S6, Ep 68: East Tennessee Dry Fly Tactics and Streamer Insights with Ellis Ward
Join host Marvin Cash on The Articulate Fly for another East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward. Ellis shares updates on the current fishing conditions, highlighting the benefits of recent rains and the variety of dry fly fishing opportunities available. He discusses the thrill of sight fishing and the different approaches needed to successfully catch fish, from targeting specific bugs to adjusting casting techniques.
Ellis also talks about the streamer bite, offering insights on the best times and conditions for using larger streamers versus smaller ones. He emphasizes the importance of adapting to changing conditions and experimenting with different sizes and patterns to find what works best.
From technical dry fly fishing to aggressive streamer bites, this episode is packed with valuable tips and strategies for anglers looking to make the most of their time on the water.
Whether you're a seasoned angler or just getting started, this episode provides a wealth of information to help you enhance your fishing experience. 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.
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Marvin: How are you doing, Ellis?
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Ellis: I'm doing well, Mark. How are you?
Speaker:
Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble, and we were talking before we started recording.
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Marvin: You're in your new place. You're starting to get into your groove.
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Marvin: Things are looking good.
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Marvin: You're getting a little bit of rain. It's not super crazy hot,
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Marvin: but not too bad for mid-June, right?
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Ellis: No, and we're getting, you know, these storms that are the reason why I tell
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Ellis: everyone to bring Rain Jacket.
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Ellis: We just get these splashes that are really feeling developing throughout the afternoon.
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Ellis: But they tend to happen pretty quick, last about, you know, 15,
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Ellis: 20, 30 minutes maybe. Maybe in the short, partly cloudy, maybe 10 degrees cooler.
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Ellis: Make for a nice evening if you're not soaking wet. But we've had one or two
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Ellis: of those recently, and it's nice.
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Ellis: The trips last week were just, we're catching fish on dry flies.
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Ellis: Lives in in a bunch of different ways and you know a a fish eating a dry fly on top is the,
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Ellis: i think the catch-all for what we're
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Ellis: doing you're you're seeing them eating so we're not really blind
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Ellis: casting and just drifting we're stopped we're seeing them eat and and we're
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Ellis: catching them but the rules in which we approach that process can vary and in
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Ellis: the the less bloody times,
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Ellis: uh i don't know just get times when you're really isolating certain areas and a specific type of,
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Ellis: a specific type of bug, a very, not very, but a pretty specific drift.
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Ellis: There certainly is,
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Ellis: Lots of bugs from sizes, you know, 14 to 22.
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Ellis: And, or both. I mean, they're really, the fish are in there eating.
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Ellis: And we had a couple days in a row of being able to kind of work with some tree
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Ellis: toddler and some shade and positioning of the boat.
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Ellis: To where we're actually we're not just the fish we are seeing that we're actually
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Ellis: seeing this through the water and and watching it come up and sort of knows the fly and then eat it,
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Ellis: and it's made for it which is just a whole different you want to talk about
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Ellis: sight fishing like that's normally if you're casting to i see a trout over there
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Ellis: that's rising and here's the
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Ellis: bug i think is going to that trout that's pretty
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Ellis: classic with tight fishing it's you know
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Ellis: casting to a specific fish and a lot of these fish aren't even holding current
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Ellis: they're just they're outside of the scene they're in for slack water and it
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Ellis: requires a little bit of doing where there's been some some dry fly casting
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Ellis: and coaching um shout out my boy connor for becoming coming locally and admittedly,
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Ellis: I'll say, a dry fly convert,
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Ellis: small mouth, steelhead.
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Ellis: Not necessarily tiny dry fly, especially a natto, but that changed frequently.
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Ellis: We had one of these days, and that night is an example.
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Ellis: Ten minutes between 19-inch brown trouts, one of them on the stringer,
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Ellis: and actually the portlier of the two on a dry fly a few minutes later.
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Ellis: So, I mean, you add that as, let's say, our first four to six hours of thipping.
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Ellis: And, sorry, you add that to what we have in the night, which is,
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Ellis: which week we're looking at 60 degrees, less 60s.
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Ellis: And it's just, it's really comfortable to be mousing.
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Ellis: I mean, I crested a little bit in March, April, but having these 90-degree days.
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Ellis: It's when you start fishing at two or three with
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Ellis: with the eye towards you know
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Ellis: we're going to fish towards the lower light fish the the relutions
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Ellis: in the afternoons and evenings and then uh
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Ellis: fish under darkness the feet
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Ellis: will round three or four p.m especially if there's no clouds that'll
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Ellis: let you know you you're making the right decision and trips are agreeing so
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Ellis: getting good fish in the boat on on drive and and it's not just like fishing
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Ellis: the big ones and doing the technical stuff there's,
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Ellis: so saying about the the different the different
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Ellis: types are also you know seeing them eat very aggressively
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Ellis: and finding pods of really healthy like
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Ellis: 12 to 14 inch rainbows um and
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Ellis: it you know it's not
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Ellis: gonna be every day but um we're in
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Ellis: that zone right now and that that zone can last uh through during july and then
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Ellis: you know things things look a little different there's these kind of micro seasons
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Ellis: within these tailwaters but this is um this is definitely one of my favorites.
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Marvin: Yeah. Is there anything kind of, uh, with respect to the streamer bite you want to share with folks?
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Ellis: You know I said for anyone watching any of my YouTube videos that was word for
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Ellis: sharing YouTube this is going to be familiar same thing with Instagram,
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Ellis: there I really try to not drink my own Kool-Aid I,
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Ellis: think that I get towards an 80-20 most of the time um you know getting in the
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Ellis: right place and and doing the right thing to get food back and um,
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Ellis: i i i've just gotten some
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Ellis: feedback from social media which
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Ellis: is always a this is a dangerous game to play but it's just interesting with
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Ellis: the i love pine streamers i love fishing them if i can get get away with it
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Ellis: i love fishing eight inch crafty changers for brown trout clear water,
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Ellis: um reasonable flows and a big sun not the time i mean you can do it for fun
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Ellis: or if things are looking really sporty or if things are not looking sporty at
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Ellis: all but kind of staying within that.
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Ellis: Maybe down to two and a half. The only reason that I limit on the downside is
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Ellis: I don't think going smaller makes a big difference.
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Ellis: And I want to be able to see it. And you want to be able to see it.
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Ellis: And so that can be done, you know, something visible with a really small profile.
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Ellis: Profile, you can do that with a
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Ellis: flashy, you know, a couple extra pieces of flash on a Clasar or a Krelak.
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Ellis: That's really the low end that I really haven't even been fishing Krelaks that
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Ellis: much, but you know, the double bugger platform,
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Ellis: peanut end beef, that type of thing, and the dungeon variants,
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Ellis: and using Crasher and all that, that and and
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Ellis: kind of pooping in that if if you're not getting
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Ellis: feedback on the bigger stuff which i cannot fault
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Ellis: you for starting there i tend to start there myself and
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Ellis: i am the start client there as well i'm pretty quick to switch because i value
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Ellis: people time and money but i do want to see if they're going to smash the sections
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Ellis: client top that we got we got to check that box first but um Very quick to go
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Ellis: into the olives and the natural,
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Ellis: they're slightly sinkier and let's not make them come up towards where the birds are.
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Ellis: A lot of times, looks like between three and four and we'll say classic trout streamer,
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Ellis: also trout streamer, streamer in general, baitfish pattern, crawfish pattern.
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Ellis: But you know if you're out there as much as that can be working like if that's
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Ellis: working great you can do that and do the same thing and get that same feedback
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Ellis: all day or if you're finding that that's working after a little while maybe
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Ellis: go smaller maybe go bigger,
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Ellis: I would say just continue to test how that is changing and,
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Ellis: section to section river to river you can see some differences and you,
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Ellis: Yeah, if you're not getting feedback on the smaller stuff, it can't hurt at all.
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Ellis: They're fun to tie. They're fun to cast when you do it well.
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Ellis: It can't hurt at all to fish big stuff for a little bit and see what happens.
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Marvin: Well, folks, there you go. And, you know, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.
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Marvin: You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever is easiest for you.
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Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some Articulate Fly swag.
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Marvin: And we're going to do a drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of
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Marvin: the season. And Ellis, before I let you go, you want to let folks know where
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Marvin: they can find you and fish with you.
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Marvin: I know you've been putting some YouTube content up too, all that kind of good stuff.
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Ellis: Yeah, you like that little, I don't know what they call that in the biz,
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Ellis: but work at Ellis Ward Fishing on YouTube.
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Ellis: And I have a bunch of time videos up there. I should do a better job of promoting
Speaker:
Ellis: all the content I have there.
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Ellis: Instagram is at Ellis Ward Dives. website is at elliswardfly and that's where
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Ellis: you can contact me book trips, ask questions,
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Ellis: talk about how excited you are for bufftail coming up,
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Ellis: text me your questions about which days are the best days for you to be coming
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Ellis: here and dry fly fishing, streamer fishing and mouthing for multiple days in
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Ellis: a row my cell phone at 513-543-0019 nine.
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Marvin: Yeah. And I've got links to your YouTube channel and everything in the show
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Marvin: notes and folks remember to, you know, if you join our community on Patreon,
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Marvin: there are a couple options where you get discounts on Ellis's bucktails.
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Marvin: But another great one is there's one where you have a guide credit every year
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Marvin: for taking trips with Ellis.
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Marvin: So great way to support the articulate fly. Great way to support Ellis.
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Marvin: And, you know, as we start moving deeper into summer, as I always say,
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Marvin: you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines,
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Marvin: everybody tight lines, I.
Speaker:
Ellis: Appreciate it, Marshall.
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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