Well February on the SoHo was just about as perfect as you could have hoped as per rod Champion from The South Holston River Fly Shop & Guide Service. In his recent report Rod has this to say "This past month has been one I will never forget. The dry fly fishing has been phenomenal. That includes the last 3 days of February. And the first 4 days of March should be no different. Snow Flurries and highs in the upper 30's. Absolutely perfect conditons for BWO's and Blackflies. This past month has also shown the quality of the rainbow fishery the South Holston River is. 

We are known for our wild brown trout. But this month has shown the wild rainbows in their blazing colors; red everywhere. I have seen a ton of wild 16"-20" Rainbow trout eating BWO Duns. I have caught my share of them too. Big Browns are head shaking creatures that jaw your arm. A big Rainbow trout is a maniac. They go nuts. And they will scream your reel."

Rod is feeling equally good about March fishing on the south Holston River as he went on to report. "Very soon in early March the Sulphurs start breaking out their nymphal bodies. And that will be just as exctiing . Just a little diffeent. No snow , more sun and warmer temperatures. Oh yea, and the black caddis' here and on the Watauga tailrace will start crawling to the edges. And the fish will start popping them there. The edges of the water will look like someone is throwing trout pellets in. That is how you know that hatch is happening. But until then, we will just have to suffer thru the best dry fly fishing you could dream of. Tight Lines."

This is a good report on fishing for browns during the post spawn season on theSouth Holston provided by Trout University friend Justin Shroyer of The Trophy Water Guide Service. in Boone, NC.  It seems that Justin managed to get a fishing trip to the SoHo just a few days ago and was most successful with the Blue Winged Olive nymphs while the browns avoided the BWO duns. Also, notice the use of long leaders.

Here is Justin's own words: Today was the first day in a long while that they cut off the generations on the South Hoslton. As the water dropped we began hitting some prime riffles and slots that were surely holding some nice post spawn brown trout. Following the spawn browns will stack in riffles feeding heavily on blue wing olive nymphs, scuds, and midge larva. This bite will occur in spurts and coincide with the hatch. When the bugs aren’t coming off, post spawn browns will lay docile conserving their energy for the hatch. Why feed when there isn’t anything to eat?

The water dropped out at 2pm at one of our favorite runs, and the blue wings started pouring off. A few midges and even a sulfur or two were mixed in. Fishing long leaders and dry fly dropper rigs, we had great action until 4pm, when the temperature noticeably got colder and what sun there was dropped behind the mammoth cliff shadowing our hole. Most of the fish were caught on hand tied little blue wing nymphs and scuds. Sizes 18 scuds and 22 blue wing nymphs were the most productive. As the hatch progressed smaller fish began rising to emerging midge and blue wings. Size 20 olive and gray soft hackles fished on 12ft., 6x leaders did the trick. Rarely did we see a fish gulp down a blue wing dun, as they were totally interested in the emergers.

Winter Fishing Tips:
Just because you are cold don’t assume that the trout are cold and not feeding. Many of us have caught hundreds of trout in the mounatins of North Carolin and Tennessee when the water was between 45 degrees and 50 degrees and even when it was below 45 degrees! Of course you will need to slow down your presentations, and have confidence expecting to catch fish. I can not stress enough that the winter fishing required slowness and stealth!

However, if you are planning to use a dry fly in fast moving water the way you would do in warm weather, you will probably not have a good day. You will need good imitations of nymphs fished correctly to overcome the slower, clearer water conditions and the slower metabolism of the trout. Under the right conditions and the right degree of stealth you can have some very productive days in the winter. There are fewer hatches in the winter but despite that, there are more nymphs and larvae in the water than any other time of the year.

During the winter months, the Blue Winged Olives, and the Midges will be the most likely hatches that you will see. Occasionally, there will be hatches of the Little Black Winter Stoneflies on the warmer days. However, the major insect activity will be a result of the Midge hatches. Be sure to not key on the hatch itself but be prepared to fish the nymphs before the hatch. Check out Class 3021 “Correctly Matching the Hatch” for some tips about hatches.

Try using midges or try to match some of the naturals that you see in red, black, gray and cream colors and think small in the area of size #20 through #24 hooks. Again we will stress that Midges are by far the fly of choise for all purposes in the winter. The leader tippet combination should be about 10 feet or more. Fish the lightest and longest leader that you can be comfortable with, perhaps a 7x leader, to make the leader and tippet combo equal to 10 feet at a minimum.  Use a longer rod, especially in the larger waters as it will allow you to achieve a drag free drift and you will get longer casts in the open runs.

It will always be necessary to weight the nymph with split shot in order to get to the bottom especially in the deeper fast moving water. Remember the trout will stay lower or on the bottom since that is where they expect the food to be. Also, with the slow metabolism brought on by the colder water, the trout will not move far to take the fly.

Cast upstream slightly across and quickly mend the line. As the fly begins to head down stream raise the rod holding the tip of the rod high above the fly keeping the fly line out of the water. Get the fly to drift in a natural manner and not be dragged along by the fast current near the surface. Keep the fly line upstream behind the fly throughout the drift. This will keep the line tight so that you can feel the trout strike.

The Czech method of nymphing often referred to as the "high stickin" method provides an alternative method to get your fly down into deeper water or pockets where trout may be hiding. This method eliminates the impact of the drag caused by faster moving water on or near the surface pulling the fly line.

For tips on how to use a strike indicator and the dropper technique for nymphing go to Top Nymphing Tactics from George Dainel, the National Fly Fishing Champion .

Note: The pictures above are trout caught on the Davidson River, North Carolina in December by Ralph McClellan Jr. from Mountain Fly Fishing Adventures in Spruce Pine, NC.

I recently became aware of a line of high quality Swiss fly fishing and fly tying products by Marc Petitjean. Several of his products are of interest, however what caught my eye was the Magic Head for streamers. This is a simple clear silicone-like cone shaped device that you tie on the hook shank prior to the other tying element

The Marc Petitjean Magic Head will change the way you fish and more importantly will change the way that the trout will react to your flies. With the Magic head in the back position, it allows you to fish your pattern with the normal up and down streamer head action. Then by flipping the head forward it will give your pattern a side to side fish catching action.

The Magic Head comes in hook size as small as size #18 and are available from retailers who sell the products from the Hareline Dubbin Inc. company.