August 22, 2017

The eclipse has come and went and what a spectacular event it was!  Downtown Sylva was full of wonderful people from all over the USA and we had a chance to meet many of them.  Our town staff, department of transportation, law enforcement, emergency management, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, TDA, and all of the volunteers did a wonderful job.  In fact many of the visitors talked about coming back to the area in the future.

We was pretty busy guiding almost everyday last week.  The small mouth bite was good as well as the wild trout.  Good numbers and a few larger Rainbows and Browns were landed by clients in the local area.  Trout were taken on dry flies and some were taken on nymphs. 

Oconaluftee Stonefly

Stoneflies were everywhere on the Oconaluftee River Friday and Saturday.  I found this guy Friday morning while guiding and you can see this one is becoming an adult.  The rocks were littered with numerous casings ranging from 3/4 of an inch to 2 inches in length Friday and Saturday.  We had good success throwing larger dry flies and nymphs in this area of the water.

Yellow Sallies worked well Sunday as we came across a hatch of these little beauties.  If you keep a keen eye mother nature will tell you what to use.  Cased caddis are stating to cover the rocks in many locations and ants and beetles are still working well.

Try downsizing fly size and tippet size if you are experiencing short strikes.  Really focus on trout holding and feeding lanes to increase your number of fish catching opportunities.

Tight Lines!