back at it again with bonus floaty bote trip...

[Woolly Bugger]

Trying to get some use out of my annual Tennessee license I headed over to the SoHo. On the road around 5 I parked riverside at 7:30 and was on the water shortly after.



Not much activity visible so I stuck with a splitback / midge combo and caught a few on each.  Then the morning pulse arrived and sulfurs began to pop off, not in huge numbers but fish were keying in on them and I switch to a dry. I soaked the elk hair comparadun in my DIY flyarga https://michaelgracie.com/2014/08/not-so-secret-fly-floatant-formula/ dried it and then powdered it up for a high ride. I caught a couple as the water was continuing to rise, they stopped as the flow increased and I moved down into the slower water where more trout began to rise.








There was one rise in particular that looked interesting, but it was a long way off and on the other side of a submerged tree. It looked like a bigger trout than the others, so I figured I would give it a shot. I figured the trout would go under the tree and break off the 6.5x in a second . The cast was perfect and the fish rose and I set the hook prepared for the disaster which I was sure would follow, but the brown trout leap out of the water and landed on the near side of the submerged disaster. It leaped again and fought hard, he came to net without too much worry and sporting a kype too!







I continued to whack fish on the surface and broke off a couple of better fish on the 6.5x. I was running low on flies so I upped the tippet to 5.5 and continued to catch fish for a while longer but as the pulse subsided the fish activity decreased and I went back to nymphing for a while before my phone started buzzing. Kyle text me that there was an open seat and they were on the way.







With the damn dam opening up at one, I reeled in and headed off to grab a burger at the Hickory Tree Grocery before heading up to the boat ramp. There was some confusion and Kyle had to double back and get the boat anchor, we were about the last of a dozen or more boats to put in. 

By the time we got on the water the day had heated up and the sun was baking us. Hardly felt like fall was just a couple of days away. We moved some fish and caught a few too. I was good to see Kyle and Scott (Maniac) and Lewis again, and meet Susan Jones Hinson too.







Only boat fish photo.. my bad

[Dougfish]

Pretty sweet day, boss.

[Phil]

Sweet. Hey Kyle!

[itieuglyflies]

Good stuff Woolly.
Worth the drive for sure. It's 5 1/2 hours for me, so see how lucky you are! That being said I have fished it 12 times this spring/summer and plan to return very soon.