Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and
fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or
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Grubb3214
Posts: 7
Posts: 7
Grubb3214 on Dec 16, 2011December 16th, 2011, 7:49 am EST
Hi every one i am new to your alls fourm, I have been really fourtunate to be raised in the smokie mountains and a hop and skip from the clinch. I have been trout fishing since i was little but i never have been in the colder mnths, Is there anything i should know or excpet that may be different, and do the fish still act the same here in tennessee i catch my bait in the river i use what they call a grampess just wanting your alls thoughts
Oldredbarn on Dec 16, 2011December 16th, 2011, 8:59 am EST
Grubb,
Merry Christmas to you brother and I hope that Santa brings you a starter fly tying kit...:)
Spence
Merry Christmas to you brother and I hope that Santa brings you a starter fly tying kit...:)
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Grubb3214
Posts: 7
Posts: 7
Grubb3214 on Dec 16, 2011December 16th, 2011, 9:25 am EST
O man me to i just got my new custom rod yesterday its a jmiles i have a couple of his spining rods and you can feel the littlest hit i am ready to go, and try it out, is the trout fishing good in the winter mnths
Jesse on Dec 18, 2011December 18th, 2011, 3:44 am EST
Hey Grubb i am from Tennessee myself, actually, im about to leave Montana and head back to the east for the Christmas season. Fishing the winter in Tennessee, particularly the Clinch or the South Holston can be tricky. Be ready to fish small midges if you have a descent day, and sink some small nymphs in order to reach the fish. Streamer fishing in the those tailwaters could also prove successful, but the action could slow down a lot due to the much colder temperatures. It's best to think small, and slow. I can't wait to get back on the South Holston!!!
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
JOHNW on Dec 22, 2011December 22nd, 2011, 11:30 am EST
I can't wait to get back on the South Holston!!!
Jesse,
I do love that river also. For the longest time my best fish on a dryfly came from it. Ths sulphurs and baetis are truly something to experience. The Watauga is also pretty interesting amazing how two rivers so close can be so totally different.
JW
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
Jesse on Dec 22, 2011December 22nd, 2011, 1:01 pm EST
The sulphur hatch is truly remarkable on the South Holston. I remember during a strong evening hatch of that particular fly last year, my buddy and me were driving on a road following the river, trying to get back to Knoxville. The windshield wipers and fluid had to be on full blast because it was literally raining sulphurs. It was crazy. And if you ever just sit in the middle of a shallow riffle in that river and lift a few rocks, every rock carries 15-20 mayflies under it. What a great tail-water fishery; a perfect example of one created close to perfection.
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
Lastchance on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 4:10 am EST
I've heard great things about the South Holston. I have to get there.
Motrout on Dec 24, 2011December 24th, 2011, 6:49 pm EST
Hi every one i am new to your alls fourm, I have been really fourtunate to be raised in the smokie mountains and a hop and skip from the clinch. I have been trout fishing since i was little but i never have been in the colder mnths, Is there anything i should know or excpet that may be different, and do the fish still act the same here in tennessee i catch my bait in the river i use what they call a grampess just wanting your alls thoughts
Welcome, and it is kind of nice to see a "non-fly fisherman" on here...A little variety is a good thing! You're lucky to live in such good trout country. I've been out there to fish a few times and it's pretty awesome. Since you're bait fishing (which doesn't have much to do with the hatches which change through the year) and the Clinch is a tailwater, I wouldn't expect the winter fishing to be dramatically different than it is in the spring and summer...If it's like the Ozark tailwaters the fish will still be feeding on most of the same food sources and holding in pretty generally the same kind of water. And if the weather in Tennessee has been anything like it is here in Missouri, then it isn't really winter yet anyway. All of which is essentially to say, I have no idea what the winter fishing there will be like, but you should most certainly get out there and try it!
Merry Christmas and good luck. Winter is definitely my favorite trout fishing season for sure. Good time to get away from the crowds, if nothing else.
"I don't know what fly fishing teaches us, but I think it's something we need to know."-John Gierach
http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/
http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/
Grubb3214
Posts: 7
Posts: 7
Grubb3214 on Dec 27, 2011December 27th, 2011, 12:03 pm EST
motrout yes it is more than pleasure to be on here i try to trout fish but i have teach my self and i dont have patients with my self lol yea i love the river and i also love the little river in townsend i am going this weekend one way or another,
JOHNW on Dec 27, 2011December 27th, 2011, 12:22 pm EST
Grubb try 1-3" countdown rapalas. Fish them slow and bounced along the bottom or let them swing through a run and then just work in the current at the end of the swing.
Just hold on because the strikes can be viscious. You may want to try this on the Watauga outside of the fly reg water as that is essentially the same as what the fly guys are doing when fishing streamers (and going as bis as 4-6" on the rapalas would not be unraseonable big fish like big meals).
JW
Just hold on because the strikes can be viscious. You may want to try this on the Watauga outside of the fly reg water as that is essentially the same as what the fly guys are doing when fishing streamers (and going as bis as 4-6" on the rapalas would not be unraseonable big fish like big meals).
JW
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
Motrout on Dec 27, 2011December 27th, 2011, 2:06 pm EST
motrout yes it is more than pleasure to be on here i try to trout fish but i have teach my self and i dont have patients with my self lol yea i love the river and i also love the little river in townsend i am going this weekend one way or another,
Well, good luck to you; I think I'll be heading out for a bit of winter trout fishing here myself soon, probably the day after tomorrow. Don't know what the weather is like out your way, but last year in Missouri by this time the temperatures were in the teens with snow pretty much constantly on the ground; right now we're talking highs in the 50s and lows hardly below freezing. Sure makes winter fishing a bit easier to get excited about.
"I don't know what fly fishing teaches us, but I think it's something we need to know."-John Gierach
http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/
http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/
Jesse on Dec 29, 2011December 29th, 2011, 1:10 pm EST
Hey what you need to do is get some big live shiners, roughly 5-10inches, and chuck those babies out there with some weight on them. Get them down to where they have no choice but to sit on the bottom and wait for a blasting.. And once you catch your first 29incher you can come back on this site and give me all of the credit. Because as of right now everyone's been lying to you so you don't catch any trout. With that said i want a thank you and to know the results. Good luck buddy!
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
Oldredbarn on Dec 29, 2011December 29th, 2011, 5:09 pm EST
Am I missing something here? "Grubb", "rapalas", "live shiners"? This is a fly fishing site isn't it? I left TU back in the 90's when they started advertising Mepps Spinners in their "Trout" mag...
What gives?!
Me
What gives?!
Me
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Jesse on Dec 30, 2011December 30th, 2011, 12:04 am EST
hahaha...
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
Entoman on Dec 31, 2011December 31st, 2011, 3:22 pm EST
Spence -
No, it's a "troutnut" site, and there are many types of nuts.;)
Jess-
Ah, so that's you're secret... Big live shiners? Should have guessed...:)
This is a fly fishing site isn't it?
No, it's a "troutnut" site, and there are many types of nuts.;)
Jess-
Ah, so that's you're secret... Big live shiners? Should have guessed...:)
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Jesse on Dec 31, 2011December 31st, 2011, 8:46 pm EST
My secrets don't leave this site!
Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after.
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
http://www.filingoflyfishing.com
Troutnut on Jan 1, 2012January 1st, 2012, 2:50 pm EST
Am I missing something here? "Grubb", "rapalas", "live shiners"? This is a fly fishing site isn't it? I left TU back in the 90's when they started advertising Mepps Spinners in their "Trout" mag...
What gives?!
This will always be mainly a fly fishing site, and the nature of the other content pretty much guarantees that. There's no reason to push away the occasional spin fisherman who wants to join in here. Besides, many spin fishermen are just fly fishermen waiting to happen.
I started out my trout fishing using nothing but worms, and by the end I got pretty technical about the types of floats I was using, split shot configurations to get the best dead-drift, etc. Getting into fly fishing was just kind of a natural extension of "geeking out" on my spin fishing.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
JOHNW on Jan 2, 2012January 2nd, 2012, 4:43 am EST
as that is essentially the same as what the fly guys are doing when fishing streamers
JW
Already working on planting the FF seed there Spence.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
Gutcutter on Jan 3, 2012January 3rd, 2012, 4:00 am EST
I left TU back in the 90's when they started advertising Mepps Spinners in their "Trout" mag...
Seriously?
I'm calling you out. That's pretty lame.
Did you stop watching the Red Wings after the '67 expansion?
Did you stop watching after the "two line pass" was allowed? Instigator penalty?
TU is about conservation of the cold water resource and the trout in it.
Don't you care about that?
Many, many spin fishermen practice catch and release and are ardent supporters of the places where trout swim.
I don't always agree with TU's political affiliations, but I am and remain a life member
from another thread:
If hardware guys annoy you, don't fish "put and take" waters. Don't you want them to respect and support the need for special regulation waters? The kind you enjoy as a fly angler? Then don't begrudge them... The more fishing licences sold to people who want to dunk worms in "put and take" fisheries, the less likely our sport will be outlawed.
I couldn't have said it better
I'm not suggesting that you (or anyone for that matter) must be a member of TU, but saying that you dropped your membership because they had advertisments for spinning lures just does not fly in my book.
All men who fish may in turn be divided into two parts: those who fish for trout and those who don't. Trout fishermen are a race apart: they are a dedicated crew- indolent, improvident, and quietly mad.
-Robert Traver, Trout Madness
-Robert Traver, Trout Madness
Lastchance on Jan 3, 2012January 3rd, 2012, 2:17 pm EST
TU is a cold water conservation organization and not a fly fishing organization. In our chapter we have members that don't even fish. How a person chooses to pursue fish, be it with bait, lures or flies is neither right or wrong, it's their preference. It should be our one common goal to preserve our environment.
Now, while you are reading this I will be humming God Bless America in the background.
Now, while you are reading this I will be humming God Bless America in the background.
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