S6, Ep 52: Tailwater Tactics: Ellis Ward on Navigating Sulphur Hatches and Stained Waters
Set your reels and ready your flies for another riveting East Tennessee Fishing Report on The Articulate Fly with host Marvin Cash and the seasoned guide, Ellis Ward. In this episode, the sulphur hatch takes center stage as these vibrant yellow bugs make their timely appearance, much to the delight of anglers and trout alike.
Ellis gives us the lowdown on the South Holston and Watauga rivers, where the sulfur hatch is in full swing, providing ample opportunities for dry fly aficionados. With a hatch that arguably ranks among the longest in the country, Ellis and Marvin discuss the nuances of fishing in both low and high water conditions and how these hatches can extend well into the summer months.
As the conversation flows, they delve into the excitement surrounding evening hatches and the transition into the mouse season. Ellis shares his expertise on streamer tactics in stained waters, emphasizing the importance of visibility over color and the effectiveness of larger, light-blocking patterns that create a pronounced silhouette for predatory fish.
Listeners will also gain insights into the use of rattles, retrieve speeds and the magic of flies like the craft fur changer. Whether you're a veteran on the water or a curious newcomer, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you make the most of the East Tennessee fishing scene.
So grab your gear, and let's hit the water. Tight lines!
To learn more about Ellis, check out our interview!
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Speaker:
Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly,
Speaker:
Marvin: and we're back with another East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward. How are you, Ellis?
Speaker:
Ellis: I'm doing well, Marv. How are you?
Speaker:
Marvin: As always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble and been watching the Instagram
Speaker:
Marvin: feed and East Tennessee looks like the sulfurs have arrived, brother.
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Ellis: Yeah, man. It feels nice. It feels nice to see the yellow bugs flying around.
Speaker:
Ellis: And as a guide, as an angler, partially as a tire, it feels nice to see fish eating them.
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Marvin: Yeah, it's kind of cool, right? Because doesn't the South Holston have one of
Speaker:
Marvin: the longest sulfur hatches in the country?
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Ellis: You're out of my depth very quickly there. And I don't know.
Speaker:
Ellis: That feels like something you hear.
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Ellis: And then there's part of me that says who's measuring that but it really I mean
Speaker:
Ellis: just objectively I've only been on a handful of streams that have sulfur hatches and,
Speaker:
Ellis: both the South Holston and the Watauga are you know kind of mid to late May through late June,
Speaker:
Ellis: so it is It can be day-to-day, as with all fishing and dry fly hatches,
Speaker:
Ellis: but it is really a good chunk of the summer.
Speaker:
Ellis: And you get them through July, it's just not as prolific.
Speaker:
Ellis: And there's blue wings and midges, and the whole time, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Speaker:
Ellis: Fey but those big you know big
Speaker:
Ellis: for tail waters 14 16 and what's
Speaker:
Ellis: fun about that is you can fish 12s and they're eating 12s um i i wouldn't necessarily
Speaker:
Ellis: do that but um that that larger size bug lasting for the better part of a really
Speaker:
Ellis: solid month and then and really tailing out through july it's pretty cool yeah.
Speaker:
Marvin: And of course it sets up your favorite program right and dry fly to the risers
Speaker:
Marvin: and pull streamers the rest of the time?
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Ellis: Yeah, it's just too fun.
Speaker:
Ellis: And with the Watauga generating from 1 to 6 every afternoon outside of Sundays
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Ellis: through the summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Speaker:
Ellis: That we have water for four to five hours
Speaker:
Ellis: and that big water
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Ellis: i think there's some misconceptions around you know
Speaker:
Ellis: dry fly fishing and it being hot in the
Speaker:
Ellis: low water look if it's low water all
Speaker:
Ellis: summer i'm going to tell you the dry fly fishing's hot because i'm going
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Ellis: to figure it out figure out what to do high water
Speaker:
Ellis: dry fly fishing uh yes on
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Ellis: the south holson yes definitely on the watauga um the
Speaker:
Ellis: otaga has flows that are
Speaker:
Ellis: are scheduled for six days a week um
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Ellis: and the whitewater rafting companies that bring a lot of people to this area
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Ellis: will say that um they depend on that and so that's not going anywhere and in
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Ellis: high water dry fly fishing it can it can be like low water they're They're a little more localized,
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Ellis: but man, when they find a place that they're having high water,
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Ellis: they're not going all the way back down to the bottom. They're hanging right there.
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Ellis: So it's sort of the same as that low water, you know, finding the shelves and
Speaker:
Ellis: all that. Just a different game.
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Marvin: Yeah. And then, of course, you know that we're also, as it starts to warm up,
Speaker:
Marvin: we start to really get into the thick of mouse season too, right?
Speaker:
Ellis: Just about to talk through it, man, on that timeline. line starting you know meeting,
Speaker:
Ellis: early to mid afternoon i mean i i was just talking with a client earlier today and,
Speaker:
Ellis: uh first time fishing with me and kind of saying i'll meet in the morning it's
Speaker:
Ellis: like well it's gonna be kind of late summer i said it again it depends some
Speaker:
Ellis: days i do want to meet in the morning it depends on the weather but that evening hatch is,
Speaker:
Ellis: It can be really, really good, and then it gives us the option to hang out in the house.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, there you go, and I've got a streamer question for you, too.
Speaker:
Marvin: So Brenner wanted to get your thoughts. I know we've had a ton of rain in our
Speaker:
Marvin: part of the world recently,
Speaker:
Marvin: and I know that you're a little bit protected but less protected on the Watauga
Speaker:
Marvin: because of the Doe River and wanted to get your thoughts on color combos for
Speaker:
Marvin: streamers when you're fishing in stained water.
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Ellis: Yeah. I think I'm just going to start officially beating this drum publicly.
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Ellis: I don't care about color.
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Ellis: That's incorrect. I want something that is white, maybe like some sort of off-olive
Speaker:
Ellis: yellow, something that I can really, really see.
Speaker:
Ellis: And when I say that, it's something you can see, something clients can see.
Speaker:
Ellis: And I'm probably fishing it pretty high in the water column.
Speaker:
Ellis: And if I can get it to be bigger, I would appreciate that as well.
Speaker:
Ellis: I would say it depends on how you're fishing.
Speaker:
Ellis: So for a lot of my fishing as a guide and even when I'm out on my own on either
Speaker:
Ellis: of the rivers, I am, it's hard to say fishing to fish.
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Ellis: It's not like I know exactly that cast is perfect, but man, some of them, yeah, at this point I do.
Speaker:
Ellis: And so it's finding those spots and I want something they can see.
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Ellis: And I've just amassed enough data at this point to say that.
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Ellis: Something with opacity, something that is opaque, light does not penetrate it.
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Ellis: I don't care if it's white.
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Ellis: When something's coming from below it, there's no light down there.
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Ellis: And then if it's closer to the surface, aka closer to sunlight,
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Ellis: it projects more of a difference in light.
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Ellis: So if it's down low there's not as much light hitting the top of it to create
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Ellis: a profile below so it's really just putting a spotlight shining shining something
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Ellis: to give the fish the silhouette,
Speaker:
Ellis: to say i'm going to eat that thing and i've i've
Speaker:
Ellis: seen it happen now i know i've said this before but i will
Speaker:
Ellis: continue to say it i've seen
Speaker:
Ellis: brown trout blow through the water erupting on
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Ellis: a streamer taking it through the surface in
Speaker:
Ellis: all but chocolate i mean all but like debris filled chocolate milk really i
Speaker:
Ellis: would say unfishable water um relative to my understanding before Before doing
Speaker:
Ellis: what I've been doing for the last four years.
Speaker:
Ellis: So hiring the water column and something that really does block light, that's not feathers.
Speaker:
Ellis: It's, you know, craft fur changers are two of my favorites.
Speaker:
Ellis: And then I have a streamer that I have sort of jokingly called the Luff,
Speaker:
Ellis: which is more like an articulated, just a two-section craft fur streamer.
Speaker:
Ellis: And yeah, the rate of success there, and I've had days where we switch to that
Speaker:
Ellis: and it's immediate. So, yeah.
Speaker:
Ellis: More than a few of those days. And I think that folks should be willing to try
Speaker:
Ellis: it at this point because, gosh, it's too fun.
Speaker:
Ellis: Was I on that one?
Speaker:
Marvin: No, you did. You did great. I literally just put the safety back on the trigger.
Speaker:
Marvin: So you're good. But to follow up. Yeah, but to follow up on that.
Speaker:
Marvin: See, this is how I'm going to get you your extra couple minutes. minutes so you.
Speaker:
Ellis: Like you.
Speaker:
Marvin: Like a lighter colored fly because if you're fishing high you want the predator
Speaker:
Marvin: to see the belly right and so that's the color jam.
Speaker:
Ellis: I'll clarify there the color jam is for human eyes i want something that i can
Speaker:
Ellis: see i want something that the angler can see,
Speaker:
Ellis: and as you go away from white um i've tried to convince myself that black is
Speaker:
Ellis: really visible but it's it's just not um so there's just.
Speaker:
Ellis: There isn't much light below the
Speaker:
Ellis: streamer the sun's coming from the top of it shining directly down and then
Speaker:
Ellis: um the trout normally are are sharking it if you're fishing higher in the water
Speaker:
Ellis: column they're they're coming from below so there's really no thought process around color
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Ellis: outside of I want to track what's happening and in muddy water that can be more
Speaker:
Ellis: challenging so the whiter and
Speaker:
Ellis: really I just I mean if you if you want to do a lot of flash go nuts but.
Speaker:
Ellis: I had this this Rolodex this montage of video clips in my head of watching Watching
Speaker:
Ellis: these events, striper, brown trout,
Speaker:
Ellis: eat big craft fur changers, and the swim bug fishing higher in the water column
Speaker:
Ellis: to a certain extent the drunk.
Speaker:
Ellis: One of the great things, and in this very specific instance,
Speaker:
Ellis: one of the drawbacks is that the drunk finds depth pretty quickly.
Speaker:
Ellis: So keeping something that rides higher in the water column,
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Ellis: is kind of where the swim bug comes in in this instance and then craft for a
Speaker:
Ellis: changer is just for your retrieve speed trying to make sure you're deepening up where it should be,
Speaker:
Ellis: and yeah at that point.
Speaker:
Ellis: You know all these cliffs have a fly with very little flash involved.
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Marvin: Got it how about rattles.
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Ellis: Big fan now kind of tough because some of these you know i'm thinking of fishing the drunk and
Speaker:
Ellis: having fish track it up to the boat and eating on that kill eating on that pump
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Ellis: fake just before you take it out don't pretend like you're gonna take it out
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Ellis: and then don't so when it hangs on the surface there for a second so i don't
Speaker:
Ellis: know are they tracking it in because of the rattle and then they're finally eating it,
Speaker:
Ellis: because of that boat side let's hang out at the surface for a second so do we
Speaker:
Ellis: bypass that and just fish higher in the water column and not worry about flash or rattles but,
Speaker:
Ellis: as a rule I like to add them in where I can you know last thing on that is,
Speaker:
Ellis: a lot of these high water muddy water,
Speaker:
Ellis: 40-inch strike, I mean, giant fish inhaling a fly at the surface and about four gallons of water.
Speaker:
Ellis: Browns doing the same thing, not 40 inches.
Speaker:
Ellis: Those are without rattles and very little flash. I don't think those two things hurt, though.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, well, there you go. And, you know, folks, we love questions at The Articulate Fly.
Speaker:
Marvin: You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever is easiest for you.
Speaker:
Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly schwag.
Speaker:
Marvin: We're going to enter a drawing for something cool from Ellis at the end of the
Speaker:
Marvin: season. And, you know, Ellis, I know you're stacking days on your calendar.
Speaker:
Marvin: You want to let folks know, you know, where they can find you,
Speaker:
Marvin: what you have available, how they can talk fishing and book you.
Speaker:
Marvin: But also, I suspect you might be hanging on to a few Easter pastel bucktails
Speaker:
Marvin: you might want to share with folks.
Speaker:
Ellis: Yeah, so the best way to contact me for anything really is my cell phone at 513-543-0019.
Speaker:
Ellis: Instagram is at Ellis Ward Guides.
Speaker:
Ellis: And website is EllisWardFlies.com. As for bucktail,
Speaker:
Ellis: I will be moving nearby, and the new spot has a 30x40 workshop,
Speaker:
Ellis: so things are going to get sporty next deer season.
Speaker:
Ellis: And currently, yeah, I have a good number of tails left, and I'm pretty sure some twos and threes.
Speaker:
Ellis: But yeah definitely continuing to continuing to develop that part of the business
Speaker:
Ellis: as well and as for me and I'll kind of jump it all over the place,
Speaker:
Ellis: if you are interested in the dry flying mousing,
Speaker:
Ellis: give me a shout and let's get some good dates on the calendar if we can get
Speaker:
Ellis: dates with the right moons and things like that It's better to plan around that one.
Speaker:
Ellis: Some of this stuff can be day-to-day, but if you're planning a night fish, let's talk about it now.
Speaker:
Marvin: There you go. And remember, folks, we've got two great opportunities in our community.
Speaker:
Marvin: One of them is 100 off-guide credit with Ellis, and another is a 10% discount on Bucktail.
Speaker:
Marvin: So check that out. That's hosted over on our Patreon site, and there's a link in the show notes.
Speaker:
Marvin: And as I always say, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few.
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Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Ellis.
Speaker:
Ellis: Appreciate it Marv.
Ellis Ward
Guide | Fly Tier
I am a full time, year round fishing guide in East Tennessee, based out of Johnson City. I also design and tie flies from midges to musky, process a thousand or so bucktails every season, teach at East Tennessee State University, and raise my daughter.
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