Clinch Report Sunday Aug 17, 2008

[tennswede]

Went to Clinch this morning. Didn't get up early enough but made it to Massengill area at about 9:30 AM. Began fishing a prince BH with a black bh midge size 20 tied to the bend. Caught half a dozen stockers immediately. Moved a couple of hundred yards and lost one good fish in a run. Water was coming up so I decided to head down to Clinton. Got out on the river again at about 11:30 AM. I immediately began picking up small fish and then bam! Something bigger hit. I had to run downstream for a while with this one since I was afraid to put too much pressure on him. I used 5x fluoro on the tie in which was the midge.


This guy was 14" not bad for just being on that spot of the river for 15 min.

I moved upstream and caught another small bow and then a better sized Brook Trout hit. He was about 11" and I managed to loose him when I tried to net him. oh well.

I kept going upstream and there was a lot of folks out fishing. I didn't really see anyone catching much so I was having the luck today. The key was the small bh black midge.

Another bow came on, and I literally did the riverdance with this one.



This one took the same midge. They must have been keying in on these today. This bow was 15" my best this year. A very nice fish.

Clinch seem to be fishing good this year from what I hear and today kind of confirmed it. I hope people respect the slot limit and it will be even better.

A question for you locals? It looks like something is going to happen past the church. There were several piles of dirt and earth moving equipment on the site. I hope we still will be able to get access in the future.

[caught 108]

Those are 2 NICE Fish Great job and Congratulations. Caught 108

[tennswede]

Thanks caught108, they are not huge but fairly good size and the best of all they took a size 20 so I had to play em' easy. They were very healthy fish on top of that.

[pineman19]

Good job Hans. Almost makes me wanna give the Clinch another try one of these days.


Neal

[tennswede]

Come on down, it is fishing great right now, even I can catch fish. LOL

[pineman19]

I am still mastery 5" fish and you want me to try 15" fish! I fished some nice water on Deep Creek this weekend above Bumgardner's Bend. Biggest fish was 9-10". I think I'll give another try when it cools off and maybe the Clinch as well.

Neal

[tennswede]

yep, my last chance will be this weekend, might be able to squeeze a short trip in. Got to clean house, wash car, mow lawn etc. Picking up my parent at the airport on Thursday. Won't do any fishing until late September. I think I have to squeeze in a Clinch river trip before they get here.

[BlueRaiderFan]

Nice trout! I caught a 14" Brown the other day which is my best ever on a fly.

[patillac]

Nice job! I've had a rough time at it on the Clinch myself. Three fish all under 10" on three consecutive Saturdays. (Consistency?) I went each time at the church, from about 9 till noon. I was beginning to think they weren't there. Thanks Tennswede, thanks a lot. Good looking fish

[tennswede]

I'm no expert but I do now that after the sulphur hatches are over, usually late June early July you really need to go down in fly size if you haven't already.

I basically quit using dries after June on Clinch. I usually tie on a larger BH prince or Pheasant Tail and then I tie on a small midge in size 20 or so. I got both of the bigger fish on the midge. I did however hook a pretty good size brook trout on the Prince which was a size 14.

Clinch seem to fish best with dries in April thru June, midges and small stuff until January, small blackflies in February, March and then dries again until late June.

No other tailwater I fish is so limited in the diversity of flies that I use. I know scuds are good also but I think it is more mid summer for those.