Transcript: East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
We're back with another East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward. How you doing Ellis?
Ellis:
[0:11] Ellis Ward – Doing good, Mark. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:13] Mark Antion – As always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble and we were talking before we started recording, we're starting to head into that funky shoulder season, right?
Ellis:
[0:24] Yeah, one of the main tells here at least is the bugs and we're past the big sulfurs, smaller sulfurs, PMDs, all variety of yellow bugs and caddis.
All those bugs still kind of hang around for a little bit, but you just pop the rocks over in some of these sections that are crawling on South Holston with a lot of the mayfly nymphs and Watago with both mayfly, the bigger ones, down to the we-can't-tie-on-a-hook small blue wings and midges.
It's just movement and there is much less of that now.
You're They're seeing the caddis form and they're a little seeing the spring, their cases, but.
[1:36] Some of these afternoons that would otherwise two or three weeks ago be very, very buggy, aren't very buggy at all.
And fewer risers, that's what that means, but they're still very much eating.
So on the bug front, and this is something that... The whole pick up rocks thing, I don't think should be discounted, especially on these waters because you have these significant changes.
You can fish your 20 or 18 Rainbow Warrior and 22, 24 Zebra Midge and catch fish all year.
But it's very interesting to, in the same section, if you're here a couple times, if you're local, but just pick up the rocks and look at what's going on.
And some of the sections on both rivers are just, when you pick up the rocks with some vegetation on it, the whole thing's moving with scuds.
And those sort of change color and size throughout the year.
But something to take note of when there's less of other food in the system.
And then on the lower end, and more for the baitfish and streamer type imitations.
[3:04] You'll still see minnows, but we're working with less of the balls of shad moving up in that are present April, May, early June.
And fish have been pressured all summer.
Right on the cusp of school year starting, there's some of the travel just to travel versus travel for fishing.
That travel just to travel is coming to an end for at least a little bit, and it's taking a lot of pressure off the rivers, but we are still at the tail end of getting hit pretty hard with the quote unquote peak season.
So, growing some significant rain after low water and even in the tailwater environment, we're dealing with a little bit of the either super low and clear or, this is the tailwater version, super low and also muddy just because you're getting all the tributaries pushing a bunch of mud in.
I appreciate the cool down, and I will not make any other weather predictions beyond.
It's still going to be warm for a little while.
Marvin:
[4:30] Yeah, no first snowfall, nothing like that?
Ellis:
[4:33] No, we're going to rest on that for right now.
Marvin:
[4:37] It's important to stay in your lane, right? Yes, yes. That's not mine.
Yeah, and with tremendous trepidation, I have a question for you that Cody sent in.
This is going to be like flipping the lid off the Ark of the Covenant for you.
He wants to know the best lined leader to fly setup to fish unweighted streamers.
Ellis:
[5:08] Yeah. I'm not sure if I should start off with just like a quick answer or something redundant and guide speaky like, well, you know, it depends on and sort of cover every single base with one blanket.
Do whatever works for you. So I will say that's the most important part.
Now I'm just going to simplify, which is, if I stop talking, it's because something in me shut down.
Because it's really hard to simplify, but I'm going to go with the Rio Outbound Short 6 weight.
The 8th. Line on a 7 on a fast 7.
Or even an 8.
30 pound a foot or 30 pound mono.
And. Foot and a half to 2 feet.
Do I have to choose a fly?
Marvin:
[6:27] Uh, no, we'll just say, and then you end it with a loop knot. How about that?
Ellis:
[6:31] And it was a loop knot.
Marvin:
[6:32] Yeah. And so just for folks to understand, let's kind of back up to the, to the line. Right. And cause so that Rio line has got a short heavy head, which is really good for turning over big stuff, right?
Ellis:
[6:45] Yeah. And this line is something that I really do want to...
Personally, I of course want to be fishing what I think is the best and as a guide and a purveyor of a specific type of product, which is most folks coming to me are coming to streamer fishing and a lot of folks are coming to learn.
So I have a lot of line, rod configurations and the sinking line, you are casting so much and you're casting, this isn't dry line.
I mean, I go through, I got to think five to 10 times as many lines as most guides who aren't doing this type of fishing in particular, because you're stripping line all over the boat, it's sinking, so you're getting it hung up.
You're chucking stuff in bad places, so you're getting snagged, stretching out, it's getting nicks.
And so a lot of what I look for... I mean, if everything's great and it breaks pretty easily, I'm out.
[8:10] It's as simple as that. But then you start to get into the stickiness and a bunch of other, you know, does it, does it not, does it, do knots come undone, does it collect dirt quickly, what's the peak dirt collection, you know, after you clean it, does it shoot well, how does it load, what does it feel like on a seven, what does it feel like on an eight.
So with the six weight underlining some of these rods, there's still enough weight on those.
[8:50] Intermediate 3.5 and intermediate 5.7, there's still plenty of weight to load those rods and it gives you the benefit...
I've been fishing more in the upper sections of the water column, so I'm not really dredging.
[9:08] And it gives you the benefit of being able to pick up out of the water and recast a little faster.
And it also gives you accuracy because once you get used to that configuration, you're able to control, it's just a little less floppy.
So you're going away from that casting a ball and chain, and when you drop down instead of going up and overlining, which I had done initially years ago, first getting into this of just big, heavy, get down.
When you start going under, you get a lot more control, and the entirety of that line isn't, there's simply less mass, even if it's at the same depth, there's less mass there.
So the pickup is extraordinarily, I mean, there is a big difference between going with a six on an eight and going with an eight on an eight and it'll load the rod just as well but while you're wade fishing, while you're fishing from a boat, your shot's wade fishing, you're doing it a lot, line is everywhere.
[10:26] And then from the boat, same deal, pickup can be critical in both circumstances but from the boat, you.
That's it. Your shots, they aren't gone.
[10:44] And I talk a lot about better shots, not more shots.
So really anything you can do over the course of the day to reduce fatigue and just keep staying consistent and getting your shots in.
And one of those things I've found is one of a line that that performs, doesn't break, and does all the things that I like, and yeah, definitely underlining, but at a minimum, not overlining.
So that's it for the line.
Marvin:
[11:26] Yeah, so I mean, I guess what I would say, right, is, and what we're really saying, particularly when you're fishing from a boat, is if you're not burning, you know, 10 yards, floating roll line, pick up and to get that line up to the top to then cast it.
You basically you're doubling your ability. You get twice as many shots if you want to take them.
Ellis:
[11:43] Yeah. And since I'll, I'll, I'll stand by the fact that brown trout are, are hunting for stomachs, um, not heads and not tails.
I like keeping things a little higher in the water column. Yeah.
Marvin:
[12:01] And then, you know, then let's get to the leader design, right.
And, you know, why don't we just start with like, why using shorter, less tapered leaders for efficient streamers is better anyway?
Ellis:
[12:11] Yeah. So if you think about it, you're casting something.
It's it's, I don't want to say it's not fly casting because it very much is. It's just different.
Nymphine and, and, uh, casting with split shot on a light, you know, let's say four-way.
That's a very different cast than a 60-foot delicate presentation with a 12-foot dry leader.
So they're all fly casting, it's just you have to adjust what you're doing.
[12:53] And the streamer fishing leader configuration is, one, it does not need to be be long.
Spook doesn't necessarily exist.
I don't know why I say necessarily, because when you're fishing something that is significantly bigger than your line, you don't need to worry about line spook.
It's what is going on at the terminal end.
That's the only thing that is concerning to the fish.
What you do need to to be concerned with is being able to get your fly out of bad situations, which you need to put them in, in order to catch nice fish.
And sometimes, some days, in order to catch any fish, they have to be in spooky places and you're going to get hung up. We lose flies.
I tie all the time. If I boxed up the streamers that I just run through on my boat because we donate three, four, five every single trip.
I mean, I would have multiple fly shops worth of just three to four inch streamers.
[14:11] So you need to think about basically maximizing what you can pull on for sticks, trees, et cetera, but also recognizing that you're going to need to break them off.
So if you're in fast current, um, you get something hung up or casting backwards and it's upstream, you can't get it, you have to break it off.
And some of these lines, when you start getting up in the eight, nine weight, you know, that, that core can be up to 50 pounds, most are 20, 25, but you add in line stretch and then if, unless it's on a rock or a stump, if it's on a branch and it's moving a little bit, anything above 16, unless you're pretty quick to give it a significant pull before all of your line is out and stretching, you could be in a situation where either your rod is at risk or you're doing something stupid.
[15:10] I have done it many, many times. doing something stupid to try to salvage the fly or the line when the easy answer is you should have just been fishing 16 pounds instead of 20 or 25.
I tend to fish 20 on my own just because if I know something's in a bad place, I'll give it a big pull before all of my fly line is out and all that fly line out, it's just more stretching and it dampens what your poll actually does.
[15:49] So, I like the short 30 to 16.
I go 30 so that you can turn over big flies and going a foot of 30 and a foot of 20, especially if you're waiting, certainly not a bad idea.
Going down in, and this is where, I have to shut up at some point, but going down in a tippet or leader going from 16 to the 12-pound Cortland Fluorocarbon Supreme is awesome.
I really don't see a need to go beyond that, but when you reduce the mass of the terminal end of your leader, you have, instead of a stick, let's say you're fishing 50-pound fluoro, a stick attached to a fly, 50-pound fluoro with a clinch knot straight to a fly is going to make it look like you are poking a fly around with the end of your rod tip. There's no movement.
So, opposite of the spectrum, the heavy medium would be going down to a loop knot off of 12 pound fluoro.
[17:09] There's a lot of wiggle there and it's still plenty strong to get in big fish.
You can break 12 pretty easily on sticks and things of that nature.
So that 16 is a pretty happy place.
And then as you go from 16 to 12, you do need to extend it a little bit, because that 30 to 20 or 30 to 16 over the course of two or three feet is a short, very highly tapered, going from 30 to 20 just over the course of a couple feet, even though it doesn't seem like it.
But it turns over flies very quickly, and it turns over large flies quickly and what it's doing is transferring the energy of that massive fly line moving at high speed.
And so you need something, you need a stiff butt to do that.
And then, you know, it needs to, you don't need to be too delicate with your presentations. again, as you're going from 20 down to 16, down to 12.
That unrolling process will start to take place a little more, and you should be extending to something more like four to five feet. I'm going to stop.
Marvin:
[18:35] I was getting ready to say I had just taken the safety off the dart gun.
Ellis:
[18:39] Yeah. I've given you permission to put me down.
Marvin:
[18:45] Well, you know, folks, we love questions at the Articulate Fly.
You can email them to us. You can DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you.
For you and if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and we're going to need a drawing for two days of fishing with Ellis and one night at the Otago River Lodge and Ellis, before I let you go to kind of sleep off your streamer line leader question intoxication, you want to let folks know where they can find you so they can book in fish with you.
Ellis:
[19:13] Yeah, website is elliswardfishing.com.
Instagram is elliswardguides and YouTube is elliswardfishing.
Best way to get a hold of me, ask questions, design your trip.
I do want to remind everyone that that level of detail is absolutely not required and sometimes I don't normally get into beginners or more than encouraged.
I love teaching, but best way to contact me, ask questions, design your trip, or ask questions about your own fishing is my cell phone at 513-543-0019.
Well, there you go.
Marvin:
[19:56] Well, listen, folks, you owe it to yourself over this long holiday weekend to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody.
Tight lines, Ellis. Appreciate it, man.