Transcript: East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with another East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward. How you doing Ellis?
Ellis:
[0:12] I'm doing good Marvin, how are you?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, I'm trying to stay out of trouble, and I guess the good news is, you know, most parts of the mid-Atlantic it's been cool, but there's no water, and so things are starting to kind of get sideways a little bit earlier than we would normally expect, but you're on a tailwater, so you probably don't necessarily have that flow problem, right?
Ellis:
[0:31] Yeah, it's actually been, the South Holston for the last two days has been releasing for the first time in months, many months.
And to the point where it was pretty muddy and that's just an interesting observation because that river relative to the Watauga just doesn't have many tributaries.
So to see it muddy like that just from release is all the sediment that's settled on the banks in the last number of months is getting kicked up.
So the TVA has their algorithms of when they release and the lake at the bottom versus the lakes, South Holston and the Watauga at the tops of their respective rivers, and it's nice to be getting some good water.
Marvin:
[1:31] Yeah, so how does that translate? Because you've been having really unseasonably cool evenings, what does that translate to on the water?
Ellis:
[1:40] It translates to a change in, we'll use the example of a typical dry fly shelf, or like a tail out where trout are going to be comfortable.
Close enough to the surface to come up and eat, but close enough to a drop-off and to other structure to be protected.
And so if you just using the South Holston as an example, you can't float it when it's the upper section from ramp to ramp, you can do some inter-ramp stuff.
And then the lower section too, you can scrape your boat across and paddle around and in the pools.
But that river goes from dozens of cubic feet per second maximum, it's sometimes pretty low.
And when they're generating, it goes to 2200.
[2:44] So it can take what would be hatchy conditions, buggy conditions, and turn it into absolutely nothing, no bugs coming off.
Sometimes it shifts it, most of the time it does shift it until later.
But another thing to look out for, and the Otago, you can fill up the whole river on low water, But it goes from 240 CFS to 1,700 CFS, and so it really...
It's 10 times the volume, so it changes the layout of the river.
It changes where those dry fly shells are.
[3:27] There's enough moving water over the areas where it's buggy or hatchy in low water.
And so the low light times, which includes the morning, can be a great time to predictably get the same type of bugs or same type of hatches.
But when you get those, some cloudy days, and we have betas that go off year round and sulfur PMDs and caddis, tan caddis, I know Watauga's famous for the big stuff, but there's There's so many bugs and when you get consistent flows, so it's not just these little pulses, but you're getting a regular amount of generation over days, the bugs get used to it.
I haven't really seen that they're quite there yet, but I've seen on some more overcast days and you think about the good bluing days in the winter where it's all overcast and midday you can get good hatches.
So that's happening with low light and mornings and evenings, But also on the cloudier days and high water, we're getting some great hatches of...
[4:53] The three main mayflies and the caddis.
But day to day, it's going out on the water with a plan for everything, recognizing that you might not see what you saw the day before given the same conditions.
And with the TVA and changing conditions, you might not get the water you were expecting or it could be delayed.
So flexibility and the ability to do a lot of different stuff is important, but great windows can be found if you're out there long enough.
Marvin:
[5:30] And I guess the trick, right, is as we kind of get into the dog days of summer, the conditions and the flows are going to become a little bit more consistent because the TVA, I mean, they do, you know, they're moving water for flood control, but they really want to generate electricity, right?
Ellis:
[5:46] Yes, and on the Watauga, they want to generate income for the recreational rafting is really what I see as the downstream, sorry for the pun, the downstream impact of the recreational release.
So between Memorial Day and Labor Day from 1 to 5 p.m.
Every day, aside from Sundays, as a minimum, the Watauga is generating, which for both streamers and for dry flies, you think about fish, if fish are holding in bigger current and are coming up and eating, I mean, their blinders are a bit more on, they can't feel a boat in the middle of a flat when the water's up as much as they can when the water's down.
And afternoons, evenings, you don't have as much of the typical guide pressure that's very much present at high noon.
But yeah, that, you know, the electricity, the recreational releases, as they call them, in big water on Saturdays, goes up to 3,300.
[7:06] Is, you know, nothing to guarantee in life, but it's on the TVA schedule until Labor Day. So it is nice to have that as a unknown since there are so many unknowns.
And then, you know, like I said, with South Holston starting there, or that dam starting to release a little bit more and just looking at lake levels, Um, you know, pressure's off the Watauga a little bit and, and the fish appreciate it.
So things are nice and happy. Yeah.
Marvin:
[7:39] I guess we should probably stay away from talking about known and unknown unknowns. Right.
Ellis:
[7:46] Uh, if we want to talk about weather, I'm, I'm almost certain that we're not going to have any more freezing temperatures.
Marvin:
[7:51] Yeah, well, there you go. Well, we've got a really interesting, we've got an interesting question for you from, uh, your friends at the Clemson fly fishing club, and they wanted to get your thoughts on the difference between targeting Big Browns versus targeting Stripers and Tennessee Rivers?
Ellis:
[8:06] Sure. So, I would say that there's, I'm going to categorize it in maybe, we're going to try to state a three.
[8:22] When the water's really big and off-color, and that's when tributaries are sort of blown out. And when it's chocolate milk, it can just be tough.
It can be tough because you can't see structure that you're casting towards, you might be getting hung up.
You can't see your fly. And it's a lot of, for those fish, generally speaking, especially when the water's off like that, you want something with a big profile.
And when the water is up and off like that, the margins are, so the edges of the river, not necessarily banks, but we know log jams.
I've caught some very nice striper fishing the exact same way I would be fishing for browns.
Sizing up a little bit, I think that becomes a little less important, but those conditions where the visibility is so bad, putting something in with a big profile, just from experience, that's when you're getting reactions from the fish that are out there hunting in that way. These are striper holding.
On the bank next to a log jam, just like a brown trout would be.
[9:38] And so there's that where it's almost a, it doesn't really make sense to be fishing anywhere else because the ability to get a presentation with a fly in ripping water like that, and that's a time for a striper to be eating.
They start to get real picky and real spooky to the point where they're generally not eating outside of off color water with some degree of inclement weather.
Cloud cover just doesn't really cut it.
But when you do start getting that and it's not blown out conditions, the biggest difference is...
And not that you can't target brown trout this way, but the biggest difference I would say is fishing mid seam or mid current, in targeting areas of depth with more of a swinging approach.
[10:34] I've caught some counting down clousers, casting it way upstream with really heavy and quick sinking line and finding the bottom and getting hung up and snapping a couple of clousers off, but getting that countdown in and then just basically moving it, finding where I'm not hanging up and moving it where I know it's almost on the bottom.
[10:59] I would never fish for brown trout like that. Not that they wouldn't be holding down there, but that big current, and that's something that I took away from a lot of fishing in the DC area before I moved here, that big current and it's almost like a rainbow trout eating bugs in a current seam, they're going to be holding there in a more consistent way over time, both in low and in high water.
You can see them in low water if you're out and you're looking down and they'll scurry off but you know where they are.
And so the ability to see that and fish them in different conditions were at night, the approach can be something that looks basically the opposite of what you'd do for brown trout.
And then that said, using the first example, they can be holding up if.
[12:05] If the water's that off color, they can be holding up on the sides of the banks.
And then the other one, which is more of a, eh, there's not much of a difference, is going out and fishing at night.
And at that point, be it with mouses or dahlbergs or gurglers, mousing is extremely effective. It shouldn't be limited to just mice.
You can fish top water, period. And so, to do that for the striper, sort of mid-current, mid-river, and especially as you get down near the lake where you'll get injured shad floating near the surface, that can be an effective way to target them.
That again, sort of, I wouldn't say flies in the face of how I fish for brown trout, but it's definitely not the exact same approach.
Marvin:
[13:02] Got it. And you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly, and you love questions too, right, Ellis?
I do. And so you can email them to us.
You can DM us on social media, whatever is easiest for you. And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
And then we've got an awesome drawing from Ellis at the end of the season for two days of fishing with him in a row and a night at the Rotaga River Lodge.
So folks, send in your questions because if you don't play, you can't win.
And Ellis, before I let you go, you want to let folks where they can find you so they can book in fish with you?
Ellis:
[13:39] Sure, Instagram is at elliswardguides and the easiest way to contact and ask questions, book a trip, is getting me on my cell phone.
Call or text at 513-543-0019.
Marvin:
[13:56] Well, there you go. Well, listen folks, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few.
Tight lines everybody. Tight lines Ellis. Appreciate it Marv.