Saturday, July 20, 2013


I've taken over guide operations at Hiwassee anglers. Panic not my friends. This hasn't changed anything other than we have a new place to swap fishing tales after we come off the water. Dean and Skip are going to be there to help out with a full service fly shop and we'll continue to be the best guides on the river.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

We've been burning up the rivers and the roads lately but finally found a day off to update the fishing report. Late April has seen a mix of weather conditions over the past week. Everything from rain and colder temperatures to Sun and high winds. Overall, I'm not going to complain too much. It's still better than the snow and cold we were getting last month. Another rain system will be moving across the area today and it's likely to drop an inch or so of rain with some areas receiving more. I always heard that April showers bring May flowers. Well, if that's the case I imagine we'll be covered up in flowers next month.

The spring fishing has been solid, despite the weather. We'e had to hop around to avoid murky waters, and have been caught by some muddy water, but all in all the conditions have been great. We're still focusing our time on the Knoxville area rivers, but are hitting the Hiwassee at least once or twice each week. Our spring hatches are finally kicking in so we're throwing the whole bag at the fish now.....dries, nymphs, wets, and streamers. All will work at the right time and place.

Holston River - Current water flows are as perfect as we can get. Low water is prevalent in the mornings through mid day. TVA is then releasing some water in the afternoons. This can end your fishing if your close to the dam so start early and you'll have plenty of time for a full eight hours on the water. The water has remained relatively clean during the rain events and should handle today's rain just fine. It's very cold and we're hoping it stays that way for several more months.

The spring caddis are starting to erupt and the fish are taking notice. Standard caddis patterns are working, but don't be afraid to go outside the box. Buggy, fuzzy patterns are covering this hatch on my boat. We're fishing through the pupae, larval, emerger and adult lifestyle of these assorted caddis. Dry and soft hackle patterns are working very well during the emergence on sunny afternoons, while a nymph/indicator rig can cover you most of the day if you like. The river is full of fat, healthy fish and they are eating well.

Clinch River - TVA is currently involved in a project to repair the weir dam. I would imagine they will want low water during the repair. They could also employ a coffer dam to divert water to the opposite side of the island while each side of the weir is repaired. This should mean consistent low water for the anglers. I'm hoping the project has no negative impacts on the fish in the short term.....it will have a great impact long term and will be very good for the fish. Otherwise, the river has looked good except for a few days after rain. Expect murky to muddy water downstream of Coal Creek after rain events. It typically takes 1 - 2 days to clear up depending on the amount of rainfall.

Rocky Top Anglers is in a normal spring time schedule on the Clinch River. Midges and blackflies are abundant and are good options for most anglers. Inspection of the rocks on the streambed will also show a large abundance of sow bugs and larger sulphur nymphs. The sulphurs are starting to emerge in small numbers. Late afternoon is the best time to find them hatching in fishable numbers. Fishing low water will require longer, finer leaders and tippets. Don't be afraid to use 5x fluorocarbon, but don't wait too long to drop tippet sizes if the strikes are not coming. I've also found that small white indicators are working better than more visible colors.

Hiwassee River - TVA hasn't changed much here. They are still giving us a mixed bag of flow schedules. One day will be ultra low water while the very next will see full two turbines for many hours. We're keeping a close eye on their schedules and are not worried about it too much. The Hiwassee offers four different float trips and all of them work on different flow schedules. So, our boat will float no matter what TVA does with the flows. The river is running clean and cold for the most part. It will see some stain in places after large rain events in the upper watershed, but this is even avoidable to some degree by utilizing the entire 17 mile tailwater.

The Hiwassee has been a hot destination this year. News about the success of the DH and great spring fishing has spread. Last week at one point I counted 8 drifters in the water with me and all within sight. Needless to say, the Miracle Mile (Powerhouse to Towee Creek) has been hammered. These fish will require a more stealthy presentation and will not be fooled by the typical "Hiwassee Swing". Make good casts, make a good mend, get a good bite. Use 5x - 6x mono for dries and the same sizes in fluorocarbon for your nymphs and wet flies.

Bugs are hatching and plentiful all over the Hiwassee River. Our guided fly fishing trips on the Hiwassee have seen blankets of bugs for the last week. The lower river (411 - Patty) is absolutely covered up with grannom caddis. Crawling all over you type of a hatch. The middle river is still seeing some stoneflies and hendricksons to some degree....but look for the caddis to be there soon. The upper river is full of caddis, a few early sulphurs and lots of baetis.
In other news. It was brought to my attention recently that someone had bought and registered rockytopanglers dot net and dot info domain names. Actually, I was at the Hiwassee Angler Fly Shop in Reliance and Dean Tullock showed me that hiwasseeangler dot net domain had not only been registered.....it also redirected to another local guides website. The next day I got a call to inform me of the similar status of rockytopanglers dot net and dot info. The guys at Hiwassee Angler were reasonably upset but I pretty much laughed it off.

A little more research showed this same guide had also registered dot net and dot info addresses matching several other area guide services and fly shops, including the one he currently works for. Wow, how's that for an entrepreneur? I ask why would you stop there Why not register Unicoioutfitters.net, fishawk.info, simms.web, or even orvis. org?

I can think of only two reasons someone would do something along these lines. 1. They have a redirect to their own personal website and hope to gain business by clients who mistype the web address or by brand marketing. 2. They hope to sell the domains to the business who already own a similar name. Now, I don't know which option our entrepreneur was working but it is unanimously regarded as an underhanded, sleazeball kind of thing to do. Fly fishing has always been consider a sport of ladies and gentleman but I suppose the times have changed and now allow jackasses.

The thought of buying the domain names from him has never crossed my mind, as it's all I can do to manage rockytopanglers.com and keep it updated and worth reading. I'm also pretty sure most of my clients know how to navigate to my website and I seem to get enough from google to keep me busy. Instead, I hope this guy does well with rockytopanglers dot net and dot info. Maybe one day I'll get some hits from people who misspell his address. That would rock! lol. Like I said earlier, I really don't mind and I find it funny that this guy would do something like that. I'm guessing whoever owns the domain name imajackass.com should lookout.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

April 10th 2013

Today was day six of six gorgeous days in a row. We've had to endure some stiff winds but overall can't complain. The weatherman is calling for a strong line of storms to move through tomorrow so our short run of fine days is about to end. The good news is in the 5 day outlook, after tomorrow of course. We're expecting sunny skies, highs in the upper 60's, light jacket mornings and more spring like weather for the near future. I'm officially calling it. Spring has finally shown up for good.

It's amazing how all of nature is interwoven to operate together. All of the spring blooms have been later this year, and so have the spring hatches. My turkey obsessed buddy even said the turkeys have been slow to come off the roost. The past week of stable, warm and pleasant weather seems to have awakened Mother Nature. The trees lining the rivers are starting to bloom and will soon offer the only shade to be found. Welcome to spring and the most active fishing of the year.

The river flows have become our friends once again, as we've reached the point on TVA's calendar when they must fill the lakes. This provides us with some of the most stable, predictable flow patterns of the year. Most all of our rivers have prime flow windows happening everyday. Of course, it's always subject to change with TVA so please pay attention. Area rivers are cold, clean and full of healty fish.

Clinch River
- Current flow patterns are excellent. One turbine from midnight to 7am followed by zero flow from 7am - 6pm. This is almost perfect as you can fish a medium water level early in the day and then shift to a low water approach in the afternoon. The water temperatures are still below 50 degrees which is not out of the ordinary for the Clinch. The flows are clear now but we could see some staining this weekend if tomorrow's storms dump a large amount of rain into the Coal Creek watershed. If big rains come, clear water should still be abundant aboe the interstate.

I spent today on the Clinch with some of my favorite clients. These guys spend a lot of time in my boat during the season and we always have a great time. Even if the fishing is slow. Today however was not a slow day. The river is full of hard fighting rainbows and they kept us busy all day. The sulphurs are not hatching in any real numbers. You might see a sporadic dun but the hatch just hasn't started yet. May God bless the sulphurs when they do show up because those sharks are hot and hungry. Blanket midges and blackfly are hatching in the meantime. Best action is coming on nymphs (#16 -#18) and midge pupa(#18 -#24) patterns, fished on 5x and 6x tippets, about 3 foot deep under a light indicator.

The wind has been challenging at times to say the least. It blew straight up river all day today. In fact, we watched it blow some silly guides hat right off his head and thirty foot away in the river. That's when Dick took matters into his own hands. With a single cast he managed to hook the straw hat that was drifting downstream fast. Dick had made a great cast, so great in fact that that his point fly was eaten simultaneously as he hooked the hat with the dropper. Now that's an impressive double. A 12" rainbow and my.....ahem.....some silly guide's straw hat. Thanks Dick.

Holston River - Current water flows on the Holston are excellent. We're seeing low water most all day with some higher flows well after we're off the water. The water clarity is great and the temperatures are just starting to hit the low 50's. I wouldn't expect any staining this weekend unless the Holston watershed get's completely hammered tomorrow.

The Holston bite has been exactly what we expected to see. Hot action on nymph rigs has been the daily norm. So far the Holston caddis have been like the rest of this years bugs.....behind schedule. I expect the current warmer weather will kick start the caddis in the next week or so, In the meantime, break out your beadheads and strike indicators and proceed to get plenty of bites from the fat and sassy fish on the Holston. The Holston River is a great choice for a guided fly fishing trip in east Tennessee between now and June.

Hiwassee River - TVA has changed things up on the Wass'. We're seeing very wader friendly flows on most days. The schedules are a little spotty though and might include some extended one turbine releases in the afternoon. One turbine is still wadable and even boatable to some degree. But the upper river wading is what a lot of recreational anglers have been waiting for. Flows are super clean and fairly cold, temping around 54 degrees.

I suppose the Hiwassee was blessed with wet weather this winter. We had high floating water all winter which isn't always the case. Now , we're running our floats on the more traditional springtime "Patty Melt". That's what we call the lower river float to the Patty Bridge takeout. It's actually a very scenic float, just in a much different way than the upper river. The lower river also boasts much fuller hatches than we see up river. Over the next few weeks we should start seeing grannom caddis in huge numbers. The Patty Melt is a fine springtime float and the fishing can be stellar. Currently, the best bite has been with light streamers and nymphs.

Be sure to get out and enjoy this great weather and hot fishing action while spring is still in the air.

Captain Rocky.

Monday, March 18, 2013

The first official spring day is still two days away but we've been feeling spring like for a few weeks now. Weather patterns have remained inconsistent with gorgeous sunny days and cold dreary days splitting time with rain systems. This has been one of the wettest winters I can remember. We'd sure like a chance for things to dry out a bit. Hopefully, the tide will turn soon.

Our spring season has started off with a bang. High waters have kept us off a few of our rivers, but are also opening doors for us on some of our other rivers. The Hiwassee and South Holston tailwaters love the extra flow. Maybe I should say that the guides love the extra water. The high flows allow us to do drift boat trips on sections that are normally too low during the spring. We're certainly enjoying that aspect of the wetter than normal winter.

Hiwassee River The Hiwassee is on fire right now. That's about the only way I can sum it up. Current flow patterns are two turbines 24/7. This is the way we like it on the Hiwassee. The fish can spread out and utilize the entire river for feeding and cover. I temped the water yesterday afternoon and got a reading of 50 degrees. The water clarity is good with just a slight emerald color to it. Perfect conditions for guided fly fishing on the Hiwassee River. Scott N. Managed to land two doubles on St Patricks Day. A double is when and angler catches two fish on one cast with one fish eating the point fly and a second fish eating the dropper.

The fish are in great shape. It's obvious that the winter time delayed harvest has been a positive benefit for our trout. All the trout are spunky, colorful and active. The bite has been steady to incredible depending on the weather and the hatch. Early brown stoneflies are popping with regularity most days. These little stones are about a #16 and can be fished with dry or wet patterns. The Hendricksons #16 have started popping in the afternoons, especially when it's sunny. The fish will isolate on them if they are hatching in numbers. A #16 early brown stonefly

We were in luck a few days ago when it was sunny and warm. The bugs hatched out very well and the fish wore them out all day long. We fished a dry stonefly or hendrickson with #16 dropper nymphs and our lines were tight all day. When it was all said and done, we'd boated 119 fish and there's no telling how many we missed or long disntance released. The next few days were a little more modest with catch rates near fifty fish a day, but the action was still steady. The next few weeks should only get better as spring weather gains a little stronger foothold on the south.

As for our other favorite rivers....We'll, we've really not had a good opportunity to fish them much. Both the Clinch and the Holston have been giving some occasional windows, but they have been short and falling later in the day. I have spent some time pulling streamers on the Clinch on high water and was impressed with the fish I saw. I'm really looking forward to seeing some low water on these two rivers. TVA is scheduled to begin filling area lakes soon. In the meantime, we'll keep working the Hiwassee River and loving the spring hatches.

Our April calandar is filling fast. The weekend of the 6th and 7th is my only open weekend remaining. We still have some availability for weekdays so give us a call if you want in on our great spring guided fly fishing trips. HEre's a picture I snapped of a large raptor on the Hiwassee. My expert friends have identified it as an adolescent bald eagle but it bears a strong resemblance to a golden eagle.



Captain Rocky Cox

Friday, March 15, 2013

Man! What a fantastic day on the river. A light jacket morning turned into a flip flop afternoon in the driftboat. The river was on fire again today. We started on winter stoneflies as the sun hit the water and finished with a massive hendrickson hatch. We fished dry dropper all day and our lines stayed tight. My buddy kept count and he said we caught 119 trout between he and I. I don't know if we did that well but I can say we slayed'em. Can't wait to show this action off tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

We made it! We survived! Winter is over. Winter might have something to say about that though. East Tennessee received a dusting to several inches last night. Spring is fighting back though as this weekend will see highs in the 60's. It's time to get out and wet those lines.

With springs arrival we have a few other important dates and reminders to share.

Your Tennessee fishing license and trout stamp expired last Friday. Click here to visit TWRA's website to renew your fishing license and trout stamp. Also, as some of you may already know, TWRA now has a one day all species non resident license available as well as the classic three day model. All of my out of state anglers have applauded these options.

March 10th, This Sunday we spring forward an hour as daylight savings time begins. I know this is welcomed news to everyone that enjoys being outside.

Thursday March 14th. We'll be speaking at the Clinch River Trout Unlimited monthly meeting. My presentation is titled "Drift Fishing Tailwaters for Trophy Trout" and will last about an hour. It's free and open to everyone. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the parish hall of St. Francis Episcopal Church, 158 W. Norris Road, Norris, Tenn. Come out and say hello, enjoy the show and hear some of the good things the Clinch River Chapter is doing to help the river.

Now onto the fishing. The Hiwassee is flat out on fire. Fish counts of 75 - 100 fish are not uncommon on our recent floats. We're still seeing a few shad and white patterns are still turning up above average fish. We're also seeing the spring bugs starting to move. Best setup is a heavy white streamer of your choosing with dark nymphs (#14 - #16 princes nymphs) trailed as a dropper. The recently ending Delayed Harvest season was a huge success and the river is chock full of healthy fish.

The Clinch River and Holston Rivers are both coming into form. Scattered flow schedules have kept us scrambling but things are starting to settle out. We're expecting steady, fishable flows in the next few days. We will be out there pulling streamers until the steady flows start up.

Let's go fishing!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

September fishing report and fall preview.

September 20th, 2012

Here we are. Late September and fall will show up on our doorstep this weekend. It's been a great summer here in the southeast, but I'm ready for fall. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, including great southern trout fishing. The changing season brings cooler nights and comfortable daytime weather and the trout love it. Some of the best fly fishing in the southeast will be happening in the next three months, and the fall colors will provide a gorgeous backdrop. All of our regional tailwaters should provide great opportunities for anglers looking to bend a rod. Now's the time to book your fall guided fly fishing trip. October and November will be busy.

Our weather has been fairly nice this summer. We've had some heat like always but late August and September were very comfortable. The entire Tennessee valley experienced a large rain event earlier this week, as a very fall like cold front pushed east. Some areas saw over 5" inches of rain. Hopefully we won't see too many more of these type rain makers for the rest of the year. Anyway, for the next few weeks expect cool or even cold mornings and comfortable days. Make sure you dress in two layers.

Clinch River The Clinch has been seeing fishable flows on most days. The river muddied up some from the interstate down earlier this week. I canceled my Tuesday trip but the river has cleared well enough to fish Wednesday and was perfect for today. It had just a slight stain and the normally, crazy spooky fish lost a lot of their inhibitions. I expect it will be gin clear again by the weekend. Norris lake is currently sitting around 1010' feet and is about where it needs to be on TVA's operating guide. The tailwater should continue to see workable flows as long as we can dodge future 5" rain events.

The fishing has been very good over the past month. We spent a lot of time pulling streamers in the stained water yesterday, but the bite was solid. Today, like many of our other days on the Clinch, was spent nymphing. The fish were dialed in on a little #24 emergent midge that I tie and they were crushing it. We fished it about 12" deep under a tiny piece of poly fuzz, and almost every eat came complete with a lighting flash under our indicator. Truly one of the most fish filled days that I've ever spent on a river. Dave....if you read this, you were the man today! It didn't matter if you were looking at your indicator or not, 15mph wind gust or sunny calm, chewed to shreds fly or fresh from the fly box. I honestly think you could have caught them without a fly. Great day man!

Hiwassee River The large rain event earlier this week was perfect for the Wass' and our fall lineup. As you may or may not know, the Hiwassee tailwater and supporting watershed love the rain. We should be shaping up for a great season on the Hiwassee River, as TVA will be running the water and we'll be floating the drift boats.

The Hiwassee Delayed Harvest regulations will go into effect on October 1st. I was pleasantly surprised with TWRA's venture into a tailwater DH last year and am eagerly looking forward to it this year. The river will become 100% catch and release, and artificial flies and lures only from October through February. October is going to be a lot of fun this year. I can't wait for the large orange October Caddis and dry fly fishing.

Cumberland River The flows have been very fishable on the Cumberland for the past couple months. The USCOE have bumped up the flows this week in response to the heavy precipitation, but the schedule still leaves a good low water window. We're really hoping to avoid any more large rain events in the Cumberland watershed. So far so good, lets just keep our fingers crossed.

The fishing on the Cumberland has been very consistent. Stick to the gravel bars and shallows to find the active fish. I've really not been seeing too much in the deeper water. The late summer terrestrials weren't quite as good this season as the majority of the active fish seem quite content in the faster water. We've been doing well with a variety of nymphs. Just remember tungsten and dark colors. Over the next month we should see the big browns making their way towards the shallows.

South Holston I've spent several days on the South Holston over the past month. We've been splitting time wading in the mornings and floating in the afternoon. I'm expecting to see a little more flows over the next few weeks but that's not a bad thing as the water flow makes the river perfect for the drift boat.

The fishing has been very technical at times. I watched several large brown trout rise up and refuse natural sulfurs. Now that's picky fish. They demand a great presentation, on a long and light leader. Not necessarily the easiest thing to do in slick, glassy water. Everything changes once the water comes on and we enter the drifter. The fish are much less picky when the rivers pushing some water. Fooling a trout with a dry fly is one of life's little pleasures. Fooling these mayfly PhD toting trout is very rewarding.

Please note that a significant portion of the river will close to fishing in November for the brown trout spawn.

Now's the time to get on the books for October and November. We look forward to seeing all the fall regulars again and welcome everyone looking to see what guided fly fishing in the south is all about. See you on the water.

Captain Rocky Cox

865-388-9802