S7, Ep 10: Transitioning Seasons: East Tennessee Fishing and Fly Tying Adventures with Ellis Ward
In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Ellis Ward for an insightful East Tennessee Fishing Report. As spring teases the region with fluctuating temperatures, Ellis shares his observations on the current fishing conditions in Johnson City. With the Watauga River clearing up and promising flows ahead, he discusses the impact of recent weather patterns on fishing and the anticipated hatches, particularly the blue wing olives.
Ellis dives into the post-spawn fishing scene, sharing tips on streamer fishing and the effectiveness of various fly patterns, including his favorites like the Drunk and Disorderly. He reflects on his recent tying experiments and the creative adjustments he's been making for winter fishing, including some innovative musky flies that have proven successful with clients.
Listeners will also hear about Marvin's upcoming projects, including his participation in Bobbin and the launch of a new predator fly podcast, The Butcher Shop, featuring notable guests from the predator fly community. This episode is a must-listen for anglers looking to stay informed and inspired as the fishing season thaws out and heats up.
To learn more about Ellis, check out our interview!
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Marvin Cash
Foreign.
Marvin Cash
Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
Marvin Cash
We're back with another East Tennessee Fishing report with Ellis Ward.
Marvin Cash
Ellis, how are you?
Ellis Ward
I am doing well, Marv.
Ellis Ward
How are you?
Marvin Cash
As always?
Marvin Cash
I'm just trying to stay out of trouble.
Marvin Cash
And, you know, it's damn near spring in Johnson City, man.
Ellis Ward
It's spring today, tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and then it's going to be winter again, I think over the weekend.
Ellis Ward
But it's, you know, low 50s today, and then we're getting mid upper 50s the next couple days and might even get some rain, which all precipitation, cloud has been.
Ellis Ward
Well, we got a little rain a couple days ago, but it promptly froze into sheets of ice on all roadways the next morning.
Ellis Ward
So, yeah, you know, you get soft here.
Ellis Ward
It's the.
Ellis Ward
The weeks or the weekends or, you know, the periods of time where it's in the, like, mid to upper 40s is kind of the normal.
Ellis Ward
So we had a nice little push of hovering around freezing and then a week or more where, you know, we're getting highs in the 20s.
Ellis Ward
And my family, Michigan, grew up in Ohio.
Ellis Ward
That's.
Ellis Ward
Those numbers are very soft, but it's cold.
Ellis Ward
And then as it relates to fishing, it's too cold.
Ellis Ward
So nice to have the weather we have right now.
Marvin Cash
Yeah.
Marvin Cash
I bet you're wearing shorts too, right?
Ellis Ward
Yeah, I was yesterday.
Marvin Cash
Yeah.
Marvin Cash
So, you know, obviously it's thawed out, so you're not sliding all over creation with a bunch of people in the south that don't know how to drive in snow and.
Marvin Cash
Or ice, you know, what do you expect to see when you get back on the water?
Ellis Ward
Yeah, it's.
Ellis Ward
It's been a couple days, but we're still very firmly in the post spawn.
Ellis Ward
The Watauga continues to clear up both with time, and I won't run that down as I have in previous episodes, but with time and with more releases of water, it's continuing to clear up.
Ellis Ward
I'm guessing the dough and, you know, all the little feeder creeks up in North Carolina and the Wataga's gonna have color for quite some time now, but the.
Ellis Ward
The clarity is just couldn't ask for more.
Ellis Ward
And given the amount of precipitation from, you know, from snow and.
Ellis Ward
And ice and all that in the last few weeks and the temperatures forecasting some.
Ellis Ward
Some good flows and been.
Ellis Ward
Been sort of waiting on some real good blue wingy days.
Ellis Ward
I.
Ellis Ward
I think the.
Ellis Ward
On the Wataga in particular, the South Polson's basically back to its normal self and has been for a little While, which is just, it's very interesting if you look at the South Olson Reservoir and Watauga Lake on a map and just as the crow flies, you're thinking about, I'm talking about the influence of Helene back in October.
Ellis Ward
The watershed from the Watauga and then the watershed from the whole sin.
Ellis Ward
It's, it's, it's wild how much more the Watago is influenced and you know, relative to the size of, of that storm, those two pieces of water and their watersheds are I would say, you know, almost the same thing but vastly different results.
Ellis Ward
So I would hope with you know, the continuation of water clearing that's really the, that that's been the culprit for a lack of hatches on the Wataga.
Ellis Ward
But yeah, you get, you get really nice blue wing days.
Ellis Ward
You know, even, even in the pits, you know the, when it's snowing 30 degrees and kind of socked in weather.
Ellis Ward
Those are typically great dry fly fishing days.
Ellis Ward
So outside of that on the streamer front, it's, I'm not going to say it's, it's sort of businesses as usual just because this post spawn time period is where you can and should explore.
Ellis Ward
You know, they're not eating, you know, a four plus inch white dungeon.
Ellis Ward
And this is, you know, two weeks ago I was like, oh well given the clarity and this time of year I put on just, just a big triple drunken disorderly and you know, fishing pretty close to the surface and just getting smashed and it is, it's a whole mess of fun.
Ellis Ward
So got another good month of that.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, absolutely.
Marvin Cash
I'm going to be there for the tail end of that month and last time we spoke.
Marvin Cash
Yeah.
Marvin Cash
You were doing, you were doing muskie reconnaissance.
Marvin Cash
You've been doing more of that?
Ellis Ward
No, not in the last.
Ellis Ward
I've been taking care of a newborn baby on my off days and you know, picking up some guiding here and there as I get back into what feels like sort of a normal life.
Ellis Ward
So I got my eyes on getting back there and actually just finished a few different flies this morning and yesterday and working on a video for one of them some big muskie flies and doing some video work mid month.
Ellis Ward
So I'm to get back up to speed there.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, there you go.
Marvin Cash
And got a question for you from fleas and meat and he's feeling life at the vice too and he wanted to know, you know, if you're kind of playing around with some new things on the tying front and know if you're making any adjustments during the Winter.
Ellis Ward
Yeah, I would say that I'm thinking of the period of time where I sort of stay stable or consistent or boring.
Ellis Ward
And, and I think that would be, I don't know, like a Juneish maybe through fall.
Ellis Ward
And then, and, and you know, after that it's I, I really have a hard time just, you know, tying the same thing.
Ellis Ward
And there are some flies that I, I can tie the.
Ellis Ward
I love tying the drunken disorderly.
Ellis Ward
It's just, it's a lot of fun.
Ellis Ward
I think.
Ellis Ward
It's.
Ellis Ward
I, I have so many.
Ellis Ward
It took so long to get to a place where I feel good with tying it and I understand that when I tie it it's going to do certain things and I, I think there's, there's just part of, part of that discovery, part of that process that, that makes it so fun to tie.
Ellis Ward
And you know, the, the dungeons and the peanuts, just a little double, double bugger platforms with whatever on the head and, and switching weights up and the swim bug and you know, double bufords for, for muscular.
Ellis Ward
Those are more, you know, that, that would be like the, the starting lineup for, for guiding.
Ellis Ward
And then there's, you know, I, I can only do so much that.
Ellis Ward
So I'll tie some, you know, I'll do like three or four, like white or tan back sections of what might be peanuts or dungeons or gangas or whatever and just like put those off the side and then you know, kind of go.
Ellis Ward
Go off to the races with some other stuff.
Ellis Ward
And so I, I guess a couple of the, the different things that I've been playing with have been some of the finesse changers with, you know, some different weights where just being able to explore getting that, you know, getting those kill triggers, getting that movement.
Ellis Ward
And so many of the reasons that I've designed the swim bug which, you know, given that it's deerhead and three shanked and you know there's.
Ellis Ward
There, there's some intricacy in, in fishing it and you know, I love it for certain reasons.
Ellis Ward
Love the drunk for certain reasons, love the game changer platform for certain reasons.
Ellis Ward
And I'll just get into, you know, a, a changer platform every now and again and you know, two or three years ago it was the craft for a changer.
Ellis Ward
So I've been, I've been kind of playing with the finesse changers a little bit and then I guess something sort of, I don't know, off, off peak, if, if that's a term that I can use for fly time is doing muskie drunks and so this would be on 4 odd TP650.
Ellis Ward
You know, it's a piece of meat and that's a.
Ellis Ward
Or a piece of metal, I should say.
Ellis Ward
It's a big hook and it's, you know, I'm not really sure what you would use it for other than a musky size.
Ellis Ward
Drunken disorderly.
Ellis Ward
So I started playing with this like, gosh, I can't.
Ellis Ward
I have a couple hung up on my wall probably four or five years ago.
Ellis Ward
And when you get up, this is with all big flies and profiles and all that.
Ellis Ward
When you start really, really sizing up, all of these things have exclamation points on it.
Ellis Ward
The swim, when you want to walk the dog and get all this, that and the other.
Ellis Ward
Right.
Ellis Ward
You can't use rabbit.
Ellis Ward
It doesn't work.
Ellis Ward
It's, you know, so should, you know, just bucktail also doesn't work.
Ellis Ward
There's.
Ellis Ward
There's too much buoyancy within the water.
Ellis Ward
So you don't get that the momentum of the hook in order to get your dog walk is sort of overridden by.
Ellis Ward
You can kind of envision it as friction, but the, the buoyant bucktail is basically just stopping it.
Ellis Ward
So you can't necessarily just put a drunk head in front of a Beaufort and, and fish it that way.
Ellis Ward
So I, I started tying them with, you know, Magnum Flashaboo and really using that as almost like a bucktail type support or, you know, added structure and swim and, and craft for instead of rabbit.
Ellis Ward
And.
Ellis Ward
And then you start getting into casting implications and there's durability implications and you know, I don't want that rattle up on the front hook.
Ellis Ward
So I played around with a bunch and got to a place this last year that I feel really good about.
Ellis Ward
And on, on more than one day.
Ellis Ward
That has been the answer for clients fishing for muskie.
Ellis Ward
And this is one where certain sections, they just, they see lots of baits and lots of flies.
Ellis Ward
And the fish we were moving and where we were moving them and when we were moving them, I mean, there were, there were two fish in particular that, that moved on the drunk and, and this is a client fish.
Ellis Ward
And I mean, it was just me and him and you know, he and I have known each other for a while and he encourages my fishing.
Ellis Ward
So I was, I was sitting there chucking the bait caster and I didn't move a fish all day.
Ellis Ward
And, and he moved too on this thing.
Ellis Ward
So it's, he.
Ellis Ward
It's a different look.
Ellis Ward
And I've, I've had Other clients sort of take the idea and run with it back at.
Ellis Ward
In their home waters.
Ellis Ward
And it just, it's a, you just think about the changing size and profile and water column and all that.
Ellis Ward
It's a, it's a really powerful tool when you're restricted to the world of fly fishing, to be able to.
Ellis Ward
And same with, you know, the smaller ones for trout to be able to employ that like, vastly different presentation.
Ellis Ward
So, you know, each.
Ellis Ward
All these things have endless rabbit holes and I've been, I've been kind of diving down that one recently and have the, the first half of a tine video on that film.
Ellis Ward
So I'm going to stop talking there.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, I was getting ready.
Marvin Cash
I was getting ready to recall the drones.
Ellis Ward
Yep, it's time to go.
Marvin Cash
Yeah.
Marvin Cash
So, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.
Marvin Cash
You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.
Marvin Cash
And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and you're drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season.
Marvin Cash
And Ellis, before I let you go, I know you got a lot going on, Know how to get on the boat, how to talk fishing, how to buy bucktails, all that kind of good stuff.
Marvin Cash
You want to let folks know.
Ellis Ward
Yeah.
Ellis Ward
Best way to, to talk fishing trips h.
Ellis Ward
Whatever is my cell phone at 513-543-0019.
Ellis Ward
You can follow along.
Ellis Ward
I, I've been a little quieter on social media and that's just somewhat intentional.
Ellis Ward
I got just.
Ellis Ward
I haven't been pushing as much of my attention there, but I am on Instagram at Ellis Ward Guides.
Ellis Ward
And then bucktail availability, you know, purchasing bucktail in general can be found on my website @Ellis Ward flies.com and you know, there's pictures and you can find out more about trips and get some, some musky baits or some, you know, I'll put trout flies out there every once in a while.
Ellis Ward
So, yeah, lots of good stuff.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, absolutely.
Marvin Cash
And you know, folks, if you're going to be at Bobbin this weekend, I'll be up there.
Marvin Cash
And I may or may not have some samples of Ellis's bucktails for you guys to check out.
Marvin Cash
And you also remember that if you are a bucktail fiend, if you join our community that we host on Patreon, we've got a couple of opportunities, one of which is a discount on bucktail, the other of which is a guide discount with Ellis.
Marvin Cash
And then I guess it's a lot of public service announcements this time, Ellis, but also want to let folks know if they didn't see it on our social media feed.
Marvin Cash
We are getting ready to launch a new kind of predator fly specific podcast called the Butcher Shop and super stoked about that.
Marvin Cash
It's a project I've wanted to do for a while and, you know, we're coming out in full force.
Marvin Cash
I think the first three guests are Blaine Chocolate, Russ Madden and Tommy Lynch.
Marvin Cash
So, you know, check that out wherever you get your podcasts, right?
Ellis Ward
Yeah, you know, a lot of public services announcements, but we each do a lot of things, so I think they are deserved.
Marvin Cash
Yeah, there you go.
Marvin Cash
Well, listen folks, you know, if you're thawing out, you're wearing shorts, go fishing.
Marvin Cash
And if you can't do that, tie some flies or get to your local fly fishing show.
Marvin Cash
And if you're going to be a bobbin this weekend, you know, grab me and say hello.
Marvin Cash
I'll be there all weekend.
Marvin Cash
Tight lines, everybody.
Marvin Cash
Tight line.
Marvin Cash
Zealous.
Ellis Ward
Appreciate it, Marvin.
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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