S7, Ep 63: Hot Days and Spicy Bites: An East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Ellis Ward - Full-time fishing guide at Ellis Ward Guides (Johnson City, East Tennessee)

In this episode: East Tennessee guide Ellis Ward shares summer fishing strategies for hot, humid conditions with aggressive bite windows. Topics include reading barometric pressure changes, capitalizing on colored water from storms, and advanced bucktail grading systems.

Key fishing techniques covered: • Streamer fishing with swim bugs and Drunk patterns • Yellow bug presentations (size 16-22) • Open water streamer techniques • Mouse pattern development • Surface streamer presentations

Location focus: East Tennessee tailwaters (Watauga River, South Holston River, Upper French Broad)

Target species: Brown trout, stripers

Equipment discussed: Yellow bugs (16-22), swim bugs, Drunk patterns, bucktail grades 1-5, mouse patterns

Key questions answered: • How to fish during summer barometric pressure changes • Which bucktail grades provide best value for streamer tying • How to get browns to hit streamers in open water

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in East Tennessee tailwater fishing and streamer techniques

Marvin Cash00:00:04

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 Ward00:00:10

Ellis, how are you doing? Well, Marv, how are you?

Marvin Cash00:00:13

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And I think we're in the easy bake for the rest of the summer. What are you seeing on the water?

Ellis Ward00:00:22

Yeah, independent of temperatures being what they are, which is for the uninitiated hot, the humid, we're getting these, I mean it's, it's been this for the last, God I want to say month or more where we're just getting wrecked like three or four nights of the week with these like, you know, 30, 45 minute bursts. And so it's, it's put some nice color in the water. Not enough.Now there's been some days where it's, it's a little blown out in terms of the clarity, but it's at the same time it's not enough to create for example, 24 set of releases on, on both rivers. So it has been very interesting.It's also created a few different scenarios where the fish are just going, you know, bugs, fish, everything's just so, so on. And even when things are off this time of year, it's, it's, it feels different.Right there's, you get these bite windows that are, that are just so spicy and for anyone who's fished for the last month or so, they know exactly what I'm talking about where it's like all of a sudden you're seeing fish not just hitting streamers every other cast, but they're rising everywhere. And, and you know, I'm, I'm having to make the call and, and have the discussion of.All right, well, like I'm going to have to row us out, like we're going to be late and, but we're going to sit here and, and you know, hound fish on dry pods for a little bit. So that's, that has been the case.I think that, that the emphasized these, these bite windows with exclamation points are, have a little bit to do with that barometer and these, these really powerful storms that come through that don't really last all that long. But you know, same deal, yellow bugs most of the time and anything from a 16 to 22. I, I kind of err on the smaller side of things.And then streamer fishing, it's, it's been, it's been pretty consistent and I, I have had a few converts from the. Let's reliably get Some eats on flies that have a little bit of weight to. I will admit to some manipulation on my end.Just getting people to step out of the comfort zone and fish a drunk and fish a swim bug and fish these flies that are closer to the surface, closer to the boat in open water and watch a brown come hit it from below right in the belly and look back at me and say, oh my God, you were right. And so there's, I don't know this, the whole thing is. And we've, we've talked this to death, I think probably before and during podcast.But the whole thing is streamer fishing in general is kind of a little bit of a journey and it just depends on which path you want to take.But I can summarize that and say most paths have been leading to good sized brown trout eating flies and occasionally, depending on the hook set, they end up in the net. So it's been a good last few weeks and been sneaking in a little messy fishing too.Upper French Broad has been hovering in the upper 60s in the morning. So kind of looking, looking towards that.September, October, November and, and then just massing every opportunity I can get, which is it has, it's been productive. Kind of led to the development of a new little mouse pattern. But maybe we'll talk about that next time.

Marvin Cash00:05:30

Yeah, we'll save that for next time. I do have one fishing question for you though.So like with the rain that you're getting, say fishing downstream before the doe comes into the Watauga, are you getting like a really nice kind of like muddy plume coming out of the doe that's good for streamer fishing.

Ellis Ward00:05:44

Yeah. So this is, we are jumping into like hyper local in terms of both what I'm about to talk about and also specifically the rainfall.We can get dumped on where the little ag creeks are putting out color that, let's say I'm passing like the lower end or like I'm picking someone up on the, on the lower end and it's, you know, it's off, it's, it's pretty colored up and we're doing a big run. Go up above the dough. We come by the dough and it's low and clear. And so other times it's the opposite.The little ant creeks, the little streams that are around here are, are, are clear and the dough is just shoe scene. And it's, it's that fully frothed latte brown that I love for both for streamer fishing, for browns and, and for the prospect of catching stripers.I don't like it for mousing. So it's. I just. I want my. To have my cake in here too. But yeah, Short answer is yes. There's been. There's.There continues to be a good amount of color in the water, so the browns respond positively to that.

Marvin Cash00:07:16

Well, there you go. Well, we've got a question from Rodrigo and he. He listens to a lot of our stuff and he wanted to have you explain how you grade your bucktails.

Ellis Ward00:07:28

Yeah. So this has been like everything else that there's been sort of an evolution in the process. And the short answer is how rude of me.The short answer is there are five grades. Grade 5 is all. All of the tails are. I had someone ask if, you know, if there should be some sort of laundering. Like if some like they should.They wash it when they get it. I was like, dude, these tails are clean enough to eat off of when you get them. And I brush them out so they're. They're fun to tie.Like, they're easy to tie with. And so what you get with the grade five is something that is slightly cheaper, a lower price point than the.The, you know, the large distributors and is. Is in the like 3.5 inch range. I have so many tails that I don't actually price for sale, um, just because they're a little wimpy.So the grade fives are like reliably A, you know, 3, 3.5 inch, not that big tail, but, you know, you're not getting junk.Grand four is it basically selected as something that's, you know, 80, 20, most of the time gonna be better than what you're gonna get in the shop or online or whatever for the same price, you know, 3.5 to 4 inch fibers and people throw around numbers like 5 and 6 inches. That's if you've seen a tail with 6 inch fiber. With lots of 6 inch fibers that aren't just outliers, they look insane. The grade threes are.I think that's kind of the sweet spot where you can be tying really big flies. And they're, you know, they got the. The four to four and a half, maybe with some outliers that are longer. They're pretty full.The, the grade two, it is a really big tale with long fibers. And at that point, it's like I'm pricing them at 25 bucks for a reason.If the supply and demand curve actually existed for bucktail and the tails you normally see sell for, you know, 15, 16, 17 bucks. The grade twos on that supply demand curve would be like $200 or more. I mean, it's just that. So there aren't that many of those.The grade ones are the, the ones that you just don't see and they're very big. And so those I, I tend to have, you know, that that might represent somewhere between 1 and 5% of a given batch. And. Yeah, I'll stop there.

Marvin Cash00:11:05

Well, there you go. Well, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email 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, which will probably include a butcher shop sticker or two. We are drawing for some cool stuff from Alice at the end of the season. And I would say too, you know, remember that we host our community on Patreon.And one of the perks of joining that community at various tiers, one of the benefits is you get a discount on Ellis's bucktail. So if Ellis's description has you salivating and you want to tie some predator flies or jigs or whatever, check it out and you can.It's a win, win for everybody.And Ellis, before I let you hop this evening, you want to let folks know where they can find you to talk about bucktails, fishing, get in the boat, all that kind of good stuff.

Ellis Ward00:11:52

Sure. Best way to do that is just reach out to me directly at 513-543-0019.Website is elliswardflies.com and you can find me on Instagram at Ellis Wardguides.

Marvin Cash00:12:13

Well, there you go. As I always say, folks, this time of year, first of all, stay cool, but show it to yourself to get out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody.Tight lines, Ellis.

Ellis Ward00:12:22

Appreciate it, Mark.