Fishing The Soft Hackle During a Feeding Frenzy

A quick Saturday morning trip to the Sipsey proved to be productive using the soft hackle. I was not in any big hurry to get on the tailrace this Saturday, because the humidity and fog were heavy. I forgot to mention the crowds. Generators were scheduled to be running at 1 PM so the 2 hours I had needed to be spent wisely. My plan was to spend all my time in two areas right above the pump station. Both spots always have trout and today were no exception. As usual, the trout were in a subsurface feeding mode and feeding on tiny brown midge flies. As I stood there and watched the feeding frenzy I notice other anglers casting above and below me. My little area only covered roughly 100 ft. so I staked the area out and stayed put. Needless to say there were a lot of anglers on the Sipsey today.

I got somewhat irritated with the canoes, kayaks, and even an aluminum boat floating in all the areas that everyone was trying to fish. I’ve never seen any watercraft during the weekdays, I guess that tells me something???

I always get pumped when I can get some action on the dries, so with the size 18 Gnat I gave the dries their due, but to no avail. My first strange-looking wide-body trout of the morning, in fact, I thought I had landed a small skipjack.

The real reason for this Saturday morning trip was to fish some of the soft hackles Alan tied for me a couple of weeks ago. I know I could have waited until the weekdays with less traffic, but I was like a kid with a new toy I just had to play. Even a Geezer can still be a kid at heart!!!

  Structure slowed the midge drift down and that was the area where the heavy feeding was occurring.

Another rainbow which couldn’t resist the silver hackle; this morning the trout was taking the hackle a little different as opposed to previous trips. No drift takes today, all the hits occurred as I was working the soft hackle back across the feeding area. No indicator, just a slow retrieve tight lining. Numerous rainbows landed today using the 3 weight.

One beat up fly pattern after a mornings work. As I’ve said many times the Sipsey is pressured every day with lots of fly fishermen especially on weekends; so when one finds a pattern that will produce they better guard it. I found that pattern this morning in Alan’s soft hackle

 

Filling my Bucket List

This past Friday my buddy Charles and I fished the Elk River near Winchester Tennessee with David Perry our guide. It was a stellar day to say the least. We had perfect weather with hardy any humidity and very little sunlight keeping the temps in the low eighties all day. We started the drift boat trip at the dam and 9 miles later we took out at Turkey Launch. Neither of us had ever fished the Elk and was so impressed with its beauty and the amount of trout in the river. It is stocked every month with rainbow and browns, which thrive in the nutrient rich waters.
I have fished numerous times with David over the past years and have come to realize when one fishes with him; they can expect to land lots of trout. Well Friday was no exception, Charles and I landed an insane number of browns and rainbow during our 8 to 9 hour excursion.   



You can see the dam in the background. We shoved the drift boat off from the gravel flats and spent the next 8 to 9 hours getting out trout fix!

One of many healthy rainbows that inhaled our nymphs throughout the day.

  This brown was the largest trout Charles ever landed—talk about excitement!!

Landing my best brown of the day, using my 9 ft. 5 weight; I loss numerous trout at the beginning of the float, because I was using my 4 weight, which didn’t have the backbone to handle the better trout. My catch ratio improved after I starting casting my 5 weight.

 The end result!!