Part of the content that I will be adding to the site will be fishing trip summaries of the experiences I have when I make it out. Here’s the first, a trip to the Tellico I made last month.
Location: Tellico River/ Sycamore Creek
Catches: 5 Rainbow, 1 Sucker
Weather: Warm. 55F-65F Rainy at times, some wind.
While my wife and son were in Mississippi visiting my mother in law, I took the opportunity to take another drive up to the Tellico, stopping by the Hardees in Tellico Plains to get myself a bacon egg and cheese biscuit to fuel my day.
I started the day by parking across from the hatchery The river was high and murky, as a couple inches of rain had fallen in the previous days. I rigged up the new Echo 5wt that I won from the Atlanta F4T showing with a floating line. Double nymphing with an indicator was the name of the game.
I started where I’d had great luck in past trips where the fish hang out in a few deeper slower moving channels. With the hight water, there weren’t quite as many fish visible. On the second cast, the New Zealand indicator dipped under, and after I set the hook, a decent tug followed. After a short fight I landed a nice rainbow. The new rod no longer had the scent of skunk.
After that, I managed to get a tiny sucker, and a tiny bow before things started to grind to a stop.
I moved downstream. At the confluence of a small side channel and the main river, I spotted a nice looking rainbow just off the tip of the shore line, after a couple attempts, it took the fly. It wasn’t a long fight, due to how close it was to begin with.
This was also the first fish large enough to measure in my new Brodin net that I picked up in Atlanta at the Fly Fishing show. The measurement inlays were quite handy, as this fish turned out to be 18″.
I decided to hike up Sycamore creek trail to check it out, as I’ve heard there are brook trout hiding up a ways in the pools of the creek. Unfortunately there weren’t any pools to be found, as the runoff had turned the normally docile creek into a small river. Later in the year, I’d like to return to see what it’s like at it’s normal levels.
It was a beautiful hike. A couple dogs scared the living daylights out of me as I was observing the river. They came up behind me, and as I turned around, there were what my brain thought were two small bears.
After the hike, I took a drive down towards home, stopping at a hole that is normally filled with quite a few fish. I chatted with another angler from Nashville who hadn’t had much luck yet, but pointed out that someone had. On the shore was the remnants of a massive poach that appeared to have happened earlier that day. I took some pictures of it, and reported it to the TWRA, but I doubt anything will happen.
