fly2fish

One man's addiction is another man's prescription. F2F

Which one of the 3 snakes is poisonous?

How much is that little flat bottom red 1-man canoe beside the one in the picture?

I would still go, just take the spinning rod and 1/8 oz. PMS jigs. 707 is perfect for jig fishing. Drift fishing below the outlets would be a good second choice if you just have to use the fly rod. This high water is just going to make it that much better when they start shutting it off again, the bigger fish will probably put on another half pound or so . I don't have a trip planned again until end of July. F2F

For jig fishing at night with the water running, I just buy the unpainted 1/8th oz. jig heads with the gold or dark grey wire hooks, they will straighten a little when you get hung up without breaking off if you have at least 6lb line. I found that once you are finished tying take a small file and make flat shiny places for eyes on the sides. At night this adds some flash to the jig. F2F

It is Polar Chenille the flash material and you just palmer it with the squirrel. Leonard said he was there Friday night on the flats between 1 and 2. The guys you saw coming back Saturday night I think had been using rapalas or some type of crankbaits because I could here the hooks rattleing in the fog. I guess OA members will have to start meeting at 10, 12 and 2 at the shelter to see who all is there and what is working and what isn't:D F2F

I don't think that I have ever caught a trout that was hanging around my feet, I have let my scud drift through them and they part like the Red Sea. I have caught fish a few yards downstream of where someone was crossing. This is reason #7 I mainly fish at night (If all the fish are at the anglers feet then there are fewer fish roaming about to catch, 20 fish per angler X 100 anglers = 2000 fish ). At night I have seldom had any fish hanging around my feet. One time during the day I was standing still and almost stumbled and raised one foot off the bottom to regain my balance and once stable felt something wiggle under my foot, you guessed it stepped on a trout luckly he shot away when I raised my foot and slowly set it back down. Funny thing about them parting when my scud drifted through, I broke part of my thumbnail one day and bite the rest of it off and spit it in the water and had at least 3 or 4 fish inhale it and spit it out before it reached the bottom, crazy things those fish think are food. F2F

I found a couple of pocket watches that my wife got me back in the early 80's from Avon when she was selling it and I noticed they had fish prints on them that looked sort of familiar and looking at them a little closer sure enough Al Agnew. Sorry Al but that kind of dates us both F2F

Friday night hit the water a little after 10 pm with only 1 other car in the parking (thought it was Leonards van at first)but it was a couple that were rigging up at the shelter and they headed to outlet 1 so I knew I was going to have the point and Big Hole to myself. Chose the black and purple hibenator to start with and caught the first fish on my third drift and it was a fish almost every other cast after that. Fish were larger than I have ever caught in one night with at least 3 over 20 inches (biggest 22") and several in the 17-20 inch range. It was putting the Sage 4wt to the test. Lost count of the total around 50 but caught at least 10 more after that. The amazing thing was all 60+ fish came on the same fly, never changed fly the whole night. Saturday night lot more fog and the same van plus 2 other trucks in the lot. Checked by outlet 2 and there were at 2 guys fishing there so I headed back to the same area as the night before, the couple from the van were just down from the point so I fished just up from them at the begining of Big Hole. Chose a new black hibenator, caught a fish on the 3rd cast again but that was it for about 10 minutes. Now I started guessing with the fog went to white and caught one on the 2nd cast then nothing for the next 10 minutes so I switched to olive and gold hibenator and things got a little more consistent. About 12:30 had 3 guys come up one took up a spot about 40 feet upstream and another about 40 feet downstream and the 3rd guy directly behind me. I had to shorten my cast to keep from hitting him and thought he would move soon the water behind me was only about a foot deep. I was expecting something to come whizzing by my head any second, finally I went back to my normal length cast and probably was putting my fly a few feet from his face on the backcast and he moved fairly quickly then. Most fish that I hooked were just a few feet up from the guy that was down stream from me. I know a few of those fish probably got him a little wet when the broke the surface. In all ended with just around 20 with a few in the 15-18 inch range, none over 20 though. Sunday pulled in around 10 pm again with just 1 truck at outlet 2 so I headed up to 1 to see if Leonard was there and no cars, decided to start there on the downstream side of 1 and picked up 3 or 4 and headed down to the flats after the only other person I saw left. It was on then, black and purple hibenator that was getting pretty thin on hair but still had most of its flash, but it worked better than the new ones. 2 more fish just over the 20 inch mark on my net handle, I was tempted to rig up the 7wt Sage but the 4 wt was too much fun and I never had to put any of them on the reel, I was kind of using Phil's spinning reel technique except using my fingers as the drag. Ended the night early at 1:30am with 18 total With a 3 night total of 90-100 with a lot of 20+inchers it was over all an awesome weekend. F2F

Go to page 2 in this section and Phil has a video of the new dock posted April 24 Titled New Dock at Fall Creek F2F

I was about to ask the same question, but it has to be great. Last month when they ran water 24/7 and started shutting it down at night, I hit it at just the right time 3 nights in a row just as the water was shutoff and the first hour and half after it was wadable it didn't matter if you fished down by Big Hole or the flats below outlet 1 I had at least a hit on just about every cast. Hoping they will hold the same pattern through next week when I will be there Friday through Monday. F2F

Today would be a good day to buy, everyone else is taking a beating. The way I look at it and I heard this from an investor when we lived in Connecticut back in '87 during Black Monday, that if it had not been for that day he would not have been able to afford to get into the stock market as much as he would have wanted. Usually someone elses loss (seller) is someone elses gain (buyer). Just my .02 cents worth, oh and that is only worth .01 today F2F

Duane is right I fished Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and only saw 2 other lights on the water and hit it just as the water was shutting down each night. There is always that golden hour in fishing and hunting, half hour before and after sun up and half hour before and after sun down but the golden hour for trout seems to be the hour right after the water goes down where it is wadable out to the point at big hole or the flats between outlet 1 and 2. Sunday night before the storms hit was incredible, had to fight the wind but that is when they hit it before you could get the first strip in. When the wind laid for a few minutes they didn't hit until the swing on the drift. I was going to keep 4 of the silver bullets Sunday night but only 1 was even close to being under 12 inches, most were 14 or better. The last one I had on when the lightening bolt struck may have been the biggest of the night but I shook it off as I was heading toward the bank. F2F

Sunday night I was fishing below Table Rock, started right at midnight when they shut the water off, could see lightening and hear thunder in the distance. Fish were hitting white pretty good but when the wind would pick up so did the fishing, about 1:30 there was a bolt that hit just over the dam somewhere around state park I would guess, had a fish on and told my fishing partner I'm out of here and shook the fish off right before reaching the bank. I saw the picture of the graphite rod that was struck on another website a couple weeks ago and that was still in my mind, I didn't want to ruin a good flyrod. F2F

Fished Friday and Saturday nights with my sons room mate last year from Stillwater. Started Friday night at outlet 1 I was using flyrod and he was trying spinning rod with a pms jig. Water was 703.8 with about a half unit running, within 30 minutes it was off so we headed down to upper end of big hole. I immediately hooked up on the first cast using black and purple hibinator. Thought it was on except I was only hooking about every 3rd or 4th hit thought it might be a dull hook since I have caught over 200 fish on that same fly, except I stuck it in my finger when I was shaking one off and it was still as sharp as ever so it had to be me just being a little to anxious on the hook set. After about 20 on the flyrod, Scott still had not had any on the jig and was getting a lot of moss so I had him try the flyrod. He had not used one for about 10 years and at first I was casting it for him, then had him make a cast on his own and he hooked up on his first cast, fish measured just short of 16 inches. He is hooked on fly fishing now. Finished with between 25-30 for the night not great but good to fish with the water off for a change. Saturday night we headed down message said 2 units level 704.4. After we suited up at the shelter I called again before we got out the spinning rods and it said 0 units level 703.6. I told Scott he would have to use a fly rod and he was OK with that after the night before. I rigged him up with the Sage Launch 7wt with 5 weight line and I used Sage 4wt with 3wt line, I had not used that combination before but it cast better than the 5 weight line that I had been using on it. We hit big hole and I landed 3 in the first 5 cast and had 5 in the first 10. Scott had 3 in about the same time. Fish started out in the 14-17 in range and as the night progressed we started catching more of the silver bullets 10-13 inch range. About 2:45 I wanted to hit rebar and had switched to white beadhead pms pattern and picked up 2 nice rainbows just dragging it along right below the root wad. Fished about 10 minutes at rebar with several hard hits but no hook ups. Looks like I have corrupted another young person to the dark side of flyfishing. Glad I bring several fly rods when I come, last Christmas I got another one of his friends a fly rod and reel and last month he went with me and caught his first trout on it and now fishes in the ponds for bass with it. Will hit it again tonight. F2F

Since I fish mostly at night I will give you my rule of thumb. If the level is <703.5 and they are still generating I will go just over knee deep and stay up above outlet 2 to just below the cable. If they have just shut them off and the water is not moving much but is dropping I will head to the gauntlet below rebar or to big hole. If the level is 702 or below you can wade just about anywhere except some of the deeper holes which they aren't to many left. I will still wade if it is 708 and above but restrict it to the slack water around outlet 1 or between the stairs and outlet 2. Your pretty much limited to drift fishing, jig fishing or crank bait fishing when the water is 706 and above. There may be some more adventuresome people on here that will take more chances but not me when I am the only one down there. F2F

I would check out Abrams Creek on the Cades Cove loop. At the parking lot there are 2 creeks that merge there. Don't be afraid if the parking lot has 30 or more cars in it because most are making the 2+ mile hike up to the falls. I fished it one morning with my son and there were 30 cars in the lot at 7:30 in the morning with the temps in the low 40s but to my surprise we only saw one other fisherman. I used a BHPT under a stimulator that I used for an indicator. Ended up with 6 trout with a couple in the 12 inch range even caught one on the stimulator. This was better than what I was told to expect at all the places I stopped between here and there "Don't expect to catch trout like in Missouri, the average is 6-10 inches, lots of fisherman at the easy access points, and high flows because of the snow melt that time of the year (Mid March)." Everything was just the opposite, better than average fish, almost no fishermen (saw only 4 the whole trip) and low flows because there was no snow. Another good spot was the entrance to the park coming out of Townsend, there are 2 creeks that run head to head into each other and forms the river that runs along the entrance road. A good source of info and flies is the fly shop in Gatlinburg that is upstairs in a little shopping area just past the main 3-way intersection. Good luck F2F

I received my 22-250 barrel about a month ago $175 plus some shipping. Took my VariX II off the 30-06 barrel and sighted in with it. After doing a little research on mil-dot sights I ordered a BSA 4X16 40mm with illuminated mil-dot reticle. Debated whether to put it on or not before coyote hunting but yesterday was such a nice day and still good light at 5:30 so I swapped them out and went out back to sight it in. Ballistic tables I had were right on, dead on at 200 yd and less than 1 inch high at 100 with the 50gr hollow points. Tables show about a little over 5 inch drop at 300 yds. The mil-dot is pretty much an over kill because you can still hold dead on at 100-250 yd and a little high (between the cross hairs and first dot down) at 300 yd. If I zero it at 100 yd then the next dot down would be for 300yd. Don't know if I want to use the mil-dots for range finding or not, don't really need to with that round!!! F2F

You have to catch him at the right time of the month F2F

He said "bright" headlight we don't want it to look like daytime down there when he turns it on F2F PS Im bringing the coffee Thurs & Fri. night.

I will be down there Thur, Fri, Sat, nights for sure. Troutringer use the smallest headlight you can get by with for tying on flys. If it is a bright night you don't even need it on to walk around but if you are not familiar with wading the area at night leave it on while moving and off while fishing. Leonard will talk to you Thursday. F2F

Try this link to Beavers Bend message board it is like OAF. I am also a member on it but don't fish it near as much at Taney. http://www.beaversbendflyshop.com/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi// F2F

We needed about 7 or 8 like that a couple weeks ago in the tourney. Will be up next Thurs. - Sun. see ya then. F2F

Since 90% of my trout fishing is done at night I am going strictly by feel, usually at night they hit harder than in the day. But when I did fish mainly in the day I watched the end of my floating flyline the best I could and tightened up at the slightest movement forward. You can see this long before you would feel anything and you could detect a strike with even a bow or slack in your line such as after mending. Hi vis line would help also. When I do use an indicator during the day I make sure it has a hook in it, like a foam hopper or beetle that floats high. I have had to many fish come up and engulf the foam strike indicators wishing it had been a dry fly or mouse or something with a hook. F2F

Just drop them off at Leonards he won't mind, he will be fishing all night anyway. Hey maybe one of them can babysit. F2F