S7, Ep 71: Late Summer Shifts: Fishing Tactics and Conditions in East Tennessee with Ellis Ward

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?

I'm doing well, Marv, how are you?

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And we were comparing notes before we started recording and we're, I don't know, three, three and a half hours apart drive time wise.But you guys haven't gotten quite as much rain on your side of the mountains as we have.

Yeah, I feel like every other conversation that we've had this summer has been me talking about the rain we've gotten and then the last couple weeks, let's see, two days ago, two or three days ago was, wow, I'm in a time warp. Yesterday was the lowest I have rode the Watauga not generating in the Del river was comfortably in, you know, under a hundred.And you just look at the, the USGS gauge on that and it's, it's been going up to, you know, 3, 400 and sitting there for a day or two and then coming down to, you know, 180, 150. And those numbers are.Normally you'll still see it peak up to, you know, four or five hundred maybe with, with big reins, but it's, it drops down quick to a hundred, still feels healthy and, and you know, 60, 70 is real skinny, but it, it finds its way there. So still haven't seen that, but feel like we've been approaching it in the last few weeks and then been getting a little more rain.Got, got hit today while we were out.And it looks, you know, based on generation schedules with, with both rivers running more than half the day, which without a good amount of rain, the Wataga just does the five hours, one to six, six days a week and the South Holston somewhat variable, but it's, it's been, it's been pushing a little more water this summer than last year for sure. But all of a sudden looks like the next. We only get three days of forecast.But you know, looking like these healthy flows are continuing, which as we had discussed, might be compensating for some upcoming precipitation. But we have not gotten what you guys got. We didn't get the, you know, the 2 to 3 inches certainly did not find its way here.

Yeah. And even though, you know, you don't expect like sulfur to be off the hook at this time of year.You were telling me that the streamer bite's been good, but the dry fly bite's been unusually off.

Yeah, I think I like to tell myself that it's unusual every this time of year. But I, I pick up rocks whenever I can as much as I, I don't nymph much from the, the moving boat. It's. That's what I started out doing in fly fishing.I still like to teach it. And they're in low water. There's a lot of, a lot of juicy little cuts on the Watauga. But just picking up those rocks, it's. It.Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but you do that in, you know, February, March. It's stuff just falling, you know, these 14s, 16s, 18s falling off stone flies.And now it's, you know, there's a 32 sneaking around and, and all the Cattus are really small. There's, there's, you know, the rocks are jam packed with caddis, but they're the, they're babies growing big for next year.So I, I always anticipate. I'm a little spoiled being on. On two tail waters. I always anticipate some bluing activity on, on overcast and sort of flat barometer days.But you know, the big, the big push of yellow bugs for sure on both rivers is over. And um, you know, there's, there's still reliable bug activity here and there.It's just starting to get into the downsizing season and, and then we'll get, you know, we'll, we'll talk in another couple weeks and there's going to be some different activity. But August, August can start to feel a little grindy.Thankfully we have water and have been moving and sticking some really nice fish and shout out to Hunter who probably won't listen to this, but Client who's just been a regular on the boat and as you know, as anyone who has fished with me knows, you got to do a lot of different stuff and you have to do it all together and you have to do it well and, and then you have to do it on a repeated basis.And that changes from frog water to fast water to this to that and, and we adjust as conditions change and the day wears on or you know, we're exploring one thing or another. And yeah, he just, he had, he had good conditions and that, that frog water, that slack water is just, it's 100% on you.You don't making your fly look like it's moving fast. So fishing a big drunk and just force this big fish out. I think I had moved that one maybe two weeks ago.So I was, I'm not going to call it, I'M not going to sit here and say, oh, there, you know, there's a fish. Because if I did that all day it would start to be boy who cries wolf.But man, he just had a cast in a great spot, stuck them and one about 26 and a half, just under 26 and a half inches. So had just consistently having some good, good run ins with that class of fish.So there's, you know, we're not taking breaks as often to, to hit risers, but we do have that.

Yeah. And you still got some kind of post Helene stain in the water and you got mousing too, right?

Yeah, yeah, all good things.And mousing will, you know, as discussed last time, it's sun going down a little earlier each day, so we have more time for mousing and less food moving through the system. So, yeah, fishing's been good and there's so many. I, I always like that.I sort of laugh at myself thinking that it could just start sleeping right now and I, I would, I could quickly come up with three or four different reasons why the bite's going to turn on. But yeah, there's. Every season there's some good stuff to be excited for. You know, November, December and maybe start in October.I'm going to be starting to push towards muskie and I might already throw that out there, but mousey muskie on the horizon. Streamer bites high right now. Still have some of that stain. Got a tropical storm system brewing south of us, so not a bad place to be.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's kind of funny too. I was looking at an article and at our latitude, we're going to lose 50 minutes of daylight this month.

We may have been hit with the same algorithm, but yeah, it happens fast end of July or sorry, end of June happens fast and all of a sudden July's over and you know, August doesn't.I hate to be the, the school teacher or parent that I just despised when I was a kid, but you, you start to get the feeling, you know, 4:00pm that the, the light outside in the late afternoon is, it doesn't look the same as it did a month ago. So nothing is, there's too many metaphors in fishing.But yeah, it's, things are different today than they were yesterday and they're going to be different tomorrow.

And you should have been here yesterday.

You should have seen them. Oh man, they were eating yesterday.

Well, you know, folks, we love, we love questions on the articulate fly. You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever is easiest for you. And if we use your question, I'll send you some stickers.We are in a drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season.And Ellis, you know, you already teased teasing muskie, but you want to talk about how to get on the boat, how to get questions answered, any kind of bucktail alerts, anything good like that. You want to just share all that good stuff with folks?

Yeah. So the best way to contact me about fishing in general is my cell phone at 513-543-0019. Muskie fishing is.

We're.

We're closing in on time to book and already have some dates on the calendar. So I'm appreciative for that streamer fishing and mousing. I mean, I really want folks to.To be getting in here before fish start spawning in November, which, sure, I get that seems like a long way away. It's not, man. And all of a sudden that. That leads us right into bucktail. So I am still. I'm staring at a bunch now. They're gonna be.They're gonna be back into some shops that just sort of taper off with the. The tine material especially for. For bucktail throughout the summer.But some restocks at a few different places coming up, and there's still a good number available on ellisward flies.com and yeah, book your trip and make sure it was for today between like 10:00am and noon.

Well, there you go. Well, folks, as always, say, owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines, everybody. Tight lines. Ellis.

Appreciate it, Marvin.