Tossing Streamers

When David Perry texted me last week about the possibility of a streamer float, I made sure to clear my schedule.  A day on the river throwing streamers is tough to turn down.  The flows on the Caney have been a bit erratic lately but drifting and throwing flies is better than sitting at home.  A 9:00 a.m. start was a welcome change from some of the early mornings I have to put in for fishing over in the Smokies.

After meeting at the ramp and dumping his boat, we were soon experimenting.  On a guides' day off, lots of experiments go on.  This is part of what helps a good guide keep things dialed in as well as scratch the curiosity itch.  Some deep nymphing was attempted but for the most part we stayed with the streamer game.

I had several early drive by swings from fish who weren't interested in a second look, but after switching rowers a few times, neither of us had yet connected.  Finally, a good half way through the float, we got to the one bank I had been looking forward to fishing.  I had on a new rig that someone showed me earlier this year that has a ton of potential.  It uses a tippet ring to set up a two streamer rig with a larger streamer chasing a smaller one.

Sure enough, after just a few moments on this bank, a beautiful rainbow clobbered the larger of the two flies.  After a quick picture, I dutifully offered to take my turn rowing.  On slow days, it is usually reasonable to switch after just one fish.  David P. generously offered to row a little bit longer, and I didn't take time to argue!

Photograph by David Perry

Just a few feet more down the bank, I made a perfect cast to the bankside water, let the sinking line get down for a couple of seconds, and then started the retrieve.  On the second strip the line came tight and with the flash I knew it was a nicer fish.  With a 7 weight it would seem like you could horse one of these in a little faster, but this fish bulldogged like the brown trout that it was.  Each time I got it close to the net, it managed to get its head back down and take off again.  Finally, we got it in the net, and I noticed it had taken the smaller of the two flies.  Maybe it thought it was racing the other streamer to the food.  Whatever the reason, the two streamer rig had worked to perfection, and I was happy.

Naturally, when I again offered to row, David P. quickly accepted.  In fact I think he would have tossed me out of the boat if I didn't row after getting such a nice fish.  Over the rest of the float, he boated a good number of fish including a beautiful brookie and a 16 inch brown right near the takeout.  We never did see that monster we were looking for, but that's streamer fishing for you.  I'll happily take the quality fish we did find any day.

If you are interested in a day of streamer fishing, the river is dropping into the sweet spot and should provide great streamer action through the colder months.  Just give me a call or drop me an email at TroutZoneAnglers@gmail.com to set up a trip!

A Float for Me

Guide's day off trips don't happen as often as I would like.  Of course, helping others catch fish is always pretty awesome some I'm not complaining.  I guess you could say that I'm simply pointing out  that being the one handling the fly rod is nice on occasion.  Last week I had a short vacation.  My cousin Nathan came up to fish with me for a few days.  We started the week fishing for smallmouth, followed that up with a trout float on the Caney, and finished up with some awesome trout fishing over in the Smokies on a day that was all about sheer numbers.  In other words, I had an incredible week.

The smallmouth trip was a lot of fun, but neither of us hauled a camera along so there is no photo evidence.  I guess that means I can inflate the size of the fish we caught.  Really it was a standard smallmouth wade trip with some nice fish caught but nothing to write home about, the kind of comfortable every day fishing that scratches the itch but leaves you wanting a little more.

Day two started out much the same with the main difference being that we were floating in the drifter instead of wading.  The generation schedule on the Caney has been a little strange lately.  The Corps of Engineers can't seem to decide what schedule is the best so each float is determined the evening before after a consultation of the following day's generation schedule.  We figured that we could sleep in a little and still make it in plenty of time to catch falling water.

We dumped the boat and were into fish before I had really gone anywhere.  There's nothing like those willing hatchery fish waiting at the ramp to get the skunk off so everyone in the boat can relax and focus on the task at hand.  I was at the oars and Nathan was wearing out the fish.  By the time we got around the first corner, I had turned the boat sidewise in the soft current so we could both fish.  Rowing and fishing at the same time presents a minor challenge but nothing that cannot be overcome.  It wasn't too long before I had caught a couple as well and decided to just focus on rowing while Nathan fished.  He quickly got several nice brook trout as well as a few rainbows but the nice browns were eluding him.

Eventually he offered to take a turn rowing and I assured him that he could take over at a certain point.  I was hoping he would catch a nice fish first but eventually we got to a spot I was dying to fish, and I let him take over rowing duties.

Sure enough, two casts later (seriously, I had barely even got to the front of the boat) something big came up and inhaled the hopper I was trying out.  Fighting the fish on one hand and telling Nathan where to row on the other kept me busy but soon the fish was in the net and we could all relax.  Nathan took over camera duty while I enjoyed the nice brown trout.

Soon we took off again, and I continued to catch fish on the dropper under the hopper.  Nathan eventually figured out how to row and fish as well and started catching some nice fish including his brown for the slam.

Not too long after that we made it to the take out just as the rising water caught up with us.  I was glad that we had finished before the water came up too much.  Nathan was getting pretty tired by the end.  The river can get awfully hot without any shade and a hot summer sun beating down.  We were soon on our way back home to get ready for the Smokies adventure starting the next morning!