching fish in the Smokies. She rated her day with Charity as the best she's spent with a guide.

March 12 I'll got a couple of days of fishing data to share. Yesterday Charity hosted Mark and Steve who I fished on Friday while I took young Gavin and Wyatt Franks on the streams. Both of us had similar experiences in that there were very few bugs and even fewer rising trout. Charity's crew did OK on nymphs. Mark hooked a very nice brown that took the liberty of unhooking itself. Later in the day Charity managed to get the guys over a nice fish, perhaps 18". She tells me the cast was perfect. Everyone held their breath as the fly drifted perfectly to the big fish but a small rainbow spooked and ran past the large brown, tipping him off to the situation. Wyatt and Gavin did pretty well. We hiked into the backcountry where they got a fair number of strikes on nymphs. They got a few rises on dries, but not enough for us to completely abandon nymphs. I was with Wyatt and Gavin again today and things were pretty much the same. We saw a few bugs, but again very few rises. Wyatt got one rainbow on a #18 Parachute and there were a few other rises, but the bulk of activity came off of nymphs. Copper John was the fly of the day. Taking the boys on a float tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

March 10 Today I took some great guys up in the Smokies for a day of fishing. Some powerful storms rumbled through late last night, but moved through fast enough not to dramatically effect the water levels. The weather was beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees. Fishing was OK, but not great. We got fish to eat some nymphs and a few to eat dries, but I was really hoping for one of those knock your socks off spring hatches. Mark did manage to get one fish to rise 6 times, but never got a good hook set. He was a little down on himself until I pointed out the fact that he got a lot more fun out of that fish than if he'd caught it on the first cast. Not a problem, Mark managed to nab 3 fish in a row later from another run.

March 8 Went up on Little River with my good friend Doug Sanders. Spring has arrived along with some good hatches on the streams! Little Black Caddis, Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, and Early Brown Stoneflies were all out and about yesterday. While only a few fish were actively rising, nymph fishing was good. We saw a good number of bugs drift down the stream unmolested, but that will change as the fish grow more aware of the hatches. The weather is in a definite warming trend with afternoon temperatures in the 70's in the coming days. Doug was also on the Holston last Sunday and reported similar fishing conditions to what I reported about a week ago. Generation schedules on the Holston are favorable for floats so it shouldn't be long before we're rowing down that river regularly.

March 4 I took Peter & Wendy Petruzzi on a float down the North Carolina's Tuckaseegee. It was a beautiful day and the fish were eating several nymph patterns well. Wendy hooked plenty of fish on Prince Nymphs, Beadhead Pheasant Tails, and Copper Johns. Peter is a dedicated streamer fisherman and stuck with those patterns all day. He caught one very nice rainbow (17"), one very nice brookie (17"), and one huge brookie (18-19") that you could hardly get both hands around. Around 1:30 a tremendous caddis hatch started and lasted throughout the afternoon. These were pretty big bugs, at least #14 and gray. However, only a few fish would rise to the flies so we stuck with the program that was already working for us. When I got home there was a message from my buddy Doug. He had spent a few hours up on Little River and witnessed a remarkable hatch of Blue Quills. According to him there was an intense hatch of these small, dark mayflies that are about #20. However, there were only a few fish rising to them. Charity, Doug, and I all think that the fish will be rising to the within a few days. That was only the first day of the season with a good hatch, so we don't think many of the fish were aware yet. A few more days and they'll all be rising. Charity and I both have been packaging and signing newly arrived copies of Rise Rings & Rhododendron. If you ordered a copy you can expect it to arrive in a few days.

March 3 Charity and I didn't manage to get out on the water yesterday as we were putting the last of our promotional packages together for the new book which will arrive any minute now. However, our fishing buddy and compadre down the road, Doug Sanders called me this morning with a quick debrief of the fishing on Little River. Lots of early brown stoneflies buzzing about, no Quill Gordons, no Blue Quills. I told him that all the stoneflies buzzing around meant he should have been fishing something like a #12 Tellico or Prince to imitate those nymphs crawling around. Once they flying they're not much in the zone for a trout to grab, at least until they lay eggs on the water. We're looking for those mayflies to start popping any day now, and when they do it will be dry fly craziness like it is every year around this time.

March 2 Charity and I hitched up the drift boat and headed over to the Holston yesterday. Man, what a beautiful day! Sunny and 72 degrees. We put Willow in the backseat of the boat with our patented method of floating a baby down a river and away we went. Right off the bat Charity nabbed a few fish on a Woolly Bugger. Many of you know how she is in the boat. She'd rather strip a streamer than watch a yarn indicator. I managed to sneak in a turn and a few fish too. As if things weren't good enough already, fish began rising all around. Tons of midges hatching along with a few craneflies. We eventually parked the boat and got out and fished from our own hind legs. I carried Willow in a pack on my back, but she eventually just wanted to get out and crawl around on the bank and see the river rocks up close so we took turns playing with her and casting to risers. The float season is definitely under way! I'll be guiding a float on NC's Tuckaseegee this weekend so I'll post what I see over there. The Tuck is always good in the spring. The streams in the park should just about be ready to bust loose. Even the nights have been warm so it can't be long before the Quill Gordons and Blue Quills make the annual spring appearance. This is one of the highlights of the year as far as I'm concerned. Kicking off the start of the fishing season with awesome dry fly fishing is the only way to end a long winter stuck inside. By the way, be sure to pick up your new Tennessee fishing licenses. Last year's are now expired. Last, but certainly not least, Rise Rings & Rhododendron will deliver tomorrow! We'll start shipping orders on Saturday. You can check it out at our online book store. Be sure to email us when you place your order so we know how to personalize the book.