South Holston river Tennessee 1/16-17/20

[AndyS]

Thursday January 17th I hit the banks of the South Holston river near Bristol Tennessee. Had very high hopes after doing my homework,fished the ever-so-strange weir area. Fished hard most of the day and put in my time with nothing much to show for it. Place was a bustle with fishermen, some dead sticking corn, others fly fishing, others throwing bobbers with live bait. Placed looked very fishy, but I couldn't connect during the balmy 57* afternoon. Since I did so poorly I decided to hit the fly shop by the river and see if I could book a float trip last minute, they said sure !!

Friday January 18th met the guide at the shop and it was just a few hundred yards drive to splash the boat, launch temp 27*. Drifted the incredibly fishy looking river, picking the ice from my guides from time to time, very quiet on the off season, just one other boat. Fished and fished for hours and my guide asked if I wanted to try Rapalas, I said no I'll stick to my guns and see what happens. Started getting some follows and short hits, then started catching 12 inch brown trout. Halfway through the trip lost count of follows and short hits, picked away at small fish, air started to warm up a bit. Floated through the "restricted area for spawning" and ate lunch as we floated. I peered down into the gin clear water and saw foot long trout shooting all over the place, really cool. Finally caught a decent trout "made quota" with a rainbow of all things. Ran just about the entire river in about 7 hours, picked a few more very pretty small brown trout.

I have a ton of photos and would like to do comparisons between the West Branch in NY and the SoHo that looks like a combination of the Lehigh, West branch and main stem Delaware river all rolled into one. Took the boat out of the river behind Bristol Motor Speedway (where cars go in circles) and people watch.

[AndyS]

a few more

[AndyS]

Float trip

[thmyorke1]

trout on the BIG water nice work Andy. Try those single hooked jerkbaits next time too. I bet the short strikes will get end up hooking some more with that back hook.
Or possibly trim down the marabou on those jigs since if the feathers are too long, the trout would just nip the ends and not the hook.

interesting how they keep that river oxygenated

[AndyS]

Place really left me scratching my head. They stock 9000 rainbow trout on an already robust brown trout fishery, what do rainbow trout eat, brown trout eggs of course. I understand the no fishing zones during the spawning, the guide said the are at least 7 different bottom types and the restricted areas for 2 months have a nice gravel the trout prefer. He said the spring can be an all out zoo, bumper boats if you will. 7 trout limit seems a little high but it's in an area where people fish to eat essentially. There is very little public access. The banks would make the best blackfish fisherman cringe, it's all blow downs. Quite a bit of vegetation on the river bottom that never died off, how is that ?

[bigfishy]

No brownie troutie pics

[Capt. Lou]

That’s hardware water maybe plugs as well , fast fished jigs 👎, would not be my choice ,unless guide boat is anchored or holding ! Bottom snags go to plugs !

[JDTuna]

Nice, Andy. Great to get on new water!

[icebadger]

wow andy that place does look fishy the trout looked healthy as well. what a mess on those power lines, how the hell did so much stuff end up in one place? Richard petty said "they should fill bristol with water and make a trout pond out of it" he hated racing there. cool report andy thanks for sharing.

[tautog]

Somehow those big rivers down there work with wild browns and stocked bows. Doesn't work nearly as well with our smaller streams.