Frustrated with the lazy trout in Western North Carolina, some friends and I decided to take a fishing trip up to Tennessee looking for some more activity. We made our way over to the South Holston River with gear, boats, and plenty of food to find a great weekend of dry fly fishing.

The generation schedule has been pretty compromising to both wade fisherman and floaters, which enabled us to capitalize on the amount of time spent on the water. Interestingly enough, we woke up to the sound of rising fish sipping various dry midges and black flies.

Day 1

As the first day progressed, the Sulfurs started to appear just in time for the water to greet us. LUNCH TIME! We headed down to see the boys at Webb’s Grill to gorge on the infamous lunch special…..ya you know it……SPAGHETTI with Garlic Bread! I ate so much I needed help getting back to the truck. Nonetheless, we dropped the boats and proceeded to anchor up on pods of rising brown trout, feeding on emerging sulphers and any dun that dared to land on the water. Most fish we boated were in the 12-14 pound range, but every fish was healthy and gave a 5 wt z-axis all it could handle.

Day 2

We spent the second day tracing our steps from the previous day. Rising fish being caught on black sprout midges and then switching over to the sulphers as the water began to rise. It was a nice change of pace casting dries on 10 & 12 foot leaders to rising fish instead of the usual tandem rig under a strike indicator.

If you are looking some great dry fly action, a float trip down the S. Holston River is where it’s at!

Go Early, Fish Hard… Stay Late!