Watauga caddis riffles

Started by troutphisher, September 30, 2007, 22:10:52 PM

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troutphisher

I fished the Watauga river today. I fished the area known as the caddis riffles.
I started the day at 7:00am, and found the campground closed and posted.
I looked around the area and through some creative maneuvering found an entry point to the stream. I have never fished this river before, but it was a 2 hour drive to get there, and I wasn't about to give up.

I found a place to park my car, and I headed for the river. When I got on the water, I looked under the rocks to see what bugs were in the area. The rocks were covered in cased caddis, and I could see small light colored caddis coming off.

I fished in front of the campground in some small riffles and fished a size 16 tan caddis emerger dead drift. I soon had some nice size rainbows and a couple of small brook trout. It was strange to see brook trout in tail waters. They are obviously stocked fish. The rainbows were very colorful and fought hard. most of the rainbows were in the 10-12" range but they were plentiful.

I moved down stream to the caddis riffles, this is a long slow stretch of water with several riffles breaking up the long slow runs.

I stayed with the caddis emerger and was soon into lots of rainbows. These fish were larger, most were 14"-16" range with deep coloring. I could see fish rise everywhere. The water was crystal clear and I could see fish holding in the runs and seams near the bank.

Around 3:00pm a good caddis hatch was on and fish were rising for them, so I switched flies to a #18 cinnamon caddis and had lots of fun catching rainbows.
I was the only person wading this section and basically had the place to myself.
The only other fisherman were floating through, and they didn't really get started until after noon. Then they just floated by.

I caught several nice browns on the dry, and their colors were deep gold with white tipped fins, really nice looking fish.

The caddis emerger and dry were the flies that produced the most fish. I tried a couple different flies just to see if they would take them. I had a couple fish on a red zebra midge size 16 and about a dozen fish on a size 18 ptn, but went back to the caddis emerger.

I was surprised to see how pretty the stream was in this area. Cliff banks, deep green waters fading to shades of browns and gold in the shallows. Lots of fish to be seen and caught.

I am glad I finally got a chance to fish this water. It was worth the effort to get there.

Here are a few pics of the day.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Gofisher

Nice report and pics. The fins on that brown are stunning! Glad you got to fish that area of the river.  0--0
Yankee by birth, Rebel by choice.

brownhunter

Great post once again, TP!! The pics are outstanding as usual.
"Why, he wondered, did rich people call it sushi while poor people called it bait?"   -- Same Kind of Different as Me

Woolly Bugger

well it beats the heck out of my Sunday, filing chess reports, updating websites and driving kids all over town...

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

walt

Quote from: troutphisher on September 30, 2007, 22:10:52 PM
I fished the Watauga river today. I fished the area known as the caddis riffles.
.......

glad ya had a good time tp... yup, good time.

wally, hope yer ready fer the spit  0--0
"All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain."
— Cormac McCarthy