Tennessee's Premier Fly Fishing Guide Service for the Clinch River, Holston River and Caney Fork River As well as the Cumberland River in Kentucky.



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Our Most Recent Fishing Report
June 4th-2024





Just like that, it’s June. I failed to get a second fishing report in for May and all I can say is I’m surprised I made it to May before I failed. It’s been such a busy spring that it’s hard to get much accomplished once you finish fishing, tying flies, making lunches and trying to handle communications. Oh well, I don’t suppose there’s many people reading these reports anyway.


I guess the big news for all of my clients is I finally found cicadas on some trout water. We’ve had a very wet spring and most of our tailwaters have been at summer pool for a few weeks now. Some have even risen well past summer pool and have seen some spilling operations and high flows. Recently, the Caney Fork River fell back into the range of fishable levels and I was ready to pounce on it. The Caney Fork was projected to be in the path of the brood XIX (19) cicada emergence but up until now, it had been too high to fish…..safely anyway.





A wet cicada in the morning fog!





A very nice cicada eater for Butch!



I was joined on the Caney by some eager anglers one day last week and sure enough…..we found cicadas. In the trees, in the air and on the water. The fish were looking for them and we enjoyed many aggressive eats. We landed some nice fish and we were all excited about cicada fishing.


Our results have fluctuated a little over the last few trips to the Caney. We’re still getting some eats on the cicadas but now, the fish are much more careful as to what they’re putting in their mouth. We’ve moved to fishing dry/dropper rigs and are seeing most of our fish come on the dropper nymphs. With that being said, I’ll continue to fish these cicadas until we can’t rise a single fish on them. I feel like this emergence is waning a bit but who knows, maybe it will stick around a few more weeks.





Doctor Plumb and a great brown trout he found on a recent cicada fishing trip!



In other news, my wonderful spring retreat on the Clinch seems to be over. The low water conditions we saw most of the spring have now given way to more 1 and 2 turbine flows. With the high water comes all the driftboat, raft and kayak traffic we managed to avoid most of April and May. It was so nice to have the river to ourselves this spring, even though we may have to refinish the boat this off season. It was well worth the glass and gel coat work for that brief flash back to the old days. I’m sure all who shared this float with me would agree.





the first bear I've ever seen on the Clinch. Last Week along the lower river.



Fishing on the Clinch is still solid and it seems the higher water may have let them ease off on the spooky factor. We’re still fishing mayfly nymphs and dries mostly with the occasional midge. The higher flows are still crystal clear on most days, so I’ve not been able to get way from the 6x tippet. The main difference is that now you don’t have to cast 60 feet to not frighten the fish. The Clinch should continue to be a great destination for us throughout the summer season.





Paul worked hard in the bright sun and low water to find this fat brown!



The Holston is still on our radar but the flows have been a bit erratic over the last few weeks. I expect them to settle down soon but that may not come as soon as we like. I’m keeping my eyes open for flows that we enjoy fishing. The fact that the Clinch is now an option for a lot of guides and boaters should help the horrible over crowding issues we saw on the Holston this spring. It was nothing short of ridiculous. Hopefully, it won’t be that bad this summer.





Sure was nice to spend some time in the boat with Ronnie B!



The Cumberland is still over summer pool and is running heavy flows daily. This will continue for a few more weeks, maybe less if the heavy rain cycles break for a short period. I’m really hoping things get in line because summer terrestrials on the Cumberland can be so much fun!


The next few weeks are booked pretty solid, but I do have some openings in the second half of June. Plenty of days still open in July if you’d like to get in on the summer terrestrials. Give me a text or email…… For some reason, my voicemail isn’t working so the txt and emails are working better right now.