January 2010 Jeff Wilkins Fly Fishing E-News & Fish Report

Be sure and check out our website fishing report for our most recent trips. Its been wet but we have still managed to find some good fishing. You can check it all out here .

New!!! Real Time Fishing Reports

We recently began a new service call Real Time Fly Fishing Reports. These come straight from the field wherever I/we are on that particular day be it a trip, destination trip, class, school, etc. To receive them to your Inbox via email, visit our main page here and enter your email address in the Email Subscription Box in the upper part of the right margin or sidebar. That's all there is to it. You'll then receive our daily and sometimes multi daily reports on fishing, conditions, news, weather, etc., from the field. We can also send this report as a text message to your phone as well. If you'd like to receive this report via a TXT message, email us here with your name, cell #, and carrier or service provider and we can take care of the rest. Messaging charges might apply with text messages depending upon your carrier /provider, so be sure to check that out. All Verizon subscriptions are free. You can also receive our Real Time reports as an RSS feed. For this service, click the link below:

Real Time Reports RSS Feed click Here

A Black Caddis is one of the entomological harbingers of spring, along with blue winged olives, Quill Gordons, Gray Foxes, and March Browns.... don't they look delicious?....Jeff Wilkins photo

What the Fishing is Like.....

Wild Waters:

Like last month, wild waters have been fishing very slow, in fact the past two weeks at elevations above 2000ft you would be hard pressed to find fishable water due to high water conditions, and where you do its all nymphing or streamer fishing. There's a lot of water, and its running in the high 30's up high, near 40 to mid 40s down low.. The northern mountains had another 2-4 inch snow last night (3/23/2010) and are getting some stiff winds. Give it a week or two and a 10 degree warmup! When the water comes down look for bwos and Quill Gordons and a smattering of Caddis.

Free Printable Small Stream Hatch Chart click here

Larry Pritchett with a beast of a rainbow .....Jeff Wilkins photo 2/24/2010

VA/TN Tailwaters:

In VA, the Smith River has been very slow due to the amount of generation that they have been doing as of late. Right now the Corp is set to generate through Wed 3/24 from 5am -3pm, and 6pm-10pm. On Thurs 3/25, its 5am - 2pm, and 6pm -10pm. On Fri 3/26 5am to 1pm, and 6pm - 10pm. When things settle down, in town in the stocked water Egg patterns, bead heads, Y2K's in pink and orange shades, and streamers will usually produce on the stocker rainbows. In the special regs area, try bead heads w/a small dropper of some sort. Midges and little black stones #18, as well as a few early season BWO's can be had , especially on cloudy, dreary days. Midges are always a good call. Also, occasionally a larger fly like a pheasant tail flashback, Ck Nymph, or Tellico will work nicely. February is usually the month on the Smith where we begin to see some of the larger BWO's in size 18. Remember always double check as the schedule can change at any time..276-629-2432.

Click here for a free printable Tailwaters Hatch Chart

Matt Baldwin of Wilmington, NC with a nice citation sized rainbow on a cold blustery day in March.....he cracked the century mark on our trip, a testament to his angling skills....3/4/2010 photo Jeff Wilkins

In TN, the TVA has been sluicing 800cfs 24/7 on the Holston and will do so until further notice, and the only fishing is limited, you can wade some of the wider, flatter areas and riffle edges, but any wading should be done with extreme caution. When you can get in the river to wade the fishing has been pretty decent with midges, bwos and blackflies, standard winter fare for the SoHo. Several areas, Hickory Tree to Rivers Way, the Webb islands to downstream of the 358bridge, and the islands around the Dead Chicken Hole that were closed for the brown trout spawning season are now open again for fishing. Lately, there have been a lot of boats on the water, the flies coming off have been primarily size 20 olives.

Jimmy Jones with a nice NC high water rainbow
3/17/2010 ....Jeff Wilkins photo

On the Watauga the TVA has been releasing /spilling until further notice and will continue to do so, Pretty limited opportunity here, except maybe some streamer fishing on the upper river via floating. Once the TVA gets back to a normal schedule look for nymphing and fishing dry /droppers is effective, as well as #18 and 20 bwos in the afternoons, mixed with a few black caddis and #18 Little Black Winter Stoneflies. Afternoon BWOs are pretty reliable on the Wag' once they get cranked up, and this fishing can, quite frankly, be as good as anywhere when the bugs are deciding to come off. As soon as generation schedule improves The Wag' will be as it always is a good pm sidebar to the South Holston, or an all dayer if they are pumping on the SoHo. One other note: The bwos come off here whether its cloudy or not. One thing is for sure, if its not a gray, damp day you'll want to have some emerger patterns as the fish often totally ignore the duns. Also, coming in the first two weeks of April is the famed Caddis hatch.

Wayne Johnson preparing to net a high water prize
3/17/2010.... photo Jeff Wilkins

Release Info South Holston Watauga Smith River

Jackson River- - -- releasing 593cfs and water temperature around 43F, which is a cold temp and the level is not a good one to wade. March is a transition month on the Jackson, look for Black Caddis #18-20, small BWO's #18,20 and some midges as far as anything on top. Also look for larger Tan caddises size 14-18 later in the month and into early April. Dry /dropper rigs like the Smith will work well here. Also, I'd have a #14 or #16 bead head prince in the box as well as some Gary LaFontaine Caddis Pupa Tan size 14, and some Black Conehead Wooly Buggers, as the river can offer good streamer fishing, at times, particularly for browns. Again 593cfs is not a good wading level and is in fact non-negotiable in most places, but floating from Johnson Spring down to Indian Draft is doable and a good streamer float.

Ret US Army Col. Dan Camia exercising authority over a defiant rainbow........ Jeff Wilkins photo 3/6/2010

Smallmouth Bass:
As far as the smallies and fly fishing, no fishing right now in our local rivers. Pray for warmer temps to come!

New River NC Flows

Local Bass /Panfish: local Bass and panfish are very slow right now as far as any reports I have gotten, in fact your biggest challenge right now is finding water that isn't frozen or too high and muddy. One local option is Belews Creek near the powerplant, and Lake Norman in the hot hole. February and March are usually great times to catch some great prespawn bass and large crappie too, so that time is coming. Just keep your fingers crossed. Great fishing here is already happening in a lot of places. The first dry, warm spell we have it will be wide open.

Larry Tomar with one of several Escatawba Farms, VA rainbows on our 3/6/2010 Trip......photo Jeff Wilkins

Private Water

We have had some great fishing on this water, and even in the snow and bad weather. Over the past month and a half we have fished some days where it stayed 17-22F, snow, wind, other days when it was 60F, and you name it. We have caught a lot of fish on these waters, including one fish that was almost 9lbs. We had one trip last week where we landed several 20 inch plus fish and one 25 inch fish. One of the waters we have access to is good no matter how cold it gets, and the water temp stays around 50F due to its origin being underground springs. Check out one of our Clips here of Larry Tomar fighting a large rainbow on our trip last week.

We have uploaded several new video clips to our YouTube channel, you can view them here . We have more trips here in the coming days and weeks and will have tons of great reports and photos to pass along to you.

Mr. Larry Pritchett of High Point, NC with a private water beast .....Jeff Wilkins photo 2/24/2010

Coming up in the next few months and actually all summer long will be a prime time to sample some of this great water and fishing. These waters offer great fishing all spring and summer long and we are coming into the peak of the spring season when lots of large fish are caught. So far bookings are up over last year and we'd love to get you a great day on one of the 5 private waters we have available. To book a trip click here. We can put you on some water where we'll catch fish no matter how hot or low it gets....as some of the water never slows down...Let's Go Fishing!!!!