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So here it is, This is the first striper caught in the river this season. I went out on the water with a friend of mine today to see if we could find any. We were beginning to wonder if we would see any at all when and then we hooked up. Jerry ended up with one really nice fish. So here's to the first striper of the 2012 season.

I spent a few hours on the Tellico River today with some good folks from Ohio. With it being a saturday we knew that it probably going to be a little crowded at all the usual spots. Started fishing around 10 am, finished up around 4 pm and we did manage to find a few nice ones. It did take a little extra effort on our part to find some fesh water but that's just how it is some days. Water temp was around 64 degrees where we fished at. Cloudy skies at first, but it cleared off nicely after a bit.

Here's a quick video we shot earlier this year on the Hiwassee. The photos and video clips are from a few trips in feb and early April even though on one of the video clips there is a date stamp with '09 markings. I'm not going to point fingers, you guys will be able to figure out who it is. The powerhouse was operating at a one generator capacity during all these trips. We had some of the best early spring fishing that we have seen in years and it's looking like its going to continue on well into the summer as well. The recreational release schedule will start up on memorial day weekend and continue through the Labor day holiday. We are guaranteed water seven days a week, from 10 am until at least 7 pm.

The big Holston is doing just fine. We just finished up a few days on the water with some good folks and had a lot of fun. The fish here can little picky from time to time but that's just how it goes some days. I can't say anything bad about the river right now. It does have quite a bit of pressure on it, but it's still fishing very well. Every trout that came into the boat were fiesty little footballs. The trout here have an attitude and will let you know it as soon as you put a hook in one.

Hiwassee River Fly Fishing Report, Spring 2012

The Tennessee Valley Authority is currently performing a scheduled maintenance project on Appalachia powerhouse. While this work is underway the powerhouse is operating on a pulse schedule until the beginning of our summer recreational schedule (memorial day-labor day). The water release schedule on the upper section of the river is perfect for wade fishing and we have had some great trips up there over the past couple of weeks. Our trout are fat and we are taking quite a few fish in 13-15 range with some larger ones mixed in as well.

Hiwassee_River_DSCN2711Posted by SEA Guide Bill Stranahan - TVA is still operating one generator 24/7, this water flow combined with the runoff from the upper river is giving us the perfect water level for spring time float fishing. I fished with Bob and John Franks last Thursday and it was great. The top water bite kicked in around noon and the river was on fire till around 5pm. Every fish that came into the IMG_0049boat was taken on dry fly's. I really don't know how many since I lost count after the first hour. The Hendricksons are coming off regularly now and we are also having a nice mix of small gray caddis and blue wing actions as well. I can say that there were three of us on the water in boats that day and all of us had an excellent day fishing dry fly’s.
I had the day off this past Saturday so i decided to do a quick run down theriver in the afternoon. I witnessed one of the heaviest caddis hatches in the middle section of the river that i have seen in a long time. This was a blister hatch of small gray caddis. You know the kind where you have bugs landing on your sunglasses and the back of your neck kind of hatches. The fish were rising well but many seemed to keying in on the emerging pupa's. The mayfly mix kicked up a little later and after a bit the fish seemed to prefer the top water bite
then.
Any way you look at it the river is fishing great and we have excellent water flows. Best of all though is we've got Bugs, lots and lots of Bugs!!!

Weather and flows are great. Little black stones, BWO's for dries and great subsurface action.

Petey_holston_bowNo pun intended. Mostly terrestrials, streamers and Isonychias. Here's Petey mixing it up on the Holston with rainbows and small mouth Southeastern Style.petey_and_his_small_mouth
adams dry fly
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