A Work in Progress Using The Bomber Dry Pattern

This post is dedicated to rest of the summer and into the fall fishing. I am referring to the tailrace fishing below Smith Lake. For the rest of the summer and late September I will be trout fishing the tailrace below Smith Lake. I will forgo the lake fishing until fall. The lake this time of year is extremely slow due to the tremendous generation and extreme heat and humidity. One can just take a look at the parking lots on the lake and figure out right quick that there is very little action.

The tailrace fishing will give me a chance to hone my skills for trout and at the same time learn more about some of the different areas on the Sipsey. I am going to devote more time to fishing the extremely slow water below the pump station where bigger rainbow have been spotted. Those trout are extremely weary and harder to land due the constant pressure in that part of the tailrace. Streamers are the choice of flies there and it will present a challenge for me to fish this pattern because I seldom ever fish a streamer. My trip Tuesday proved to be another work in progress as the images below will show.

I arrived with the usual fog and mist on the surface due to the tremendous amount of humidity in the air meeting the cool water surface of the tailrace--really a peaceful view early

My first rainbow of the morning using Alan's Bomber, I am sooooo impressed with this pattern

One of many log jams in the fog one has to encounter while either wading or walking the banks. Some of the larger rainbow hang out right below this structure. A dry works best in and around these logs because you can't get much of drift here with a nymph.

This flower is native to this area, I don't know what it is called but I wanted to see if I could get a good image in the flower mode---better than I expected

The Bomber comes through right before I called it quits. I never landed a fish all morning on nymphs.

Drift wood everywhere in this place--did you guys know people pay big bucks for a chuck of wood like this?

Looking up hill from down below only a few feet from the cool waters edge. Once you descend down into the gorge the temps drop 15 degrees. This is what makes coming to place really nice especially in the hot humid days of August.

Tailrace Fishing can Really be a Challenge

Fishing trips for me is always a learning experience, especially if the trip doesn’t turn out the way I imagined before I leave the house. The tailrace today was the ultimate learning experience. I left the house with the intention of using a variation of the Mayfly patterns; all reports indicated on the Sipsey Forum that the Mayfly was the success fly. After arriving at the waters edge with a guy from Huntsville tagging along beside me, I made it to my first honey hole, where he moved on up the tailrace about 100 ft. to another great hole that I was going to try if my first choice didn’t work out. ( so much for fishing along this morning) I decided before I ever made a cast that my dry pattern wasn’t going to be successful, no rises. In fact it was kind of strange in that there was absolutely no surface action at all. So being the optimist I made my first cast and as the fly landed in a fairly fast run I thought I just had to get a take on this cast because the drift was so perfect. Just goes to show perfect cast and excellent drifts don’t always produce. I finally gave up on a variety of dries after realizing I was wasting valuable time with a limited amount of shade fading fast. I didn’t move although I wanted to go up and try a couple more holes before the sun got them, but I knew the trout were here. I switched to my go to nymph which was the Zebra Midge using an indicator on a 5X tippet. I made a couple of cast with no success, and decided to move the indictor up on the leader about 10” to get a little more depth on my midge. I proceeded with another cast and finally got the drift I was looking for and ever so slightly the indicator moved and my first bow of the day was netted. I have to say the trout made its presence known on the 3 wt. I continued to make cast after cast with no more success, so I moved on up to one of my holes near the dam. As I approached the area I was going to fish I notice there was still no rises at all in fact as I walked the bank up to the hole I saw no activity. I continue with the Midge pattern and on the second cast I set the hook on another nice rainbow that went straight down stream. I landed the trout by bringing it to the shore and not using my net, because it was easier and quicker going to the shore as opposed to the net. I can’t explain why the bite was over after this fish but it was like someone turned out the lights and everyone went to bed. Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of fish to satisfy and today was the case. Just being here was a plus and today’s trip will continue to make me come back here time and again because I want to keep learning about this great sport? 

The Zebra Midge did the trick with this nice rainbow