Comparing Two Tailraces the Sipsey Verses the Caney

Before my wife and I moved to Spring Hill Tennessee this year 99% of all my trout fishing was on the Sipsey Tailrace below Smith Lake Dam in Jasper Alabama. The Sip as the locals called it was not the place that sparked my interest in trout fishing, but it was the place that taught me many of the variables that go into learning the sport. I had spent the past twelve years fishing the only tailrace in Alabama before we moved. I will miss this narrow tailrace, super clear water, unique runs, small pockets holes, tight seams, and dry fly action. In other words, trout was easy to find and catch, if you knew the fly patterns that brought success; I did! Come Spring I will apply what I learned over the years on the Sipsey to the tailrace on the Caney, located a little over an hour east of our house towards Knoxville. The Caney can be a challenge to fish, mainly because of the tremendous fishing pressure it receives throughout the year. I will need to adjust to a wider tailrace, much more water to read, fishing tiny nymphs as opposed to dries, different feeding patterns of the trout, and most of all learning the areas where the trout hold. I knew exactly where those places were on the Sipsey and in time will find those places on the Caney. 

I still remember the first trip I made to the Caney with my son-in-law right after he and my daughter got married twelve years ago. That was the first time I had fished for trout using the fly rod. The trip was memorable not for the number of trout landed that day but for the challenge. I spent most of the afternoon learning how to get the correct drift, fly presentation, reading the water, bug hatches, feeding patterns and through it all landing a few stocker browns and rainbows. I was really intrigued by all the factors that had to come into play to land a few colorful trout. I still remember that first rainbow landed that day, and admiring its brilliant colors. The drift, presentation, fly pattern, playing the trout once hooked, all had to come into play for me to hold that beauty for a few seconds before its release. That one trip convinced me that I would spend the rest of my fishing days fly fishing.

An area of the Caney near the dam, where most of the wading takes place; the Caney is much wider and longer than the Sipsey. I made two trips there while we were living with our daughter, one in August with my son-in-law and this one the last of September.

Fun on the 3 wt. ----landed a few more stockers fishing between a lot of other guys that morning. I have some work to do on this tailrace!!