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 well, Marv. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble, and the dry summer heat of Johnson City is broken, hasn't it?
Ellis:
[0:21] It has. We, as a client of mine said, live in an effing rain forest, which has not been true for a couple weeks, but for last week and then certainly for tomorrow, we're getting over a half inch over the course of a few hours.
So it's needed and it'll hurt fishing and clarity and hatches for a couple days, but the reservoirs needed it and so did the fish. Yeah.
Marvin:
[0:53] So when things kind of settle out in the next, I don't know, 48 to 72 hours, what do you expect to see on the water.
Ellis:
[1:03] Yeah, I would expect to see some some floods from both rivers, which which is going to be pretty nice.
The Watauga has been doing the one to five and you know, Saturdays it's pushing big water for the rafting and the South Halston's been I'm doing four to seven, some three to sevens, but that's really it, and that results in, a lot of, if not all, guide pressure being on the Watauga, and most of it being low water.
So fish are seeing a lot of boats, and they're seeing them close to their faces, and at least through the next couple of weeks, we'll have options, which is nice.
And the Watauga will get a little bit of a reprieve.
And I would suspect that after a couple days, now we've had a few days of the South Holston generating all day.
And I was out there Saturday, a big fish water, big fish with streamers water.
[2:18] It was that sort of pea green that you would see in some of the limestone creeks up in Pennsylvania, but no bugs.
And I mean, a handful as we got into the evening hours, but a little rain shut them down.
So after After a few days of that or even more, I anticipate some of the early first light type hatches and then last couple hours of the evening to be pretty sulfury.
[2:58] And something to look for is, as you're fishing both these rivers and a lot of free stones as well, once that light starts going down below, we have some tall trees and it's a nice part of the tailwaters, happy, healthy banks, and even some bluffs and big bends in the rivers with some elevation drops and those areas tend to start getting hatchy a little earlier just because you have light coming off of the water sooner than some of the flats.
So, something to think about if you're cruising along and wanting to find the buggier stretches.
Marvin:
[3:43] Yeah, and you actually may be able to see your fly because you won't have that mirrored sheen all the way across the river.
Ellis:
[3:50] Yes, you know, use, uh, use enough floating on the first fly, whatever it is.
And, you know, hang that 22, 24 off the back. And, um, as long as you have your eye on one, I think you'll be good.
Marvin:
[4:07] Yeah. Bring the black Sharpie too. That never hurts.
Ellis:
[4:11] That little contrast.
Marvin:
[4:12] Yeah.
Ellis:
[4:15] I dig it.
Marvin:
[4:16] Yeah. So got a question for you. Uh, people love you.
Ellis:
[4:18] Right?
Marvin:
[4:19] And we were trying to figure out whether your Instagram story vibe is hip-hop music or metal. So, folks, if you have a preference, let us know.
But we got a question from Brenner, and he wanted to get your thoughts on how to target fish in high-water summer conditions, whether you're wading or floating.
Ellis:
[4:38] Sure. And to... A little teaser on the music front, I would say that based on my mood that those are hip hop and metal or rocker, I wonder whether I like either of those the most myself.
[4:57] So for targeting fish in high water, I'm just going to start with the boat and then we'll go to the wading, which I suspect unless you're a client or another guide, a lot of people are going to be more interested in the wading.
[5:15] So for targeting from a boat, it's really the benefit of the boat is covering water. The drawback of the boat is that you're covering water.
And that is to say that you have an opportunity to hit more shots, but as you are floating, in particular in the medium to higher speed flows, that's it.
You get your shots as you're going and as much back rowing as you can do, the more you're back rowing, the more you're asking people to change their angles so that they can get a proper presentation and generate a retrieve that makes a fly look like it should, versus getting that big bow in the line and there's a whole other host of things that start to come into play there.
So that's when you're casting from moving water into slack water, which would be the slower water in the bank.
So generally speaking, I like to, you know, on most trips, we start to get into a little bit of a groove where I have a read on what they're thinking, they have an idea of what I'm thinking as well and.
[6:39] What you want to do, I mean, in very high water, you want to find it's almost easier in some senses because you're looking around and it's less about where are the fish because especially in a tailwater, they are everywhere.
And it becomes more about where can I make a cast And where can my retrieve be in a place, in an angle, at a distance that is going to allow me to retrieve the fly in a way that it's going to be there long enough and it's going to act in a way that's going to elicit the E.
And so I'll use an example of what that doesn't look like, and that's casting into a bank that's super cut and has giant upwells coming out of it, not that they won't be there, but can your fly be in the water long enough?
Can it get close enough to a face?
Is it in a place that actually makes sense for a fish to come up and eat?
[7:52] Ignoring the would bait be there or does it look realistic?
It's just how much time, assuming you're not casting right onto the nose of a fish, which we rarely are, how much time, how many strip strip kills are you going to be able to put in if you're casting into ripping water that's super deep?
[8:12] So really approaching the river with, or approaching your spot selection with that in mind is going to help you out a lot. Now, with waiting...
All of that remains true and is highlighted by the fact that you die if you were in some of these places with giant upwells.
So assuming that you're waiting and you're being smart, which I giggled, but that's actually worth noting.
[8:45] A brown trout is not worth filling up your waders over.
So assuming that you're being safe and you're able to safely wade, this one might sound stupid but don't pick a spot where you have to put your fly line, rod, fly into a tree.
Obviously get sporty with them, but there's generally if you're looking around, you can find fishy spots that don't require hero casting.
And some of that stuff is going to look like ripples or boulders or things in the middle of the river that to a fish are the same thing as a bank.
So any type of speed disruption, any elevation changes, weed beds, any of the current scenes that you're seeing that maybe just on the other side of that current scene you see that current slow down a little bit.
[9:46] The brown trout, when they're over there.
[9:52] You see when you release them, especially the bigger ones, they have to do so little to not move at all in current.
And I mean, that's rainbows chilling in the middle seams and eating bugs.
They're expending zero energy. So really looking at the water and forcing yourself to say say, what type of water is behaving as though there is a bank near it, even if there isn't a bank?
And so that really starts to open up high and low water and muddy water where you can't see structure.
You can really start to pick apart the river and whether or not it's the best spot.
That'll be up to you and your fly and the presumed brown trout to find out.
But it does give you an approach. I've found a lot of success with that approach, fishing high water up in Pennsylvania before I had moved down here.
And then another thing, and I've probably said this a hundred times in a bunch of different is, but change up your retrieve.
[11:09] So fish and streamers directly from the would-be predator lie and trying to elicit that strike and pull them out and what I call nymphing in fast water, you're giving them an option, but you're forcing the decision to happen quickly.
Give Give them different options, dead drift, cast your streamer out there and just let it float with the current as it's going by.
It's sort of at a perpendicular angle, so you're still pointing your rod tip where the fish would be.
And then, you know, start, start getting creative, do some.
[11:54] Heck, I caught some nice browns in Pennsylvania fishing the Peanut Envy and just putting it up where I would put nymphs, up in the whitewater, letting it drop down into the big riffly, almost boiling water, but basically letting it get taken down by that current into a trout face.
And they're sitting right below those rocks and they have a cushion of water and they're just waiting for meals.
So yeah, there continues to be more ways that I explore and certainly none of these are totally exhaustive, but on foot you have the opportunity to work all of that water and hit it in a lot of different ways.
So, plenty of information there, I'll go ahead and stop yapping at you.
Marvin:
[12:55] But to kind of break it down a little bit, really kind of whether you're fishing from a boat or on foot, you know, you're really talking about two things.
One, you're trying to find a spot, right, where you want to get the fly down, right?
So that it just doesn't get ripped across the water, right?
So that's kind of, I guess, thing number one, right? And so, that soft water, that might be a stackman, right?
And then I guess, do you generally like people, you know, like let's put aside fishing a circus peanut or peanut envy in the seams, but a more traditional kind of strip and kill presentation.
You generally want them to try to be casting further downstream and maybe have a little bit of a mend so that that fly just doesn't start ripping instantly kind of Sideways.
Ellis:
[13:39] Good questions. Two adjustments. One of them is that I care less about getting down than I do about having the fly be in a place that is approachable by a fish for a long enough time to allow a fish that is probably a couple feet away to come eat it.
And in that period of time, you need to be animating your fly in a way that continues to entice or creates the trigger.
[14:13] So, the upwell example is, it's not in any kill zone.
I've had more brown trout come up through the surface eating hair bugs than I think a lot of people would believe.
[14:28] And they're generally not small. you start seeing it in muddy water, fish and hair bugs that are up top.
[14:40] I fish all white game changers in chocolate milk.
And because of the size and the material choice that I'm tying with, it's creating that profile. So it's less about getting it down.
And sometimes in certain situations, I actually like keeping it up.
And then for the approach, I err on an absolute straight line, fly in the water, rod tip is already in the water, line is dead straight, and if you're able to give it a tick just Just after it splats down on the water, that straight line is what allows your line to then go slack.
So if you're casting in a way that is allowing current or if you're casting and then pausing and your angles aren't right and the current is creating a bow in your line, your fly just looks like a streamer that was tied on a vice with some synthetics and some natural materials floating through the water. It doesn't look like a fish fleeing.
It doesn't have the abrupt speed.
[16:00] So yeah, especially with the hairy bugs, where I think they have the biggest upside, it does require a good amount of work.
And then, Marv, to touch on the mend and where you're casting it, if you do have the wherewithal to know really where you're going to start that.
That eat trigger, whatever your retrieve is going to be.
I mean, if you can slide it down, lift that line up, get tight while your fly is floating, and then start animating with a tight line.
I mean, some of those, I was joking with someone saying they were about to make me fall out of the boat, casting it up on the stream and just letting it chill there for a second, and then start this really fast animation.
[16:57] I love that type of change up. So yeah, and here's the thing, fish and floating line, absolutely.
If you're not fishing full sink and in a situation where maybe you have some cross currents, fish and floating line, if your retrieve is starting after your floating line has been pulled around by currents, Are fish gonna eat it?
Yeah. Will fish eat it more?
If you give it a pause, give it that mend to get everything in line and then start your retreat with a straight line. Yes, they will eat it more often.
Marvin:
[17:35] Got it. And, you know, we love questions on the articulate fly.
You can email them to us. You can DM us on social media.
If we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and we're gonna enter a drawing for two days of fishing with Ellis and a night at the Watauga River Lodge.
And if you have a most valuable medal you want to throw in there too, just let us know and we'll use it for one of the Instagram stories or your favorite hip hop song. We're all good. Kind of like classic hip hop though.
Ellis, before I let you hop, you want to let folks know where they can find you so they can book in fish with you?
Ellis:
[18:03] Sure. Website is elliswardfishing.com.
Instagram is at elliswardguides.
And best way to contact and, you know, talk about what a trip might look like, ask me questions, whatever. Also, of course, book is my cell phone at 513-543-0019.
Yeah, well, there you go.
Marvin:
[18:28] Well, listen, folks, show it to yourself to get out there and catch a few.
Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Ellis.
Ellis:
[18:36] Appreciate it, Marv.