Christmas Trout

Greetings everyone! I almost hate to say this for fear it will bring retribution from Mother Nature but as Winters go..so far this has been a nice one! Yeah, yeah, I know..some of you out there are whining it's too warm, sure would like to see some snow for Christmas..blah..blah..blah! :) I recall this time last year it was freezing cold, snow on the ground, miserable to be outside, and I was burning through my stockpile of wood like they were giving the stuff away for free! Give me short sleeves in December any day of the week! So now that I've expressed my love for cold weather, let me tell you what we've been up to..

The Clinch continues to run around 16500 cfs! That last big round of rain we got brought Norris lake up past what would be considered flood stage for this time of year, obviously sending the powers that be into a panic, so Norris has been sluicing an extra 7500 cfs bringing the total output from the dam up to 16500 cfs. Sound like a lot? You betcha! Here we are launching at Miller's Island on an ill advised streamer run! This is the road leading down to the ramp..not the ramp itself..not often one gets to float out of the parking lot into the river! Many years ago another guide and myself floated the Clinch on almost exactly this water level, due to an intolerable case of cabin fever, and had one of the best streamer fishing days of my life..this was not one of those days! The fish were hugging the bottom for dear life and not interested in chasing our offerings. Still floating the river was a blast. And it certainly didn't take very long!

We then progressed to a much safer and rewarding plan and packed up the gear and headed for the South Holston. I've done several trips up there in the last couple of weeks and the fishing has been pretty darn good. Most days we floated nymphs under indicators and caught good numbers of brown, and rainbow trout in the usual places, even saw a few blue wing olives hatching but the fish weren't on 'em, so we just plied the holes with nymphs and caught fish pretty much all the way down the river. When the sun was out, the fish were on, when the sun went down, so did the fish..pretty typical for Winter fishing. I was back up there this Monday with resident streamer fanatic Peter Petruzzi to do some fishing with the big uglies and had a great day, sun was out most of the time, and the fish were actively chasing the fly.  I always enjoy the South Holston and seeing my old buddy, and shuttle driver extroidinaire, Jack Prater. The South Holston is still running a good flow at the time of this writing but things can change rapidly. Boone lake is down to Winter pool so the river pretty much flows all the way to Bluff city.

 I'd like to wish everyone a great Hoilday season and thanks to all of you who took part in the Christmas gift certificate drive, it allows me to rake in some much needed Winter cash and nets those folks who take part a pretty good discount on some Spring (or Winter) fishing. I'll leave you with one more picture from the most recent South Holston trip and the wish that all of you get the chance to get out and do some fishing this season. I'll be starting the new newsletter this Spring so if you want it, and havent signed up, drop me an email or sign the guest book on this site. Merry Christmas everyone! Keep the faith, Spring is just around the corner!