milligan trout degree
05-13-2008, 11:01 PM
Finals ended for me last thursday, but I hung out school one more day so I could hit the S. Holston one more time before heading back for the summer. Of course I'll make a couple trips up this summer, but not as frequently as I fish it when I'm in school. I have to say the fish left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I fished webb bridge from two to five and only caught one small brown. I didn't see a lot of risers, and I didn't see any hatch worth noting. I guess that's just the way it is somedays. They out-smarted me this time. I took saturday and sunday off, and then headed to the holston below cherokee to redeem myself.
I'm beginning to like this river more and more everytime I fish it. After leftting the water fall, I headed out to fish any riffles/runs I could find with my trusty tailwater searching rig; indicator up high on leader, #6 split shot on 5x tied to brown san juan, 6x off the bend tied to a beadhead #18 beadhead pheasant tail. I fished a couple runs to no avail, and got hung up a couple times and frustrated. I moved across the river to fish a run that probably 30 yards long. I came into the top of the run and hooked a fish immediately. Lost it. Threw back in and hooked another. Lost it. Dang. I began thinking I may be on to something and I should approach this run the right way. So I headed down to the very bottom and began fishing upstream into the run. I don't know how many fish I caught by the time I finally made it back up to the top, but it was consistent throghout the run. These were all strong bows too, just about everyone took some line, and a couple had me chasing them downstream. I landed one, 16" bow, and I lost the other that made long runs. I lost a lot fish as they would all want to leap two or three times during the fight despite my best efforts to keep them down. I lost a lot of fish that day, but I still had a great day. I finished the day sight fishing wooly buggers for fish chillin' in a semi-deep pool. I got a lot of chases and caught two. It's always fun seeing them turn and follow streamers like that.
I wish I had some pictures I could post up, but my camera has mysteriously stopped focusing. I don't know what the deal is, but I'm gonna send it back in.
Ben
I'm beginning to like this river more and more everytime I fish it. After leftting the water fall, I headed out to fish any riffles/runs I could find with my trusty tailwater searching rig; indicator up high on leader, #6 split shot on 5x tied to brown san juan, 6x off the bend tied to a beadhead #18 beadhead pheasant tail. I fished a couple runs to no avail, and got hung up a couple times and frustrated. I moved across the river to fish a run that probably 30 yards long. I came into the top of the run and hooked a fish immediately. Lost it. Threw back in and hooked another. Lost it. Dang. I began thinking I may be on to something and I should approach this run the right way. So I headed down to the very bottom and began fishing upstream into the run. I don't know how many fish I caught by the time I finally made it back up to the top, but it was consistent throghout the run. These were all strong bows too, just about everyone took some line, and a couple had me chasing them downstream. I landed one, 16" bow, and I lost the other that made long runs. I lost a lot fish as they would all want to leap two or three times during the fight despite my best efforts to keep them down. I lost a lot of fish that day, but I still had a great day. I finished the day sight fishing wooly buggers for fish chillin' in a semi-deep pool. I got a lot of chases and caught two. It's always fun seeing them turn and follow streamers like that.
I wish I had some pictures I could post up, but my camera has mysteriously stopped focusing. I don't know what the deal is, but I'm gonna send it back in.
Ben