South Holston 10/28/07

[Green Weenie]

I was family-free this weekend, so I decided to head up to Bristol and see what was cookin' on the SoHo. I got there Saturday afternoon and decided to talk with the helpful staff at the South Holston River Fly Shop (sorry Byron). I met the Appalachian Angler on the Clinch last week, and he recommended that I stop by there and get the low-down on the river.

I spoke with Mr. Champion. He gave me as much friendly advice as anyone could ask for, so I in turn prchased a few flies from him. Boy, am I glad I did!

First of all, let me recommend to anyone traveling up to fish the SoHo to purchase some 'split-backs'. I believe they are supposed to imitate an emerging insect as it rises towards the surface. These flies proved to be invaluable. I almost literally had to turn my back to inspect my fly. Once, while reviving a fish, I picked the rod back up to discover another fish at the end of my line!

I fished just below the second weir that afternoon and brought 18 rainbows to hand. All except 3 were caught on the split-back nymph. Every single fish was fat and healthy. Let me say again; it is just phenomenal at the difference between the quality of the fish here and those on my home waters of the Clinch.

I slept in my car in the parking lot of the Tennessee welcome center to avoid the long drive back to Knoxville. The next morning, I started out at the 44 bridge. I absolutely hammered the browns that day! I caught fish after fish after fish. I'm a little reluctant to say it, but I caught 7 fish from the same spot on 7 consecutive casts! After about the third one, I said to myself, "You have got to be kidding!" I've never seen trout stack up like that. From where I stood, you could see them, at least a dozen of them, just hanging out together. When one was hooked, they would scatter, only to be stacked right back up by the time I made my next cast. Unbelievable! I ended up with 32 fish on the day, only 5 of which were 'bows. What a day, guys!

A few pics:

Fat rainbow from below the weir dam.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6383/1027071454nx5.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1027071454nx5.jpg)

First brown of the day.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4572/1028070953th0.th.jpg (http://img257.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028070953th0.jpg)

My best brown to date!
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4650/1028071051dt7.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028071051dt7.jpg)

Hen brown getting her 'sea-legs' back after being relesed.
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4820/1028070954qf9.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028070954qf9.jpg)

Another nice brown.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/6665/1028071418pa7.th.jpg (http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028071418pa7.jpg)

This rainbow thought he was some kind of acrobat.
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2734/1028071449tf4.th.jpg (http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028071449tf4.jpg)

Brown trout 'bull-dogging'
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4936/1028071523li3.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1028071523li3.jpg)

[ChemEAngler]

GW,
Congrats on the excellent day of fishing and beautiful fish. I was up there as well all day Saturday and hit the water at around 7:00 and fished until the pulse and went back again for a couple of hours after it went down. My buddy and I were fishing farther downstream in some slick water trying to avoid the majority of the fisherman and only managed 4 fish all day between the two of us. I was somewhat disappointed after my previous trip where I had similar luck to what you had. We used split backs (sz 18), scuds, sulfurs, BWO's, and midges of all sizes and styles. Where we were, the trout were keying primarily on midges in the size 28 - 30 range, and we didn't have anything to match. All 4 managed to come on a blood midge, one was a nicely colored 16" brown. What color split back were you using? We only had brown on us, I thought maybe you were having better luck with olives since BWO's were also coming off. Also, were you fishing the split backs as emergers or standard nymphs?

Travis

[Green Weenie]

Travis,

I was using 2 different kinds of split-backs. One was a black and about sz. 16 and the other was a BWO splitback in sz. 18. I fished them as standard nymphs, letting them swing down below me and rise towards the surface. But most strikes came on the dead drift.

[vb101]

The South Holston was fishing good Monday the 29th also.I fished on some private property a couple of miles down from the weir dam.As soon as we got there the water started going down and we started catching fish.We were fishing a #18 emerger under a small strike indicator about 14 inches down.We took about a dozen browns and two or three rainbows between 10:00 and about 3:00.As the water got lower we had to adjust the distance between the indicator and fly down to about 8 inches. The BWO'S started coming off about 3:00 and the fishing slowed down.We switched over to some dry's with very limited results.Since my fishing in the GSMNP has been limited this summer it was a good change of pace that I will want to try again.Also the browns were all in the 12-14 inch range and most were very acobatic.All in all a good day's fishing.

[dukeofurl]

It's a fly that solitude fly company Produces
Called a Split Case PMD
There's Also a BWO Version
Truly must have fly
http://www.solitudefly.com/product.aspx?productcode=N275
dukeofurl

[ttas67]

nice job! I gotta get back up there soon.