S6, Ep 87: Beating the Heat: Mac Brown's Morning Fishing Tips
In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Mac Brown for another insightful Casting Angles segment. They discuss the current fishing conditions in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, highlighting the benefits of cooler temperatures and recent rains. Mac shares tips for early morning fishing, including the importance of proper sun protection and the effectiveness of different fly patterns such as ants and terrestrials.
Whether you're an experienced angler or just getting started, this episode offers valuable advice and updates to help you make the most of your fishing adventures.
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Marvin: Hey folks it's marvin cash the host of the articulate fly and we're back with
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Marvin: another casting angles with mac brown mac how are you i'm.
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Mac: Doing great how are you marvin.
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Marvin: As always just trying to stay out of trouble and kind of getting excited i'm
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Marvin: getting ready to uh sneak away for a few days in east tennessee to fish the
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Marvin: uh the south holston the watauga with my oldest son you know him oh.
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Mac: Yeah no that'll be great that'll be great fun it's supposed to be cooler this
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Mac: next week. So it's going to be a little bit better temperatures on the water.
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Marvin: Yeah. It's kind of funny. He's, he doesn't fish a lot. And so I was kind of
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Marvin: telling him, you know, what he needed to pack this morning and all that kind
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Marvin: of good stuff. You know, the basic stuff, like if you're going to wear Keens,
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Marvin: you might want to wear socks.
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Marvin: Otherwise you're going to have Swiss cheese sunburn on the top of your feet.
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Marvin: And, you know, you know, all the important stuff about, you know, long pants, buffs.
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Marvin: And, you know, he's like, well, isn't a baseball cap good enough?
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Marvin: And I was like, you know, only if you want sunburned ears. So,
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Marvin: you know, you got to figure it all out, right?
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Mac: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it might be a bandana. Put it underneath the hat and protect his neck and back.
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Mac: And yeah, no, that's good. That'll be a lot of fun.
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Marvin: Yeah, I have a big straw cowboy hat that I just basically take with me and I
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Marvin: dunk in the water and that seems to work pretty good for air conditioning. Yeah.
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Mac: No, that's a good idea, and that's kind of what I've been using a lot in the
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Mac: morning is a big, you know, wide-brimmed straw hat, and that's pretty nice.
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Mac: And then it keeps all the—well, it's been overcast. I've been lucky.
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Mac: The last eight or nine days, the sun hadn't really come out here until about
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Mac: 11 because it's been overcast, had some nice rains.
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Mac: So that's made it pretty nice in the morning where you don't have to worry about
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Mac: it because I'm done before, you know, before it's noon. and I'm done usually by 10, 30, 11.
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Mac: And then I don't have to worry about the heat, you know?
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Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting too, right? Because, I mean, looking at the weather,
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Marvin: I mean, it's been pretty hot. It's kind of hot here in the, you know, kind of the Piedmont.
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Marvin: But, you know, western North Carolina, east Tennessee for the next week to 10
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Marvin: days looks like it's probably not going to get back above 90.
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Marvin: So it's starting, I would say it's a little early, you know,
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Marvin: early August to say that we're starting to maybe tip down.
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Marvin: But, I mean, it is at least a welcome respite from the heat we've had.
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Marvin: And hopefully the conditions will improve a little bit.
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Mac: I think it will. We've been in the low 80s the last four days.
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Mac: The evening will get down in upper 60s and then come back up to low 80s.
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Mac: So, yeah, I mean, I think it stays cooler maybe on this side of the mountain than up by Johnson City.
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Mac: You know what I mean? Because I grew up in Greenville. I think it's a little
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Mac: hotter up where I grew up in Greenville, Tennessee.
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Mac: So, I don't know. No, usually it does because the weather pattern,
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Mac: but the good news is over there, they get the rains.
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Mac: A lot of times the rains will hit the mountains, the Appalachias,
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Mac: and they go back to the northeast and they don't even make it over the mountains.
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Mac: So I'm sure they've got more rainfall overall than we have, you know, for the year.
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Mac: But we've been getting nice rains this last week. It's been nice.
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Mac: It's the first time in, I would say, almost a decade that late July,
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Mac: August hasn't been in severe drought.
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Mac: So to be getting these rains is really a, really a big plus,
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Mac: you know, for keeping everything cooled down some.
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Mac: The water temp, I can tell you that this morning, I take it every day,
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Mac: but just this morning's temperature was 63 degrees.
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Mac: It's 630 in the morning. And that's not a bad water temp.
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Mac: You know what I mean? Everybody's talking about the waters are all too hot.
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Mac: I mean, it'll probably come up by the time late in the day on that same creek. It's probably 67, 68.
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Mac: But having a morning temperature that's below 65 is actually,
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Mac: you know, kind of special for this part of the country because most places aren't.
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Marvin: Yeah and so we were talking because it was a little bit better i guess when
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Marvin: we spoke two weeks ago but you know it really is you know like you have to kind
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Marvin: of really define what getting out early and getting off the water early means.
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Mac: Okay. You want me to define it?
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Marvin: Yeah. Well, I was just saying you have to, and I was just kind of kicking it
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Marvin: to you. You're my trusty sidekick.
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Mac: Yeah. Well, I think that, uh, I mean, like this morning we started, I had a, um,
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Mac: a young kid and his mom this morning early and I met them at,
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Mac: we started at 630 and that's when it's just getting light enough where you can see.
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Mac: One thing I've noticed the last three weeks is we were lighter earlier several
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Mac: weeks ago, and it's starting to get later and later already.
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Mac: So it was 6 a.m., and now at this time of year, it's moved to about 6.30 to
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Mac: meet them because it's tough to start in the dark with the traffic.
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Mac: So 6.30 is about the time they can start seeing it. And we're done by 9.30 to 10 o'clock.
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Mac: And that way you know later in the day then you'll see people start pulling
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Mac: in trying to fish those same spots starting at 10 11 o'clock and then it's just
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Mac: i'm sure they're frustrated because by that time the water's too warm the activity's
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Mac: gone you know and it's like,
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Mac: yeah every day every day still different too like where i've been going i've
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Mac: been going on um a freestone creek that comes off about 6,500 feet up and it's
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Mac: different every day like I like to say well it's been best on dry fly but it
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Mac: it really hasn't like one day it'll be,
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Mac: good on that I've been throwing a lot of ants and terrestrials like small ants like flying ants and.
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Mac: That's one of my favorite you know patterns the one thing that's been really funny this year.
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Mac: Year for us i mean for all my gods it's like normally
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Mac: on the freestones this time of year that the inchworms king it's
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Mac: at its best and it hasn't this year
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Mac: hasn't been that way i fished the i fished a
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Mac: lot of inchworms in places that should be
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Mac: productive with inchworms and i i think that maybe
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Mac: they're starting to get used to it kind of like kind of
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Mac: like when i moved here years ago you could throw a royal wuss anywhere
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Mac: in the park this time of year in the early morning and do well and then
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Mac: then everybody threw it and it no longer worked as good
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Mac: you know but the chartreuse inch worms the small ones the big ones and we've
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Mac: caught some fish on it but it's not at all the magic bullet like it's been in
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Mac: the past is what i'm saying so i think it's changed i think too many people
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Mac: probably been throwing it now it's a thing of the past unless we go somewhere new you know yeah.
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Marvin: It's interesting too like you know one thing i would suggest to people if you're
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Marvin: getting out that early and particularly if you're trying to hike in to kind
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Marvin: of get away from folks and get higher is, you know, also remember if you're wearing a headlamp,
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Marvin: you know, only use it if you need to and, you know, don't shine it on the water,
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Marvin: particularly when you get close to where you want to fish because that will,
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Marvin: you know, make it less worth your while to put the time in to get up early and walk a little bit.
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Mac: That's right. Or better yet, just hike in the night before when it's hot.
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Mac: That's what, when the kids get back from their trip with Jennifer,
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Mac: that's what we're going to do is go up and stay.
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Mac: Because it's about time where they're getting ready to go back to college for
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Mac: Connor and Duncan will be starting school, you know, high school, sophomore year.
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Mac: And we still haven't, we were going to try to do something up in British Columbia
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Mac: and summer's kind of gotten away from us. We've had a lot of unexpected things,
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Mac: you know, the summer that we weren't planning for.
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Mac: So we're stuck here. So I've told them before they went out of town that we'll
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Mac: go in when they get back next week and maybe stay three or four days.
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Mac: And that'll be a good time with the kids.
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Mac: And we'll do the same thing even when we hike in. We'll fish early in the morning
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Mac: and we'll probably go do some hikes and other things in the afternoon.
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Mac: But we won't be trying to fish in the middle of the day up high.
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Marvin: Yeah. And, you know, as we mentioned last time, you know, it's kind of depending
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Marvin: on where you are. I think kids in Tennessee are already back in school.
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Marvin: You know, we start to thinking about school stuff, and that means guide schools
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Marvin: and casting schools and all that kind of good stuff.
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Marvin: And I know you've got some travel
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Marvin: set up. You want to let folks know about all that kind of good stuff?
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Mac: Yeah we we still got some uh what
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Mac: do we have left this year well we got we still
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Mac: got the casting school in september we got a couple of
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Mac: guide schools october november and the show schedule i worked on that last week
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Mac: that's going to be really busy um i think from the first week of january to
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Mac: the middle of april we'll be on the road so it's like i looked at the turnaround
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Mac: like the west west coast ones at bellevue,
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Mac: and then right after Bellevue's Denver,
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Mac: and then Pleasanton, it's like, I'll just stay out there because there's only,
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Mac: for me, there's only like two days turning around between those shoals.
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Mac: So it wouldn't make sense, you know, to come fly all the way back east and get
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Mac: on a plane and fly six hours back.
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Mac: So I'll probably get lucky and get to go, go to Pyramid Reservoir and fish a
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Mac: lot of the stuff I want to fish out there in the winter. I like to fish those.
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Mac: There's certain places I like to be at, be that time of year.
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Mac: So I'm going to try to make a little vacation as well as the shows and mix them together.
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Mac: And, yeah, it's going to be a busy show season though, Marvin.
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Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, folks, I have and I'm adding every day.
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Marvin: If you go to thearticulatefly.com and go to our events page,
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Marvin: you'll see all the shows listed.
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Marvin: And I'll keep adding to those. And if you're an event promoter and you want
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Marvin: your info up there, shoot me an email.
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Marvin: Use the contact form on the website or if you know me, just shoot me an email.
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Marvin: And, you know, Mac, I assume the best way for people to figure out what you're
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Marvin: up to is to go to MacBrownFlyfish.com, right?
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Mac: Yeah, that'd be the best one, you know, to get my contact email or phone number
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Mac: or whatever. That would be the easiest way to get me.
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Marvin: Yeah, and all that stuff and Mac's social media stuff's all in the show notes.
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Marvin: So if you just hop to the website and check that stuff out, you can find it
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Marvin: all there. and folks, even though it's hot, just get up super early and then
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Marvin: take a nap at 11 o'clock after you eat a big pancake breakfast.
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Marvin: Get out there and catch a few, everybody.
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Marvin: Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Matt.
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Mac: Tight lines, Marvin.
Mac Brown
Guide | Casting Instructor | Author
Mac Brown is the owner of Mac Brown Fly Fish and Fly Fishing Guide School in Western NC. Mac created the first full-time fly fishing guide service in Western North Carolina. The first Delayed Harvest on the Upper Nantahala River in early 1993 was also a result of his efforts.
Mac Brown is the author of “Casting Angles” which is a fly casting handbook for those on the journey of understanding the mechanics of the cast. The ACA, FFI, and others have endorsed this text as a reference for instructors as well. Mac is a Master Casting Instructor through the Fly Fishers International.
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