S7, Ep 22: Spring Awakening: East Tennessee Fishing with Ellis Ward

Marvin Cash00:00:00

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly. We're back with another East Tennessee fishing report with Ellis Ward. Ellis, how are you?

Ellis Ward00:00:11

I am doing well, Marv, how are you?

Marvin Cash00:00:13

And as always, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble. And you're hot. Back from the, what is it? The Eastern Kentucky Muskie Classic.

Ellis Ward00:00:22

Kentucky River Muskie Classic. You're pretty darn close and yeah, fresh freshly from that to four trips and some days with both my four month old son and six year old daughter.So we are all over the place.

Marvin Cash00:00:50

Interesting. And you're still on the wagon, right?

Ellis Ward00:00:54

Barely, barely. Sort of just getting dragged, but I got a couple fingers stuck in between the boards.

Marvin Cash00:01:01

Well, we'll hang in there. So you know what, tell us, give us a 30,000 foot recap of the Muskie Classic.I would imagine it was a lot of gas station food, crappy weather, but some fish were caught and I imagine, you know, as we're starting to warm up, things are looking better on the South Holston and the Watauga as well.

Ellis Ward00:01:20

Yeah, so I, I had my jet boat knocked off of my trailer on the way to the tournament and while I was moving it got swiped and shout out to the 1976 Aluma Weld and the Suzuki 2 stroke 4028 jet position correctly, might I add. Despite sparks flying and that car putting a decent gash into the side of the boat, we were able to fish for two days, really hard one.The second day we were blasting through a log jam trying to get up into some clear water and spoiler alert, the muskies were not there. We did end up seeing two, but nothing to the boat. Kind of the same story for a number of people.And it's, you know, one of the, one of the forks was I, I think this year was a better turnout and, and the water generally speaking was better. But last year we were there like I know we had this conversation last time about, ended up being about some prefrontal talk or barometer talk too.But last year was just like the day after the, the crest of a, you know, everything was blown.And I mean this year there were some of these businesses where we're talking, you know, Campden and Bedeville and the, you know, Irvine, Kentucky, small, small towns. And it's, it was a week after like catastrophic, not Helene level, but man, you're looking around trees, it's 10, 12ft up in the air.Like I'm excited the number of, you know, part of me, part of me hurts. A little bit for you know I know Dave's put on a great event for two years in a row and hasn't complained at all.And it's just like the conditions were just not favorable and but that's part of the fun is but I mean that's and the beauty of that tournament is it's, it's the. The main stems Middle South North Fork and then you know the the combined altogether.But then like we fished a little bit of the main stem but it's all these tributaries that you're talking about these creeks that I'm taking a jet boat up for 30 minutes on a full rip.It's 8, 10, 15ft deep with 20 foot holes and there's low head dams throughout the river like you see on the James and you know I have a jet and like in. In those conditions that's arguably not the right tool for the job.There's so much musky water around there that there's probably better access with a rafter you know slipping a canoe down a hill and yeah 428 miles of Muskie holding water is is pretty cool. So I think you know a number of guys were there number of teams were there up to a week prior and I just.I'm excited for the years to come and it just.It feels like something that's just going to keep getting bigger and and that's after two years where there was I mean really catastrophic flooding like the week prior for both. So it's man the potential there is just so high and it's already so fun. So it was another good year.I will ungracefully move on to the Tog and the South Holston actually producing bugs which is I don't sound as excited as I am or as I was there. There are days where the conditions the the atmosphere, the cloud cover, the barometer water levels. All that stuff is.Is telling me there's going to be a blanket blue wing hatch and dry fly fishing in the snow and you know like all this stuff over the last five years and it's just been because of.The only thing I can attribute this to is the the amount of still like very fine particulate from Helene is reading haven't interviewed the bugs yet but reading to the bugs you know still too dangerous to to try to get up just like they're not going to come up in a whole lot of water but this with a couple warmer days and I think you know all these plants, insects, fish can can feel the the day's lengthening it was just, just popping off. I mean if there's ever a. We're worried about the number of fish in this tail water it's like well now they're tail water fish and they're.Their job is to not die. You go out on a day like Friday with some sections of the river that aren't even good dry fly stretches.Just popping bank to bank the entire stretch moving water, flat water. Little caddis blue wings, you know, big blue wings. Little blue wings. We got checking rocks and seeing the, the daisy chains of cat.

Marvin Cash00:07:31

The.

Ellis Ward00:07:31

The big Cattus and seeing a couple of those fluttering around. Sulfur's are right around the corner. Like it's. That was. That was a much needed. Okay.This is still here because it's been a lot of bug free days and a lot of work on the streamer front which, which is always good but and you like those little hour or two breaks fishing to risers. So yeah things are feeling pretty springy if you will. And so it's. Especially with the temps, it's feeling like.

Marvin Cash00:08:12

That'S right around the corner and ironically it is.And shifting gears even one more time for you got a question from Marty Maves and he wanted to get your thoughts on you know, kind of what you look for in the creeks and rivers in East Tennessee for spring smallmouth.

Ellis Ward00:08:31

Yeah, so I, I'm just going to attack this a couple different ways and also do so somewhat lightly just because I, I've spent a lot of time fishing for smallmouth throughout my life and in East Tennessee. But that's just an area where you know, musk, muskie and. And brown trout have been my focus. But for so, so first just approaching you know, water.I would say that if you're just blue lining you can go from the, the major rivers that you know, have smallmouth in them and you know we'll just say the French Broad and the Nolichucky for example. And then. And from there you start looking for you know this would be like my, my blue line trajectory. If, if you are looking on a.On maps where you have the ability to look at elevation changes and you know find. Finding any of the like satellite imagery where there's you know, lots of structure and riffly stuff and drops in elevation.Those, those are assuming you're going out in the. The right time frame which we'll get to.I would say those are good places to target and you know, up up from there in the tributaries or just like near those zones.And then the next would be you know, looking at those tributaries and, and finding like near the mouths and, and not terribly far up them but finding some of those that are are starting to approach the you know, upper 40s, low 50s temperatures and, and, and look for I mean in a lot of these places, man you're going to see, you're going to see Catus start going.You're going to see, you're going to see food, you're going to see crawdads, you're going to see Shad schooling up if there's, there's certain you know, stretches of creek that'll be coming into these TVA managed not not tailwater propers but like part of the, the tail water reservoir system throughout the tva.So sections of the Clinch, sections of the Holston proper, you know, not to give away too many spots but like there's, there's so much water around here that, that I think people you know you tend to look at the Nola Chucky or the French Broad or the Doe or the Wholesome proper and you know I'm, I'm not going to give any other names because so many people have their favorite spots that are, that are not any of those. And same with trout man.I I, you know I'm in Jonesboro about 10 minutes from Johnson City and just a a 10 minute drive down the road I was, I took my 6 year old and just blind casting dry flies and getting wild rainbows and like that that it's a pretty small mountain stream, spring fed and like that's a trout stream but you know, looking for some of those bigger ones that are attached to to these larger rivers.Those are going to have some fired up smallmouth pretty soon and, and if they're too skinny, go down near where the mouth is and there's there there truly is so much water just in, in East Tennessee that spend a little time on Google Maps and, and then just go you know, go out a couple times and if it's not on, you know, know maybe give it a day or two and after it's on for a bit and you start seeing them pair up, pack it in.

Marvin Cash00:13:04

Well, there you go. Well you know folks, we, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me DM me on social media, whatever is easiest for you.And if we use your question I will send you some articulate fly swag.And we are drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season and you know Ellis like we always do, we want to know you know how, how to reach out to get on your guide calendar. Status of the you should be coming up probably working since we're in Lent now. You should be working on your Easter egg colors for your bucktails.All that kind of good stuff on the bucktail front, too.

Ellis Ward00:13:35

Yes, sir. I was actually doing a little bucktail work today just to make sure that I'm, I'm not doing too much of one thing.Bucktail will be available at Ellis Ward Flies. I'll keep everyone updated on that via Instagram. And that is at Ellis Ward Guides. And best way to to reach out bucktail fishing.You know, talking to me about crawdads and the French bra, whatever you want. My cell phone at 513-543-0019.

Marvin Cash00:14:22

Well, there you go.Well, folks, as I always say, since it's warming up now, particularly in the Southeast, you know, if you're somewhere cold, tie flies, go to a fly fishing show. But for the folks in the mid Atlantic Southeast, you owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Ellis.

Ellis Ward00:14:37

Appreciate it, Marvin.