Cooler Weather…….Fishing is Great….

Mon. Sept. 21, 2015 – We had a string of some of the most gorgeous days that we’ve had all year.  Fortunately, I was able to be out on the water with clients getting into some great fishing.  Small fly season is upon us, and I would especially second that if you are fishing tailwaters…..better have lots of midges, blue winged olives ……that fishing is here.  I was out this past Saturday with a good client whom I get out with a lot, Dr Ken Karb.  Ken and his two sons, Dan and Ben, and two of their friends Kevin and John met us on the river and we enjoyed a great day on the South Holston.

We got a really early start with the expectation of it being a Saturday and nice weather and great fishing maybe there would be a few people to contend with. My plan was to be there first where I knew we would have a shot at good fishing and we were there first. And we were able to fish a long stretch of water and have it pretty much all to ourselves. We got in and there were rising fish pretty much from the time we started.   Our release schedule would be a one hour pulse midday with generation coming midafternoon. Our plan was to fish til rising water and call it a day. We caught fish early on terrestrials and new midge patterns of various kinds (top secret), and we also caught a good many fish on dries.

Sept is transition time on the SoHo, and with flows, temps, recent warm weather we are still in that. What does that mean? Sulphurs, good some days , spotty others, a few blue wings here and there, midges galore, and still the occasional fish eating a terrestrial here and there. Lots of fish, lots of sight fishing opportunities….we did really well. Ken and his son Ben were tops with over 20-25 fish landed each, everybody caught double digits, so I’d say we had a really good day. I’d say 75 plus but just a rough guess. In any terms, very good. We caught a lot of fish on new patterns (always working on those….I always keep a few in the background, stuff I don’t sell and ones that have to work when it gets tough).

We caught fish on pretty much everything. Until we get some chilly weather this will be the Soho song for a while. But cooler temps definitely have fish moving. Big fish……saw several double digit fish cruising (double digit meaning 10lbs or more)those are in a prespawn movement pattern, they will spawn come late Nov to Dec depending on weather ……super spooky , you aren’t going to nail one of those on a bright sunny bluebird day on low water like we had……need a nasty, yucky day to do that. In any case though, we had an outstanding day.

Busy week coming up with several trips, both wade and float, and cooler temps and some rain should only make good better.  The cooler weather has definitely brought out some flies, notably blue winged olives….a normal fall thing,  Caddis will follow on some waters, lots of them, and also craneflies.  The terrestrial bite will get one last hurrah before its over too, lasting well into and past our first frosts.  So these are good flies to have.  Sulphurs, while still hanging on a little day to day on some of the TN tailwaters, like the SoHo and the Clinch, will be going away soon as well…..at least in the sense of there being any ‘hatch’ in comparison to the magnitude of what occurs in summer months.

Tommorrow we’ll be doing a float trip with Ken and Gloria Okorn , Mechanicsburg, PA, and we will be floating the New River in Virginia and doing some smallmouth and musky fishing.  Should be a great day……rain, gray, and wet.  Perfect if you ask me.

Have a great one!

Jeff

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