Headed out to TN for a few days with a buddy to do a little fly fishing on the Watauga river. My Dad came along for this trip. We took off Thursday in the late afternoon and arrived about 4 hours later thanks to all the traffic. We put off this fly fishing trip a week earlier due to the weather not cooperating with us. We were geared up and ready to catch some trout this time no matter what.
Friday we hit the Watauga river around 10:30 AM. Arrived and were the only ones at the put-in. Just like I like it....the whole Watauga river to ourselves and not having to fight 10-15 boats floating the same river. We caught several rainbows on the starting stretch and proceeded down river. We were catching some out of every normal place, but just 1 or 2. So we proceeded further down the Watauga river and found a good spot and anchored up and fished a nice run. It served us several nice rainbows.It started to cloud up a bit and the next thing we now it got down right cold again and the wind started to blow. So much for the weather man's sunny forecast. We got into some dry fly action later in the evening on a BWO (Blue Winged Olive)hatch. It started to cool down once that sun headed behind those hills so we were cold and we were getting hungry. We decided to pull off the Watauga river. By now we had put 30+ fish in the boat between 2 of us and we had to meet some one for a BBQ dinner. We got to the BBQ place where we met our friend and proceeded to chow down on some fine BBQ. The place even had some live entertainment, so that was a nice perk. Headed back to the house to relax after we were fat and full.
Saturday had the possibility of a high of 60 degrees, but it was 22 degrees when we headed out. We went and ate breakfast at a good local hole in the wall...it was a TRUE hole in the wall too, but as you know the food is always great in those places. Plenty of good food to start our day. We headed back out again towards the Watauga river put-in.
We arrived at the Watauga river again but this time there were 4-5 boats full of fly fisherman already there and more lined up...just how I don't like it. We put in and proceeded to go down river. We rowed further down the Watauga river before even starting. It was a slow start of fishing for the day because were had to fish over everyone else. Also the snow and ice started to melt and make the Watauga river colder making the fish lethargic. We caught the trout in the usual areas but it was tougher to get them, because the trout eats were so subtle. Some times it was just the slightest flicker of movement on the indicator. We managed our way through it and finally got down to the Ledges on the Watauga river and picked up some nicer sized fish. It started to get late and all the boats were heading off the river. We decided to stay and fish...glad we did. We got into a nice Blue Winged Olive (BWO) hatch and just caught trout one after another. So we redeemed ourselves for the day with 30+ fish in the boat again. It was a tougher day on the Watauga river but in the end we did good.