Rocky Top Anglers

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.