S7, Ep 4: Chasing Big Browns and Musky in East Tennessee with Ellis Ward

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.

And we're back with the first East Tennessee fishing report of the year with Ellis Ward.

Ellis, how are you doing?

Well, Marv, warming up slightly, but not been frosty.

Yeah, it's interesting, I was watching your, your Instagram reel with that stud brown trout on the streamer, and it's kind of funny.

You guys were truly professional.

Had the latex gloves and the whole nine yards.

Yeah, I, I think true to what I do with all walks of guiding and tying and fishing, I have gotten three different types of, you know, there's the mechanic gloves and I've actually become partial to grease monkey, though they weren't available when I was getting a bunch of different types of tests.

And I, I think I'm, I'm now partial to the, the latex, oddly enough, but they're sort of an off putting, you know, medical beige color.

So you look way cooler with the black ones.

Yeah, that's what I've got.

I guess they're actually technically not latex anymore.

I think they're nitrile.

Yeah, most of them are the ones that I, the ones that I've come to.

You know, Venom Steel is the brand that makes a number of these and they do some, some latex and they do nitrile.

But yeah, those black ones are nitrile and they just, man, that, that's, that's the difference between legitimately the difference between fishing and not fishing.

When it's 30 degrees out and you're fishing streamers and you're stripping line in, it's.

If you don't have them, you're not fishing.

It, it's just, it's painful if you, if you do have them, and ideally you have a pair or two and some hand warmers go out 6, 7, 8 hours, no problem, as long as you got layers.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

So I know what I normally do is I have a pair of those Sims fleece mittens, right.

With the individual fingers and wear the nitrile gloves underneath those.

And I'm always amazed.

I mean, you can tie on midges wearing those gloves for sure.

Yeah, I've done, I'm now doing.

I actually asked the guy at U Haul, I was refilling propane to heat the workshop, and I saw some gloves that he had and was using it to type something on his phone.

I was like, hey, man, what do you got there?

So I'm always looking for whatever it is that's gonna help a little bit.

And Keep your hands warm.

That helps a lot a bit.

And still let you post on the gram, right?

That's right.

So if people have been paying attention, you are in the thick of post spawn streame for big brown trout and muskie fishing.

What are you seeing on the water?

Yeah, so the rivers are.

I mean the Wataga is finally clearing after.

I'm not going to say finally clearing.

It's clearing at the rate that it's been clearing.

It's.

It's been long enough to where that, that real slow clear up is finally resulting in not just fishable water, but super juicy water.

So it's been.

It's still not easy.

You know, there's I, I start to feel a little hesitant when the idea of oh, you just go out and cast some streamers.

There's gonna be big browns coming up and smashing.

I'm like, you still gotta work.

It's.

It's just we're not working in on hard days, you know, seeing a handful of, of eats or a handful of flashes and you know, picking off some, some little brownies.

On the hard days it's.

You're getting shots at 3, 4, 5 in the.

The 16 to 20 category.

And the, the ceiling is I, I really like for different reasons fishing at all times a year, honestly, outside of the.

The late fall, early winter, but the, the January, February, to.

To a certain extent March.

Post spawn streamer fishing is just the ceiling for a big fish is the highest that I've seen it, you know, outside of sight fishing them on reds.

It's.

It's the highest that I.

The highest, you know, if you want to talk about like catch per effort.

The highest.

It's hard to say catching because a lot of the times they eat and you get caught with your pants down.

But the highest I seen a big fish per cast.

And also, you know, the relative number of big fish that we're seeing and getting to eat compared to you know, the medium size and small fish.

It's on the good days, man, it's.

That ceiling is as high as it could be.

And I've had phenomenal days every week of the year in all different conditions because it's fishing but just on a.

Because it is fishing.

It's.

It's numbers and getting there in the right zone is what you have to do.

And then putting all the good casts in and you know, all those things we talk about getting the flies where they need to be practicing shooting out the back and hauling forward all that good stuff.

But you combine that with this time of year.

And that's where your, your numbers start to, to go up in terms of being able to, to see a fish that you might not otherwise see.

Got it.

And so what are you seeing on the muskie front?

Man, you know, it's been like two weeks since I've been out and I've been exploring new water and moving some fish.

I, I had a, I had a handful of trips muskie.

You know, the, the trip front has been a little slower.

And so it's this one, this one's a little weird because you, you know, I've been fishing there enough to know where, where they are and where they're going to be at different times a year.

And, you know, getting up there and, and checking on them every once in a while, it's like, do I go out and catch a fish and put a picture up so that I can get clients on the boat, or do I go find new water and continue to get more addresses?

And when the trips start rolling in, I have all my fish that are relatively not pressured.

So I've been doing the new water thing, and it's fun in a different way.

I've been going out in the Nola Chucky and some spots that are a little off the beaten path on the French Broad and promising stuff, but been pretty quiet on that front.

And some of that is intentional and other stuff is, we'll say situational, but patience pays off.

Yeah.

And so I guess to kind of close out the trifecta.

How is everything on the doctor Dear death front?

Oh, man, we are.

We are fully cooking.

I think there's probably going to be some pictures involved in this podcast or, or Instagram post.

I did a release, kind of a little one.

I just, I had enough people asking, you know, the regular folks who, you know, speaking very candidly, it's nice to have done this the way I've done it, which is, you know, grades one through five, one and two being like absolute freaks.

Like grade ones, get out of here.

They.

They don't belong anywhere, let alone in your tying room getting cut up to put on a hook that you're gonna put into a tree.

So doing it to where, you know, the, the first couple years I did it, it's just there's so few and far between and they're so insane that it's like, all right, well, I can't.

It's so hard to sell those.

And at the same time, look at selling, you know, selling this for what, 20, 25 bucks?

And then at the same Time you're looking at, you know, the big manufacturers and, you know, in the shops and the.

The larger distribution sources for 15 bucks.

And I'm pricing kind of on that.

And it's like the supply demand curve is not right here.

And so I started.

I wanted to create some separation so that there could be, you know, these other classes that are admittedly what I felt was like, shockingly expensive.

But 30, 35 bucks, you're getting a tail that it's, you know, it's six of the other tails.

And it doesn't matter how many $15 tails you buy from the store.

You don't get the, you know, four and a half to six inch fibers as the majority on.

On anything.

So I wanted to get a number of those out to some folks and, and get some different colors going.

I'm gonna have some in tailwater flyco with our boy John here in the next week or two.

And I actually just finished up dark olive and light olive today, and a couple hundred naturals, some of which will be dyed.

So we're ripping if you can't tell.

Yeah.

And I may or may not be bringing some of those with me up to Bobbin in the hood in a couple weeks.

Yeah, I'll send you one or two.

That should hopefully turn some heads.

Yeah.

And are you doing any custom dye jobs?

Maybe?

I guess.

We got Valentine's Day coming up.

You got anything in the hopper there?

You know, every time it's February 15th and, you know, this about me, I start thinking of what am I going to do next year for Valentine's Day?

Custom bucktail dying.

And, you know, it's been almost a full year, and I haven't decided yet, just because there's so many options.

So I'm going to keep thinking about it.

It keeps me up at night, and I'm just.

I'm trying to sleep a little more these days, but stay tuned.

Fair enough.

And you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.

You can email them to me or DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.

And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag, and you're going to draw for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season.

And, Ellis, before I let you go, to get back to the borax party, you want to let folks know, kind of, you know, what you're booking, how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.

Yeah.

January and February, trying to think on my feet, which is dangerous when it comes to a calendar.

I might have a weekend left.

I don't know if I do.

If you can get here, and especially if you're local and, you know, it's.

It's within a couple days or whatever, you can make work, it's.

It's just such a good time of year that I.

If you're thinking about it, I want you here now versus, you know, next October.

So best way to contact me is my Cell phone at 513-543-0019.

Information, pictures, Bucktail, some flies, and some musky lures can all be found@ellisward flies.com and I'm on Instagram @ellis wardguides.

Well, there you go.

Well, listen, folks, as I always say, yo to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody.

Tight lines.

Atlas.

Appreciate it, Marvin.