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Joined: 6/22/2007
Posts: 33
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HHISFC Flyfishing Club Annual Freshwater Fishing Excursion
WHAT: We've arranged with Theo Copeland of Appalachian Angler to guide our trip to flyfish for trout and smallmouth bass.
WHEN: Tuesday May 5 - Friday May 9
WHERE: We'll be fishing the Watauga and South Holston Rivers near Elizabethton, Tennessee.
HOW: Most of the fishing will be
from Western style drift boats (2 fishermen and a guide per boat) with some wading where appropriate. This is excellent water for rainbows, browns and smallmouths, the best you'll find within a day's drive of Hilton Head!! This will be
our fifteenth trip to this area and they've all been very successful and great fun!
DETAILS:
You can spend 2, 3, or 4 days of fishing. You choose what you want to do.
Bring a buddy if you want to share rooms, and fish together. If you're
coming alone, I'll try to pair up people for fishing.
Some of the non-fishing wives are coming to do the antiques shops in the area.
The trip is at "prime time" for mayfly and caddis hatches. So the fishing is
unusually great! The most common flies for this time of year are Blue Winged Olives,
Hendricksons, Sulphur Duns, Light Cahills, and Black and Grey Caddis.
Streamers can be very effective for lunker trout. The guides will have a wide
selection of the best flies available with them during the trips for purchase. If
you are a beginner/novice, we'll provide a guide who will instruct you in the
fine art of flycasting and fishing. You can even rent rods, reels and waders
for a very nominal cost if you don't have what you need.
Although most of our trips will be:
(1) floating for trout, you can also
(2) float fish for smallmouths, or (3) take a guided walking trip for wild trout on the smaller streams.
Itinerary:
May 5 (Mon.):
Drive to Elizabethton, Tenn. Check in at the Americourt Inn, have dinner at your leisure, meet in the breakfast area at 9:00 PM for a discussion of flies, tackle, areas to be fished.
May 6 (Tues.) -May 9 (Fri.):
Each day is the same. Get a quick breakfast (Americourt Inn has a breakfast available, free) and meet your guide @ 7:15 AM. Then off to the river for a day's fishing. Appalachian Angler will provide a shore lunch during the float trip. Leave the river about 4:00 PM. Back to the Americourt Inn for the evening.
If you're interested or have any questions, call DON KOWTKO 843-681-6338
We'll work out what deposit we'll need from you to reserve the guides and type of fishing you want.
PLEASE RESPOND NOW BECAUSE WE'RE LIMITING THE GROUP TO 12 FISHERMEN ON ANY
DAY (WE'RE RESERVING 6 GUIDES) AND THE SPOTS WILL GO QUICKLY.
This is a great trip with opportunities for a variety of excellent freshwater
flyfishing fun. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you!
DON KOWTKO
843-681-6338
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Rank: Administration
Joined: 6/22/2007
Posts: 33
Points: -430
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Gentlemen:
I thought you might like some feedback on the flyfishing trip we took last
week.
We had 14 fishermen during the week, including 4 "first timers" and 3
novices. Even so, everyone did very well and lots of trout were caught. The fish
generally ranged from 10" to 18"...mostly rainbows and brook trout, with some
occasional browns. The fish were all healthy, prime specimens...beautifully
colored and full of fight. Everyone, including our less experienced fly
fishermen, had days when they were in double figures during the week.
Fishing was difficult, because we caught a period "between hatches". The
blue winged olives and black caddis hatches were over and the sulphurs had not
yet started in any significant numbers. On the first day, we pumped the stomach
of a nice fat 14" rainbow and found that he was feeding on size 20 and 22
black midges. So we went to fishing those sizes on a 6X tippet down deep in the
faster runs. That produced very well...including many larger size rainbows.
The big problem was landing them in fast water with the tiny flies on fine
tippets. But hooking them and playing them at least for a while was 90% of the fun
anyway. since it was all "catch and release" fishing anyway.
The other effective method was to fish a sulphur dun dry fly with a size 20
black midge on an 18" dropper in slower stretches, with the fish frequently
taking the dropper. This was an easy fishing method, but the fish taken this way
were generally smaller than the ones caught nymphing.
The guides also had a rust color wooly bugger (streamer) which worked
amazingly well when fished along submerged rock ledge formations. I didn't know what
the fish took this to be since the color wasn't close to anything in the
river. I didn't ask any questions, since the fish really jumped on it when
retrieved with very short, fast strips.
All the trips were float trips for trout on the Watauga River since they were
not releasing water on the South Holston, and the only way to fish it would
have been a walking/wading trip...which no one chose to do.
The one exception was Earle Nirmaier and his son Bob, Who took their annual
smallmouth trip on the Nolichucky River. They did very well spinning for
smallmouths, but the "trophy" fish came at the end of the day. Earle caught a 24"
rainbow trout, and Bob got a 20" rainbow shortly thereafter. And, since Bob
had his camera with him, they have the pictures to prove it!!!
Before we left, I told Appalachian Angler (our guide service) that we'd be
back again the first week in May next year...with half the spots already booked
by this year's anglers as they came off the river.
Tight Lines...Don
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