Friday on the HI

[ChemEAngler]

Managed to make it down to the Hiwassee on Friday morning. My fishing buddies and I were expecting to have the river all to ourselves. We also were expecting the water to be warmer from the previous nights rains. When we got to our spot, there was no one else around, and the water was just beginning to come down from 2 generators. We made our way out into the shoals and found the water was quite stained, only about 2 ft of visibility beneath ths surface. Fishing was slow until they turned on 1 generator. Then it was like somebody flipped a switch, I caught 7 fish out of one run in about 20 minutes, and my buddy upstream caught about the same number in the same time frame. I managed to land a really pretty 14" bow that put up a good fight in the fast moving water. During this time, the water actually became even dingier than it was to start the morning. All in all it was a pretty good trip. We managed to catch about 20 fish with about half being over 10".

My question for anybody out there is, in the smokies when the water has some color to it the fishing activity tends to increase, does this hold true for the tailwaters?

Travis

[Ripmyfly]

I consider the Hiwassee my home waters. Get to fish it 60+ days a year. I really dont notice a difference in numbers of fish in dingy waters, but I do notice a big difference in size of fish. In dingy water I hook up on the bigger fish I will catch in any given year. Also, I havent ever hooked a 16" or bigger brown during the day unless the water was real dingy. My .02.

[TroutAssasin]

The clearness of the water usually has no effect on my fishing abilities. The amount of fish caught has more to do with each anglers own performance. The Hiwassee tailwater always seems to fish better with cloudier water.

TA

[ChemEAngler]

Managed to get down to the HI yesterday and fished from around noon till 5:00. Tough day, it was windy and chilly. Managed only to catch two fish a 7" and a 12" bow. However, I did get to explore some new territory in the trophy section that I will venture back to when the weather and hatches pick up. According to GoogleEarth, it was over a 1 mile hike just to get to the area. Not many people on the river, I guess the cooler weather and rains kept some people in. Talked to 4 other fishermen, and all found the fishing much more difficult than in recent weeks.

Travis