Transcript: East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward
S5, Ep 153: East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward
2023, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
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 am doing well, Marvin. How are you?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And dude, you got a little bit of rain in East Tennessee. How's it looking out on the water?
Ellis:
[0:23] Different. Looks like actual rivers. so the the freestone you know the the long lakey sections on the musky rivers are, have been interrupted there are certain sections you can't really even, get through i say you can't really because you know 258 pound drift boat you can figure a way to get over stuff but there's a lot of sections the jet boats haven't been able to go on um I mean, you just look around and it's like, you can tell you are where water was and has been for a long time.
And so that's, you know, up in the hills of North Carolina.
And and now and then even even down into tennessee french broad nolichucky they just you're driving by and you can see, the the coloration on the rocks is like very clearly not right and you can't see them anymore they actually look like rivers they're flowing the right the way they're supposed to and and you can get from point A to point B.
We do need to keep getting more, and thankfully we just got some snow. I was just driving back.
I'm muskie fishing here about an hour ago, and it's coming through.
[1:52] For East Tennessee, coming through some legitimate snow.
So, you know, between those and the tailwaters that are going to be...
Cooking up here for a post-pond bite.
It's refreshing. Makes me happy.
Marvin:
[2:13] Yeah, and we probably should do a public service announcement.
I've gotten a few comments on social media to let folks know about the closed sections on your rivers.
Ellis:
[2:23] Yeah, so the Watauga is, whether you like it or not, open.
And the South Holston has two different sections.
I was about to say I'm going to reserve my comment, but why am I here?
One of them is, I mean, they're both somewhat, I'll say, selected at random.
If you ask me, they should close from the weir down.
But the weir to their signage, if you float in that top section, there's a significant portion that is closed.
From the first house with the floating dock, you'll see big signs down to Hickory Springs Bridge.
And yeah, then the next one isn't down for a couple more sections, which is much less pressured.
But signs on the downstream and the up in the event you're riding your jet, you don't have an excuse.
Marvin:
[3:33] Yeah. And so those sections are closed for how long to protect spawning fish?
Ellis:
[3:40] From November 1st to, I believe, February.
Marvin:
[3:47] Yeah. So folks, just don't do it.
Ellis:
[3:52] Yeah, and again, I like those guidelines, and I think that there's some awareness.
[4:05] The reds get fished here, and they get parked on, and it's kind of tough.
And the reason I say I believe February 1st is because I start fishing more of the trout rivers, you know, mid and January, but it's rough going out there and seeing people parked.
And I've been a little more vocal about it this year, and I have received more than stern looks.
And it's it's been for saying that guides shouldn't park on reds which i thought was sort of like a universally accepted thing but and it's not a to to each their own thing it's something that has to stop and um i honestly i think most recreational anglers around here don't do it and it's it's it's tough to see that um mostly in the first you know november december but reds are sort of algae back up the those light circles are becoming a little darker and, Water, you know, getting good pushes of water and it'd be time to kind of fish post-spawn here pretty soon.
Marvin:
[5:29] Yeah, and I know you, it's kind of, you know, I know you feel strongly about it and you don't do it.
And your theory is people shouldn't be fishing reds anywhere closed or not closed.
But I also know for you from a practical perspective, it's not as big a deal because you're kind of, you know, 24-7, maybe not 365, but a good 90 muskie fishing, right? Right.
Ellis:
[5:50] Right now. Yeah. And I really I start I start in heavy on that sort of August.
The the trout streams can just get a little more finicky. I'd said on a YouTube video.
How appreciative I was. This is my my fourth year and kind of the first year where it's it's felt sustainably busy.
Busy and and you know the right people are finding me and uh you know enough trips to have, some really good days and um meet some awesome people but please let's let's make that busy season not from september through november because if you just if you pick up rocks, and and look at the bug life on growing on the other underside of the rocks stocks in February March through July it you know your hand is crawling it's teeny like August September October I mean you can still get great days and I've had great days but they'll that that Biomath.
[7:04] It's moving out of the system, and they've also just been pounding since Memorial Day weekend.
And so it kind of starts shifting sort of that late summer.
But at the end of the day, both of the rivers, even though they can be very tough, are super healthy with lots of fish and maybe not 365 days a year.
But with dry fly conditions, you know, maybe a little overcast or sunny, depending on the species of mayfly or caddis, but you're going to be able to find rodger.
We just had great, great days fishing dry flies as recent as a week or two ago.
So, yeah, it's not all just because they're some trout are spawning does not mean that is where you're going to go or, you know, where everyone is going to go.
There's, there's plenty of fish that are hanging around doing their normal thing.
And yes, I am at that time probably found on a musky river somewhere. more.
Marvin:
[8:17] Yeah. Speaking of, what are you seeing, you know, now that you've gotten a little push of water, how have things changed?
Ellis:
[8:26] Well, we haven't, it's basically opened up a few different pieces of water, you know, the areas that have fish that are part of the TVA system.
System, um, you know, patterning musky throughout a season or over years in like, that's the hardest thing, finding the, finding the home, knowing they're even the cities, not to mention the zip codes and addresses, but being able to do that in the same day when you're getting you know a totally different set of conditions can be a little more challenging sometimes it can fire them up um but what what more water means that we're we're having consistent windows of, generation and no generation so you're you're fishing the same amount of water um be it high or low for longer periods of time which it's it's really hard i mean sometimes you'll get them on those those fluctuations and you'll see them moving there but um fishing anything off color.
[9:50] Just knowing how deep you're going and and where they're holding based on generation or not is it really changes the day around so having a little more consistency there and longer windows of water water on is really helpful for tracking them down. And then on the freestones.
[10:09] I think it's just, it's fired them up a little bit.
So it hasn't been so much that sections are anything other than like the topical view, like those logs that all should be underwater.
Yeah, now they're underwater. water they haven't turned into new holding zones or you know rock structures and some of the lower areas haven't vanished um but seeing more i mean just in the last week seeing a little more commitment from the ones that i know where they are and you know finding finding some other one One that like, yeah, I didn't know they'd be there, but where you fish, I mean, there's, you got a little color in the water.
We've also just had some good days recently, some good moon days that coincide with cloud cover.
So getting fish in the net and getting more of those addresses.
I think that was a Chris Wellen thing from one of your interviews with him.
Marvin:
[11:19] Yeah, funny. I just re-released that or I reminded people of it, I guess, more accurately.
I'm doing a 12-day of Christmas thing where I'm putting out old episodes to kind of drive people back to Spotify.
But yeah, you know, it's kind of funny with those conditions, you know, good day to be a muskie, bad day to be a horsehead sucker.
Ellis:
[11:41] Yeah. Well, good or bad day to be dead deer tied to a hook.
Marvin:
[11:48] Yeah. And so, you know, uh, speaking of we're kind of winding down, this is our last fishing report of the year, and this will actually be the last episode I'll put out this year. And it's time to do our drawing.
And, uh, Ellis, you want to remind folks what we're drawing for before I tell you, uh, who the, uh, Google random number generator generated?
Ellis:
[12:07] Two days of fishing with me. And that can be anything we want, anything I do.
Warmer evening can include mousing.
It's a lot. It's a lot of time trapped on a boat with me.
Marvin:
[12:33] And then uh in between the two or three days of guided fishing and in between staying at the watauga river lodge uh yeah which is uh super cool and so the winner is actually local i was pretty funny when i got saw his name his address uh it's chris reinstedler so chris uh super lucky I would encourage you to reach out to Ellis on Instagram or call us L.
And if he hasn't heard from you in a week or so, I'll reach out to you.
And I know, I know Ellis, you are, you've been the mad scientist cranking out bucktails. What have you got on the bucktail front?
Ellis:
[13:14] My living room is covered right now i just got everything recently dyed tail, are in bag um i did a little a little different this year and kind of focused on getting them all processed and dried and then sort of doing batches of dyed stuff and releasing different different sizes of of the naturals at the same time so i'll have uh an assortment of colors up in the next day or two and if you're listening to this i suspect in the next day or two you should check my website or check instagram and then um just on a rolling basis i'm going to be continuing and to put up some of the really nice naturals.
I'm kind of hesitating to do that all at once because they get scooped pretty quickly.
Marvin:
[14:12] Yeah. And so, folks, if you are a Bucktail fan or if you're an Ellis Ward fan or both, one of the things we've done, if you've been watching our Instagram feed, we've been building out a Patreon community to support the podcast.
And two great things Ellis is offering. There are two different tiers in Patreon, and you can just click on the link in our show notes.
At one tier, you get a discount. You get 10% off bucktails from Ellis.
And at another tier, you get $100 per year guide credit with Ellis.
So if you want to treat yourself or someone special, that would be a cool way to support the show and to support Ellis.
Ellis:
[14:50] Yeah, Marv, I appreciate the work you've done on that. and I appreciate everyone's support and I'm looking forward to getting, new names and faces onto the boat or sending packages to new names and faces.
Marvin:
[15:08] Yeah, very, very cool. And before I let you hop this evening, Ellis, you want to let folks know where they can find you so they can book you and buy bucktails from you?
Ellis:
[15:17] Yeah, website is the easiest way to get bucktail and that is elliswardflies.com you can also send any question or book trips on elliswardflies.com if you have questions or if you just want to reach out and ask about trips or bucktail or flies or whatever easiest way to do that is my cell phone 513-543-0019 I'm nine and I'm on Instagram at Ellis Ward guide.
Marvin:
[15:55] Well, there you go. And folks, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Merry Christmas and happy new year, Ellis.
Ellis:
[16:03] Merry Christmas.
Marvin:
[16:04] Tight lines, everybody.