The Importance of the Dropper

This tailwater bow took the size 20 midge as a dropper.

     The Dropper.......It's what you need to focus on.  When I am fishing wild brook streams, I don't worry about it too much.  They tend to do fine with just the dry, anything big like a caddis or stimulator.  If I am fishing for wild browns on small streams, I will always put a small nymph as a dropper about 2 feet below my dry.  You will deal with more tangles, but it does pay off and you will pick up more fish.  Just simply use your dry as an indicator, and you will easily see when a fish has taken your dropper.
      When fishing tailwaters, your dropper will probably be your more productive fly when nymphing.  Don't be scared to put something slightly flashy, or of bigger size as your lead fly.  This will get the fish moving towards your fly to check things out, and then usually when they take a fly, it will be your more productive tiny midge which is following.
     Make sure to only use two flies when laws apply.  When regulations do allow for two flies, then be sure to take the advantage.  Pay attention to what is in the water, change flies when necessary, and it will pay off.  

Get the kids out.

Helped him catch this big rainbow at a lake in Montana, on a dry fly.

Teaching kids is the future to our sport.  If it wasnt for me being taught to fly-fish as a kid, then I wouldnt have discovered this amazing sport that I live to pursue.  Brent and I had the chance to go to Montana last summer to work at a Trout Unlimited camp.  It was a great experience being counselors to those kids, and teaching them the skills that they will be able to use on their own.  Teaching kids is a domino effect.  If you teach one person, then they will teach another, and so on.  Make sure you do it the right way.  Teach them the regulations.  Make sure they practice catch and release.  Fill them in on the little things such as wetting your hand before you touch a fish, and the correct ways to revive a fish.  The specifics, such as casting and tying knots, will come natural in time.  Be a good role model, and make them remember you for being the one who taught them to fly-fish.

-Take care,

Justin

Weird Weather and Weird Fishing

Hello to anybody out there!

We've had some really weird weather over the past week and it's made the fishing weird too.  I've fished wild brook trout streams, tailwaters and various other freestone streams since I posted last and the fishing was tougher than usual.

After class one day last week, I headed out with a new fishing buddy and we hit some brook trout water.  We were very excited because the sun was out and it was warm on campus.  Dreaming about aggressive brook trout taking royal wulffs on every cast, we sped to the headwaters of a local creek.  By the time we got to the mountain and climbed up into the higher elevation, we were met with heavy cloud cover and colder temperatures than we'd hoped for.  Needless to say the fishing was slower than last week, when I couldn't keep em off my flies but we stuck to it catching a couple browns at the first stretch of the stream and had a slow couple hours until we got to the top of the first section of falls.  Then the fishing turned on as the sun started to barely peek through the clouds and we ended up with a bunch of brook trout coming to hand. We even got to sight fish to a few!  Persistence pays off.

On Sunday, I went to fish the South Holston and the weather was crappy, rainy and cold again.  We started off catching a few fish but not the action we are used to (partly because of being spoiled).  I was catching them on scuds and my buddy was catching them on blue wing olive nymphs.  Then we moved to a section we have never fished before and I had an hour or so where I was catching them back to back on a scud again.  As I moved from run to run, the fishing got a little slower but we managed a few more fish and I caught one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen, but as I attempted to drag it over to Joe to get a picture, the fly popped out of his mouth.  Then it started to get really cold and windy when a front moved in and we left and went to the Watauga and caught a few more fish on blue wing olive nymphs and called it a day when we couldn't fell our hands anymore.  We had plenty of freezing cold days over there during the winter, but we simply weren't prepared for the cold this time.  It's April! It's not supposed to be this cold!

Yesterday, I went out to the Elk river with my buddy Garret, who I fished with last week for the first time.  It was cold as crap again and there was snow all over the mountain tops on the way there.  I was scared we weren't going to catch anything, but we tied on black streamers and fished the deep pools through the first section of river and caught a good amount of fish.  Then we switched to tight line double nymphing and picked up a few more fish in the smaller water on the last stretch of river.  I was using a big soft hackle hare's ear as my point fly and a size 16 bead head pheasant tail as my back fly and caught them on both.  It ended up being a pretty good day and Garret got to use his new Simms waders and boots he just bought and loved them!

These three pics were the only ones I took.  They were from the headwaters trip last week after class.


Tight lines to everyone,

-Will

Salmon River, NY

       Yes....The salmon river has mixed opinions.  It has been known to be responsible for snagging, hatchery fish, and crowds that drive you crazy.  This can be true, but I would like to give a little insight to the people who talk about it without actually trying it.

       Brent and I had a chance to go steelheading a while back with a friend of ours.  He said it was a very affordable trip, and we could do it during one of our breaks from work/school.  We jumped on this opportunity and went.  This was a different world for a couple of brook trout junkies from Western North Carolina.  It was big water, and big fish.  Our first trip was like real Steelheading.  We were there for 4 days, and landed 3 steelhead, and one brown between us.  We were for sure humbled, but still were eager to get back.  Throughout our next several trips we caught many more steelhead, figuring them out a little.  Each trip we each landed at least 7, and could easily feel a little better about our trips.
      To talk about the stereotypes that surround the salmon river I will get started with the crowds.  During the salmon season yes, the crowds are bad.  Brent and I did this once, and we do recommend to do this at least one time.  It is a great opportunity to land the biggest freshwater fish you will ever land on a fly rod.  You can suck it up and deal with the crowds for one time.
       There are snaggers around.  You do see them.  They try to hide it, but their jerks at the end of their drift show they are actual idiots.  It is a disgrace to see people snaggging, but it just happens.  Thats what the game wardens are for.  They do their job and catch the illegal fisherman.  Thats just something you have to deal with, dont watch the snagging, and just focus on catching your own fish the right way.
      The whole hatchery fish debate is something I don't really want to get into.  Supposedly some steelhead are stocked as fingerlings and are not truly born in the rivers.  Even if there are fingerlings put into the river, how do you suppose they get to the size they are?  They turn wild.  They do make trips back to the lake, and then come back to the river to spawn.  Also how do you know you are not catching naturally reproduced fish instead of fingerling stocked fish?  You dont know.
       Yes I do dream of going to British Columbia or the Pacific Northwest to go steelheading.  That is something that I'm sure will change my life and add to my flyfishing experiences  For now  I will fish the salmon river.  It is a great chance to go steelheading, use the spey rod, and catch large fish.  It's a change of pace.  It's also affordable, and for a college kid....that means a  lot.

-Justin

The stream is my church. The trout, my preacher. The rod, my bible. The cast, my prayers.

- Matthew Sessions

This blog is new, so I wanted to catch everyone up to speed and post some of the pics from our trips this past year.  It shows some nice fish caught in TN, NC, and NY.

Spring!!!

I wanna kick my involvement on this sexy little blog off with a bang so here it goes.  Spring is definitely here with mayflies, caddis and stoneflies everywhere you look on the local streams.  In Tennessee on the big water (South Holston and Watauga tailraces), sulphurs are starting to come off in huge numbers and they're big!  I saw a hatch the other day while on South Holston that was the biggest I've ever seen.  It was practically snowing sulphurs.  The high winds approaching 30mph and my novice status as a dry fly fisherman prevented me from catching very many on dry flies but it was a cool sight to see, as the riffle I was fishing was loaded with browns and rainbows up to 16 inches sipping sulphurs up everywhere I looked!
Anyways, about the fishing... the wild streams are fishing good too and this rain we are having will bring the water levels up (they were bone dry a few days ago).  The fish have been hitting anything you throw at them.  A club member and I managed to land 7 brook trout out of one hole! Crazy stuff!

Pics from recent adventures at the South Holston and local NC streams:

Tight lines,

Will Jones

Wild Trout vs. Stock Trout

Wild Brook Trout

        There are major differences between a wild trout and a stocked trout.  Some people are never told the differences between them, or if they have been told then sometimes people just don't care.  To me, and to most major fly-fisherman, we do care.  I am not downing stocked trout at all.  If I am teaching one to fly-fish then I will choose a stocked stream for the first few outings.  It offers a better environment for someone who is just learning.  I am just writing about why myself, and my close group of fly-fisherman friends, choose to pursue wild fish.
         Stocked fish are put in seasonally for recreational fisherman.  They are grown in a hatchery until catchable size, and then released to the local streams where in time, they will be kept.  They are taken from their crammed hatchery lane, put into a hatchery truck, and carried in buckets to certain holes in designated creeks in the hatcheries jurisdiction.  The idea behind the hatchery is a great one.  It does help hurting trout populations.  But for this to help we need better regulations, where fish may not be kept.  We cant just allow for every fish that is thrown in to be kept by the local spin fisherman and their stringers.  Seeing a fish on a stringer is something that ruins your day, and puts an embarrassment to the sport.
         Wild fish are sometimes stocked as fingerling's.  Tailwater's and freestone creeks are major habitats for wild trout in our area of Western North Carolina.  They grow in size and live in their creek or river throughout their life.  These fingerling's are stocked at first yes, but after years of adapting to whichever water they are put in they turn wild.  These waters have better regulations on them, preferably catch and release.  These fish also usually have the capability of reproducing, which delivers more wild fish to their waters.
          The main differences that allow fly fisherman to choose wild over stocked are differences that one sees over time.  The location of the streams that wild fish live in are beautiful.  You will not find a better, or more scenic creek than a native brook trouts home.   In these wild waters, you have to be on your game to be successful.  Presentation needs to be nearly perfect.  Your casts have to hit the spot.  Wild fish are more picky on what they will eat.  You will sometimes be forced to change flies.  A 4 fish day is a great day on a wild creek, when on a stocked stream that is not so much.
         If you want to push yourself to be a better fly-fisherman then make yourself go out and learn how to fish the little creeks, or the intimidating tailwater's.  You can keep fishing Stocked streams every time a stocking comes around, but where does that get you?  Its the same thing every season.  Same fish, same flies.  Mix it up a little.  Go wild.  Go to the tailwaters around you, or even the tiny creeks where native brook trout reside where you used to would never think a fish would be.  You might have a few rough outings where no fish might be landed.  It pays off in the big picture, you know you are fly-fishing the more professional way, and the right way.  You will also become a better fly-fisherman expanding your knowledge and skill set.  Your practice and research will put you on more trout.  The beauty of small brook trout, and the fight of a tailwater bow or brown, cannot be topped with any size or any quantity of stocked fish.  Go wild trout, practice catch and release.  Once you go wild, you will never go back.

Take care,

Justin