S7, Ep 87: Navigating the Waters: Ellis Ward's Tips for Fall Fishing and Boat Etiquette

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Ellis Ward - East Tennessee Guide at Ellis Ward Guide Service (Johnson City, Tennessee)

In this episode: East Tennessee guide Ellis Ward shares fall mousing strategies and essential drift boat etiquette for responsible boating on crowded rivers. Topics include reading agricultural harvest cycles for mousing windows, drift boat communication protocols and upcoming musky season opportunities.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Reading harvest schedules for mousing opportunities
• Mousing presentation and strip-set timing
• Drift boat etiquette and communication
• Boat ramp protocols and courtesy
• Anchoring strategies to avoid conflicts

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

Target species: Brown trout (mousing), musky

Equipment discussed: Mouse patterns, bucktails, drift boats, Subarus (vehicular maintenance humor)

Key questions answered:

• How to be responsible with drift boat etiquette
• When is the best time for mousing in fall
• How to avoid conflicts with other boaters on the river
• What makes fall mousing so productive
• How to communicate effectively on crowded waters

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in mouse fishing tactics, drift boat owners seeking river etiquette guidance and guides looking to improve on-water communication

Marvin Cash00:00:04

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 Ward00:00:12

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

Marvin Cash00:00:13

As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And I think before we get to the fishing, we should extol the virtues of vehicular maintenance.

Ellis Ward00:00:23

Yes. I am sitting in my vehicle waiting, tires, Waiting on tires to be put on and looking through a cracked windshield.So, I mean, I have 120, 118,000 miles on this car. I drive a Subaru and treat it like a pickup truck and have done really wild things.My both drift boat and jet boat are aluminum, so I get pretty sporty with the definition of boat ramps and put ins and, you know, like the muskies aren't going to catch themselves and some of these rivers don't have great put ins. So you got to do what you got to do.

Marvin Cash00:01:11

Yeah. And so.

Ellis Ward00:01:12

Yeah, so.

Marvin Cash00:01:12

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Ellis Ward00:01:14

Spot costs can be high.

Marvin Cash00:01:17

Yeah. So to, so to basically clue people in, give them the year on your Subaru so they know how many miles you've been racking up.

Ellis Ward00:01:23

20. 20.

Marvin Cash00:01:24

There you go. And we know that 6,000 mile oil changes are aspirational, correct?

Ellis Ward00:01:31

Aspirational. That's a great way. Ideal. We don't live in the ideal. We work towards progress and we don't expect perfection.

Marvin Cash00:01:39

Yes. You're a pragmatic realist.

Ellis Ward00:01:42

That's right.

Marvin Cash00:01:43

Yeah.So on the waterfront, you were telling me that the critters are just going nuts right now because it's actually kind of a little bit unseasonably warm in the southeast.

Ellis Ward00:01:53

Yeah, it makes things a little more comfortable for us. Honestly.I, I had some folks last week that were here two or three weeks prior and they had both come with layers because the last time they were here it was, it got chilly and you know, they, one of them was taking the jacket off after about an hour because they were anticipating it being cold. But it's, it's been staying in the, you know, 60s at night.We had a little, it got chilly for a couple nights, but yeah, it's been staying warm at night. Honestly, you're, you're on a tail water with very cold water and, and it is getting down to, you know, in the 60s.So it's, it's wearing jackets and, and jeans regardless. But yeah, the, the mousing activity has been really good in the last few weeks.Whether or not it's, you know, a little free tip for anyone curious and listening and with the availability to drive by fields and have the farmer schedule. You get variations from a harvest. Right.If you have a river near cornfield or just a big field of grass, when they chop it down and bail it up, those. Everything in there has nowhere to go and everything that's prey needs to find its shelter.And so until it gets really, really cold, which here is also, there's some asterisks around there because it doesn't get or stay that cold. And until that does happen, though, there's, you know, you have, you have the implications of those things.You have the implications of water clarity and flows and whether or not the moon is bright and. And then it's just everything lines up and you go out and. And you're fishing and it's. You are beholden to buy windows. It's.At the end of the day you can have, you can have all this movement. You can have everything's lined up perfectly and mousing really is.I compare it to muskie fishing often, and I think one of the reasons is because you just have to go out and do it and you really can't have too many expectations.And then when it happens, it would benefit everyone for you to hold it together and instead of ripping your rod out of the water, let them eat for a second and then strip set firmly. Um, but like, is it, is it seasonal? Is this the hot time? Yeah, we got bugs going out of the system. Everything's hatched. There's some fall activity.It's. I've had some really buggy nights or some buggy evenings recently, but mouse, mouse has been very active.And honestly, I'm starting to go out on just, just two days ago, we're almost towards a full moon and.

Marvin Cash00:05:45

We.

Ellis Ward00:05:46

Were getting chewed apart up until almost the moon apex. I mean, that thing was. We could have been catching a suntan and we're still getting eats from good fish. So it's. It's been a good, good fall so far.

Marvin Cash00:06:02

Very cool. And got a question for you from Adam Talley. He's a new drift boat owner and he wants to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.And wanted to kind of get your thoughts on kind of the do's and don'ts. And I think he actually thinks the don'ts are probably more important than the do's, you know, for.You know, how to be responsible when you're on the stick so that you don't inadvertently piss people off and ruin their day on the water.

Ellis Ward00:06:23

Yeah, I, I operate, I think under two Major schools of thought, one of which is I care very little about what other people do as it relates to fishing.You know, if, if we're over a pot of risers and, and they're being pretty active, I've seen, I've seen a kayaker just come by and waving, smiling, totally clueless, just putting his paddle into fishing spaces and you just wait by, send it back.And so if I weren't me, right, if I were someone else, maybe if I were many other boats that are on the rivers regularly, that would be a big problem.And so oftentimes when you're coming around a bend or coming up on a pool and you see someone anchored up, you can tell very clearly where they're fishing. And I mean, this is. We got metaphors from fishing and rowing for life all over the place. Communicate like, there's no, you don't have to be cool.You don't have to be. This is the right thing to do and I know it. This is what everyone does. I have to do it this way.If you're rolling up on someone and you feel a little uncomfortable with what's going on, yell, hey, buddy, I'm about to come behind you. Is that cool? Or which way do you want me to go? If you're pushing past you mind if I push past you?I don't want to be leapfrogging you or I don't want to play leapfrog. You know, you go past someone and then you anchor up and they go pass by you and banker up.So a lot of the times I, I prefer to fish both personally and with clients in, in our own space, in solitude. So we're not sharing flats with people. We're not sharing holes with people. Really. With my start times, we don't see many other boats.And so when I do encounter that, or there is one instance of leapfrog, I'm going to say something and I'm going to be very clear with the other guide that I'm the one who is going to. I'm giving you space, I'm going to push forward. Does that work? I'm going to give you this flat. We're just going to keep moving forward.Does that work for you? And it's 50, 50. A lot of times you're just like, oh, dude, we're about to pull out. Or I, I was actually going to do that for you.You know, we're taking out down here at 2. What time are you taking out? Everyone wants the same thing. So no one wants to have you Know any. No one wants to be crowded.No one wants to get spots blown or whatever. And, and ultimately just the more in front of, you know, communication and, and like that's, that's really the etiquette there. I would say.You are going to be in time, you know, situations where it isn't necessarily possible to, to have that type of communication.So for example, someone is anchored pretty close to the bottom of rapid, and it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for you to be going down that rapid, going down a chute since they're there. Sure, that might be rude. I mean, look, are we all in a hurry? Wait, wait 10 or 15 minutes. That's pretty egregious.They should know that someone's up there and they shouldn't be anchored there. But like, that's a good. Don't, don't go down a chute and anchor and just hit that first zone, certainly without looking behind you.But also definitely don't do that without pulling off to the side and really making sure that someone can go through where you are. And then if you are anchored up in a situation like that, just expect that you're going to get. Now you're going to get run through.The other one's going to be boat ramps, which I dislike as, as a rule because I like to take my time in fishing. So boat ramps are like you. Once you're on the ramp, it's go time and you're gonna have people coming up.I honestly, I prefer a lot of the times when if I'm. If I'm there about to put in and someone's approaching, I know they've been on the water for eight hours.And sure, I'm excited to get on the water or whatever. I ask them, do you want me to pull up so you can take out again? It's 50, 50, maybe more often the case, people say, oh, dude, don't worry about it.Just, you know, put in personal preference just to not be rushed in that front.But yeah, it's really just communication and, you know, certain degree of acknowledgment that none of us, as much as we all do it and how frequently we do it, there's not like rules that you need to follow outside of being considerate and asking. If you're unsure at all, you just ask.

Marvin Cash00:12:00

Yeah, and I would say on the boat ramp thing too, if the ramp is busy, get your boat ready before you drop it to your point. Because, I mean, you need to kind of drop your boat, get it out of the way and move your trailer so other people can do the exact same thing.

Ellis Ward00:12:13

Yeah, it's, it really is. Get down to the bottom of the ramp, slide the boat off, pull up, have your client hold it, have your buddy hold the boat and then you're gone.So getting all your stuff together and, and boat prepped up and taking your time and shooting the breeze as they might say that that all happens in the parking lot.

Marvin Cash00:12:41

Well, there you go. Well folks, you know 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'll send you some articulate fly swag. And when you're in a drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season and Ellis, you know you got a lot of stuff going on, right.Gun season is coming in across the southeast. Means bucktails, you got dates, we're talking muskie, all kinds of good stuff.You want to let folks know kind of where to find you to get on the boat. Talk about fly tying, buy bucktails and all that kind of good stuff.

Ellis Ward00:13:09

Yeah, I forgot that I had so much work to do. Elliswardflies.com is going to be the place where you can get bucktail from me directly. I will have bucktail in stores at a couple shops.We'll, we'll wait to give the green light on announcing where those are specifically.I, I think at this point I have enough of a reputation for sure my customers and all of the word of mouth business for the bucktail for people understand what they get and to the extent that that isn't the case, which is still, you know, it's really important to go put your hands on materials.I think having a few shops around the east coast will be creating again that's ellisforge flies.com and you can also find information there and my cell phone number there which is 513-543-0019. Use the website, use calling me, texting me any questions you might have about trips and mousie and muskie definitely right now.And then I already, I got a couple weekend dates booked up in January. This is the time of year to.

Marvin Cash00:14:46

Start.

Ellis Ward00:14:48

Thinking about getting those January February dates booked.That's two handing seven inch crapper changers and having a pretty darn good chance of watching something over two feet try to blow it through the surface of the water. Time. I think that's all for now.

Marvin Cash00:15:10

Well, there you go. Well folks as always say yo to yourself to get out there. And catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Ellis.

Ellis Ward00:15:17

Appreciate it, Marv.