Miracles Do Happen!


Yesterday was (hopefully ) as bad as it gets. High water, clouds, a cold north wind, frost, no bugs and no risers. As if by magic, at midnight things began to change,  The NYC, DEP cut the releases on both the WB and UEB. The clouds went away, the wind forgot to blow, once again there was frost, but with cloudless skies and bright sunshine the water temps rose rapidly into the bug hatching zone, and the rivers became wade-able. 

Mark, the N.C. bone fishing friend and South Holston fisherman, is back to get his boat after being flooded out of his fishing last week. Today, with the water dropping everywhere, we waded. Left the Lordville Estate at 11:30, ate lunch streamside while watching for risers. Before lunch was finished there were fish chasing nymphs and by the time we suited up and were fishing there were both bugs and rising fish. It was that way for the rest of the day.

The fishing - During one frenetic period I hooked and lost seven out of eight fish I hooked, and never even thought of uttering the fly-fisherman's universal word of disgust (no, not excrement). We fished the EB, WB (two places), and the BR and hooked and landed rising fish everywhere we went.

The FUDR "One Bug" fund raising tournament is tomorrow and Saturday. If you encounter one of the "One Bug" boats, try to be courteous and cut them some slack. They're paying a lot of money for a good cause.

The outlook - It can't get any better than today. The wind seldom lays down this time of year. The weekends are always crowded and with the "One Bug", this weekend promises to be worse. Most of the fish we stuck today had "clean mouths". They will be more careful about what they eat tomorrow. Come if you can, the Hendricksons are waning on the freestones and are peaking on the tailwaters but there is good/excellent dry fly fishing for wade fishermen, everywhere.  

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