Soho Suckage

[Jfey]

I spent the weekend on the S Holston and quite simply, the fishing sucked.  The consensus was that the TVA had been generating so much lately it had the fish down.  Whatever it was, they were not eating.   We fished some prime runs on low water with little to no success.   Saw some pretty hefty bwo hatches on high water with no fish rising.   In talking to some guides they were having some marginal success nymphing off the bottom with big thingamobbers while drifitng.   I wouldn't succumb to that nonsense, so I threw streamers and sinking lines with marginal success.  I was able to squeek out a few fish here and there, but nothing overly exciting.   The midge/nymph guys I fished with got pretty much shut out.   I did catch a few on top late Saturday on falling water which helped some. 

I was pretty pissy about the suckness of the fishing, but came around eventually with the help of some good drinking and some howling.

Drive in started foggy, then got sunny which prompted a few road pops





Arrived to find perfect blue wing weather and expectations were high


Ready to float






Picked up one right after the launch which I guess was an omen


saw a bug and took a blurry pic of it


From this point forward the beers greatly out paced the fish




This was probably the best fish of the weekend


a bunch of little fish like this were hungry for streamers.  Repeated this picture several times over the weekend



I drowned my sorrow in some  brown liquor


and tied some flies


Next day we were up an on the water at sunrise. 


a few pune rainbows were caught which we sacrificed


after this awesome sausage, egg and cheese sandwich were back on the water.  It was cold



This helped


and a few more fish were caught



We called the float early and saw some classic Holston sites


Dinner was questionable





desert was good


back at it in the AM for a good ole skunking


Weather was looking good for the final float of the weekend, but it was more of the same



more of the same



Caught this one  of a dry


and watched the sun set of the weekend


Dinner Saturday was good (deer tenderloin)


followed by some good beers and the rest of the Woodford




I got out of Dodge early Sunday and stopped to say hi to the NC Mts


Came home to find that everything was safe thanks to some watchful eyes

[benben reincarnated]

That shit fucking sucks Jeff.

[Big J]

Good report.  Does the guy who owns the Hog Island from NC and musky fish in Virginia on occasion? 

[Dougfish]

I see a re-occurring theme to your reports, el Jfey.  y;

See you in 10 days. Hope you recover by then. 

[sanjuanwormhatch]

That looks about like every trip I go on.  Good work.

[billythreetimes]

I'm into this. I'm also into Hop Drop 'n Roll. Strong work, esse.

[Jfey]

Good report.  Does the guy who owns the Hog Island from NC and musky fish in Virginia on occasion?

Not him.  Sweet boat though

[Big J]

Good report.  Does the guy who owns the Hog Island from NC and musky fish in Virginia on occasion?

Not him.  Sweet boat though

Ran into a nice dude who looked a little like your friend down on the New back in February.  He stuck a musky right after we finished talking to them 

Good report again and at least you got out even if the trout were lacking. Kudos for stinking with streamers over bobbers too.

[raz]

hey jeph, quit your bitchen. i havent been out since early Jan.  nice reportage.  those dink browns sure love a streamer eh?

[bmadd]

I'd take that trip right now. The drinking looks worth it alone.

[Woolly Bugger]

I guess the TroutPro snagged all the big uns....


looks like a (cold) blast!

[Transylwader]

Soho...there's your problem...

[bullship]

what the fuck?

[driver]

Soho...there's your problem...

agreed...

[Jfey]

Soho...there's your problem...

agreed...

I understand.  It's a little to challenging for a lot of people