NE Tennessee Tailwater report

[smarty140]

I had to be in the Charlotte area this week for some corporate meetings, so I flew down Friday evening and headed to NE Tennessee on Saturday morning.

I was hoping to have some nice weather, but instead it was cold... though not nearly as cold as back in WI.

After crossing the Smokies on Saturday morning, I got my license and fished the Watauga tailwater all day. As I was scouting out some access points, I did see a couple other fishermen landing fish, so there was hope despite only being about 25*. I fished several stretches of the river and caught a couple little rainbows on nymphs, but overall was fairly slow.

The next morning was colder yet - only about 15* and I headed to the South Holston, starting in the stretch just below the dam. At 15* and this far south, I figured I’d have the whole river to myself, but there actually were a fair number of fishermen on the water. I thought it was going to be a great day when I landed a little brown within the first 5 casts, but that was it for the day!

The river was pretty with the sun out and steam coming off the water.

I fished one other nice looking stretch farther downstream with no success, then had to head out to get back across the mountains. The view of South Holston Lake was beautiful, and there was one lone fisherman out in their boat.

I wish the weather would have cooperated a little better, but it was good to get out. There was little or no bug activity on the water, and I only saw one real rise the whole time.

And... the Vikings pulled out a crazy victory during my drive back to Charlotte, so the weekend ended well!

ryan



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[flytie09]

Looks like you had a good trip. The Watagua... i've had limited success. Public access is tough to find and I've found the fishing to not be as good as the SOHO.

The trick for the SOHO in the winter is midges and BWOs with long leaders and long light tippet - 7x. And you need to move around. Public access from the weir dam down to Bluff City affords one many public access areas with very good fishing.

The SOHO is however, well known and heavily pressured all year round. So it is difficult to find solace. Its gin clear water and much slack water when the generators are cut off make presentation critical.

Thanks for sharing.

ft09

 

[mark_lee]

Thanks for sharing. I have fished the SoHo a few times during the summer months but never fished the Watauga. Soho can have some awesome sulphur hatches during the warmer months.

 

[mcnerney]

Ryan

Thanks for sharing your trip report. Cold weather fishing can be unpredictable, but at least you got out and caught a some nice bows, congrats!

 

[smarty140]

Yeah, I missed good weather by 1-2 days.. it was 60* on Thurs-Fri, then much colder over the weekend when I could fish! I was interesting to be in the Charlotte area during a “winter storm” that pretty much shut the area down. Roughly 1.5” of wet snow closed most of the restaurants and shut down construction at the site our company is expanding... very different than the Upper Midwest!

ryan


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[mcnerney]

Yeah, I missed good weather by 1-2 days.. it was 60* on Thurs-Fri, then much colder over the weekend when I could fish! I was interesting to be in the Charlotte area during a “winter storm” that pretty much shut the area down. Roughly 1.5” of wet snow closed most of the restaurants and shut down construction at the site our company is expanding... very different than the Upper Midwest!

ryan


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I can believe that, I lived in Hampton, VA while in the AF, a winter storm with 2-3 inches of snow would shut everything down. LOL!