Watauga 8-23-09

[Woolly Bugger]

headed west 

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went to a place where I had caught some bigger fish and attempted to "see" the fish in the water, but that wasn't happening. so I pounded the deep fast runs with lead and hopped for the best. Great looking water with lots of potential. But I only caught three bows in about as many hours.

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Went to the ballpark and piddled around there in the faster water and caught three more. The were a little smaller. The I headed up to a third spot and began to catch more fish.

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Here I could see the fish flash on the nymphs and if I was quick enough I hooked them. It wasn't easy with about 5 feet of leader submerged in the run with double BB shot attached. I hooked several dozen and got about a 14 to hand. I was catching  them fairly regularly and most were 12 to 14 inches but I bigger on ran across the river like a submarine and managed to break off my rig just above the split shot. Now when  went to tie on some more tippet I realized that it must have fallen out of my pocket and still be in the back of the van.

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I thought about hiking back to the car, but decieded to use what 5x that was still left attached to the leader. No extra to tie on a dropper and the catchin really slowed down. A father and son team from Knoxville joined me and fished the next run below. I hear some shouts form above and turned to see a john boat coming down, somehow it managed to negotiate the rapids and they two fishermen soon paddled out of sight. A short time latter more shouting and this time I saw a canoe with a couple of guys sitting up high in clip on "fisherman" seats.. Well they got hung up on the rocks and before you could blink the stern got caught in the current and whipped the canoe around. They attempted to spin off the rock but the stern got hung up on another rock. They couldn't maintain there balance and the upstream gunnel dipped into the current. The flooded canoe was pinned on the rocks and the fishermen were dumped into the 48 degree water. I put my rod up on shore and waded back to help them get it off. They were luck it didn't get wrapped around the rocks. We pulled the boat to shore and they retrieved their equipment from the bottom of the run. They were shivering pretty bad buy the time they got everything back in the boat and continued on down the river.

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[jwgnc]

Good lookin fish.  I haven't fished the Watauga in a few years, although I took a quick look few weeks ago.  Sounds like a good alternative after the water comes up on the SoHo in the afternoons.

[CR]

Nice report, pics and fish, glad the boaters made it out ok.

[dossphoto]

Nice fish...the watauga has always been on the list, haven't made it out there yet!

[WoodrowCall]

Nice trip, that's good karma helping out those boaters. I'm definitely gonna have to make it to the Watauga one of these days.

[NCangler]

Could you give me any idea where on the Watagua you were fishing? NC or TN? I usually don't have good luck with trout this time of year Valle Crucis or downstream area. Don't have to be precise or anything. Thanks in advance.

[Woolly Bugger]

NC angler.... that is the tailwater in TN!