The Spring Rush Is In Full Gear

Arguably the best time of year for fly fishing here in middle and east Tennessee, the spring season is well underway with plenty of good fishing happening. We have been spending time on both area tailwaters and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Throw in a smallmouth and musky trip or two, and you have the formula for plenty of good fun.

Recent fishing has been about as up and down as the weather. Red hot some days down to just a few nibbles on others. The good days are amazing, but the slower days keep us honest. We have had several new Guide Trip Fish of the Year candidates over the last month (more on that later) and some epic dry fly fishing. While the slower days have seen only a handful of fish, we are thankful that warmer days and more stable weather is on the way with more reliable fishing. In fact, the next two months are the best months of the year to fish for trout in middle and east Tennessee if your main goal is numbers of fish with a shot at a big one. June and even into July will provide excellent trout fishing, but usually the heat of summer starts to take a toll and things slow down a little through the hottest days of the year in July and August. Thankfully, right about that time, the terrestrial fishing is getting good along with the best topwater fishing for smallmouth bass of the year.

If you have been on the fence about fishing the spring season and still want to get out, check out the rest of this newsletter for some ideas on where to go and what to fish for. I'll also share upcoming guide trip availability along with those big fish stories and pictures. Finally, in perhaps the biggest leap in fly fishing techniques in years, I'll share some secret techniques to get you catching musky. You don't want to miss this one!

Tennessee Tarpon: An Under Appreciated Game Fish

If you have never caught a skipjack on a fly, then you have really missed out on a treat. The big fun here is that once you find one, there are probably another 100 and they hit hard and give a good tug. They have been known to put on an aerial show as well. When that happens, they are as much fun as trout, just not as popular. You can read more about them HERE. If you haven't caught one before, let me know on your next streamer trip, and we'll see if we can find a couple if they are in the river at that time. 

When to Throw Stealth Out the Window

A recent guide trip that featured a big Smoky Mountain brown trout was the motivation for this short blog post. Have you ever wondered if Smoky Mountain brown trout are ever easy to catch? Now you know. The answer is yes, or at least there are times they are much less difficult. Higher waters means less cautious fish. Lower water means more difficult fish. 

Read about Jason's big fish and a bit more about how to take advantage of prime water levels for catching big wild brown trout in the Smokies. Or just enjoy the picture below. Congrats again Jason!!!

Guide Trip Fish of the Year Update

Impressively, Jason's fish was actually the Big Fish leader for a couple of weeks. It is rare to have Smoky Mountain trout even in the conversation, so that was amazing. However, we have since had some more big fish caught. 

Charlie has been fishing with me for quite a few years now. Recently, he became interested in streamer fishing and wanted to learn more about this technique. We picked a day, and when it came, had to reschedule due to a combination of weather and flows. Last week, our reschedule day came around. 

I like to streamer fish on the Caney Fork, but with stained water, we knew that our work was cut out for us. The skipjack are always a good warm up. Soon, Charlie was casting and swimming those flies like a pro. The strip set, while unnatural for someone used to fishing mostly in the Smokies, was also fine tuned on the agreeable skipjack. Before long, I felt that Charlie was ready to try for some trout. 

We started down the river. And we fished, and fished, and fished. Charlie missed 2 or 3 fish, one of which was pretty good, but otherwise that was it. We were getting close to the end of the day and still hadn't landed any trout when it happened. Charlie made a perfect cast to the bank, let the fly drift just a little to get some depth and began swimming the fly just right as it approached some structure where a log was sticking off the bank. Almost immediately he came tight with a perfect strip set. I figured that he had hit the log, but I had never seen a log fight back and quickly knew it was a good fish. 

To make a long story short, Charlie landed his new personal best brown trout which is also the current fish to beat, measuring 22.25". Congrats again Charlie!

Other Recent Notable Fish

Here are a few more recent notable fish. The fishing this spring in the Smokies has been very good so far! 

****************************************

Midging for Musky. The Best Technique You've Never Heard Of

Musky are notoriously hard to catch. In fact, they have been given the nickname as the fish of 10,000 casts. For some people, that is accurate, others get lucky in the first few hundred. Either way, catching a musky is a huge accomplishment for any angler. 

In this new article over at the Trout Zone, learn about how you can adapt some easy trout techniques to catch infinitely more musky. This is something so easy that anyone can do it. You just need to get out there and you'll soon be catching plenty of musky as well. 

Read: Midging for Musky
 

****************************************

Spring Wildflower Hikes

You may have seen this in our last newsletter, but we are offering something new for the non fly anglers in your family this spring or even for the fly anglers who might enjoy other pursuits with a naturalist bent. 

We still have some availability for both upcoming wildflower hikes. For those who missed it in the last email, here are the details again.

Naturalist Tim McHenry will be leading these hikes for us while I'll be accompanying him to provide technical advice to those wishing to do some photography. When you sign up, I'll give you a short list of things you should bring including necessary photography gear if you are so minded. 

To ensure we are able to practice appropriate leave no trace principles and provide a quality experience, these trips are capped at 6 people per outing. Cost is $75 per person. Trip time is approximately 3-4 hours. 

Please note that all wildflower predictions are just approximations based on our knowledge of each area. Warmer or cooler than usual weather can change the bloom timelines but the following descriptions are the best estimate. 

Our first trip was cancelled due to unseasonably cold weather and snowfall. Hopefully the rest of these are able to happen on schedule. In between guided hikes, we have been out scouting and planning more locations for future trips. Check out a couple of recent pictures below.

Our current schedule for group trips is as follows.

Trip 2 - April 10, 2022 Lost Creek Falls and Rylander Cascade
Our second trip offering will be on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau. This area has large limestone outcroppings and wildflowers abound in the rich soil. On this hike, depending on time, you'll see either 2 or 3 waterfalls along with a multitude of spring wildflowers including various trillium, violets, trout lily, foam flower, jack in the pulpit, and purple phacelia among many others. Very easy hike if we stick to the first two waterfalls, and a bit longer if we go to the third. Total hike distance if we make it to all three is around 3-3.5 miles.

Trip 3 - May 1, 2022 Black Mountain Segment of the Cumberland Trail
This is one of our most popular and also easiest hike options. An easy hike (1-2 miles depending on how much we make it to) covers the top of Black Mountain. The highlight of this hike will (hopefully!) be some amazing pink lady slippers, but we should also see trillium, dwarf Larkspur, mayapple, and many other wildflowers. Unique rock bluffs and formations add to the experience and you will get some amazing views of the Tennessee valley. 

Private Hiking Trips
In addition to the scheduled group trip dates, we also have some limited availability for private hiking trips. If you want to schedule some one on one hiking and wildflower trips, please contact me for more info on pricing and availability.

I'm in the process of building out a new website to detail our guided hiking and wildflower hike options. Visit it and take a quick look around. Check back again often for more updated info. Also, please let me know if you run into any problems with the website. Thanks!

www.hiketheplateau.com

Fishing Report and Forecast

The last month has been a great one for our guided trips. We have seen the Big Fish of the Year broken a few times already and some more fish that came really close. We have enjoyed the first burst of dry fly fishing in the Smokies, and are now looking forward to the tailwaters improving over the next month. 

The Smokies have been decent to good most days. These early season bright and warm days can be tough sometimes with no leaves on the trees yet to provide shade. That should all change quickly over the next month and the upcoming canopy will improve the fishing as we head into late spring and early summer. The trout appreciate the cover provided from the shade. Over the next month, look for hendrickons, blue winged olives, pale evening duns, and sulfurs at minimum. Yellow sallies and a variety of caddis will also be really getting going. If you know where to look, some huge black stoneflies are also hatching this month.  By May, we'll be firmly into the "light colored bugs" time of year in the Great Smoky Mountains. The wisdom to just fish yellow will be very accurate by the time May rolls around. 

When you head to the Smokies, stop in at Little River Outfitters in Townsend for up to date information. If you like to tie flies and haven't stopped in before, make sure to go upstairs and see all the fly tying materials and other goodies. I almost always find something else good that I can't live without when I walk up those stairs. 

Our tailwaters have been on a roller coaster. The Caney saw the current big fish of the year on an otherwise slow day. Flows have been up with semi turbid conditions. Expect clearing water over the next month barring any unforeseen high water events. We should also see flows dropping further over the next month if we don't get any big rains. In the meantime, streamer fishing is the name of the game. On some days, you'll be a hero. On others, you'll go home skunked. If you like catching skipjack and maybe some white bass, those are lots of fun and in the river right now. 

The Clinch River has been fun lately. We've had some big fish caught one day and then experienced the classic Grinch on the next. In other words, it is fishing about like you might expect. We should see flows continue to drop with more and more low water windows as we move into April and beyond. The best fishing of the year is here for the next three or four months. Still, don't be surprised it you get the Grinch a few days while you're hunting for that one Cinch day. Throw midges, nymphs, worms, and scuds on high water. Stick to mostly midges, small caddis, and sulfur imitations on low water as things warm and the bugs get active. Sulfurs should be in full swing by early to mid May. 

New Trip Possibilities

Our fleet is growing! Guide Pat Tully has added a new to him drift boat and will be working in some float trips this year. Between him, Travis Williams and myself, we now have two drift boats and a raft which opens up a lot of possibilities. 

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to make it out with him and our buddy Chris for the maiden voyage down the Caney. We learned some things about the boat and Pat is already planning on tweaking a few things to make it an even better fishing machine. That said, we discovered that the boat came with some good luck. Here is a nice rainbow that slammed a streamer I was chucking... 

Guide Trip Availability

If you have been wanting to book a trip, don't wait any longer. We are booking more trips than ever and generally won't be able to help with last minute trip options. Here is our upcoming availability over the next few months. To get a trip booked, send me an email at TroutZoneAnglers@gmail.com or call/text me at (931) 261-1884. You can also reach out to the individual guides if you have their contact info and would like to get on their calendar. 

For trips with David Knapp
Booked through June. Openings for the following: 
July 5, 8, 12-15, 19, 20, 25, 27, and 29
August 2-5, 9-12, 15-19, 24-26, 30, and 31
September 1, 2, 6-9, 15, 16, 19-23, 29, and 30
October 3-7, 10-14, 17-21

For Trips with Travis Williams
Contact me or him directly for availability

For trips with Pat Tully
April 4, 5, 7, 27
May 2-4, 9-12, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27, 30, and 31
June onward has fairly good availability, contact me or him directly for more info. 

Thank You For Reading

As always, thanks for being here and keeping up with the happenings at Trout Zone Anglers. We appreciate each and every one of you and look forward to sharing the water with you in 2022. Visit our website, www.troutzoneanglers.com, if you have any questions about a guided trip or reach out to me (David Knapp) at TroutZoneAnglers@gmail.com for more info. 

Sincerely,

David Knapp and the Crew at Trout Zone Anglers