Friday, December 24, 2010

General Fishing Report for the Mountain Region of NC, TN, VA

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings from Casters Fly Shop. River levels are up a smidgen so winter is getting off to a great start. 



The 10 day mountain forecast is showing COLD, SNOWY conditions for this weekend. Then, conditions are due to moderate by the middle of next week.

Quick Tips: Fish tiny dark nymphs, larvae, worms and eggs. These are the food sorces the trout are predominately seeing and will continue to see throughout the winter. Be sure to get them down near the river bottom. Use extra split shot (where applicable) and fish your offerings "low and slow".

It is all dependent on the stream you fish and the time of day you fish it but look for a potpourri of insects on the rivers and streams this time of the year- midges (sz.22-30), BWO's (sz.20-24), and tiny winter black stoneflies. The "tiny fly" season is upon us.

If you see bugs in the air and fish slashing near the surface, these are great indicators of fish that are willing to feed on or near the surface. In this case, try to determine what insects they are consuming and the stage of the lifecycle these insects are at (emerger/pupa, cripple, dun, spinner). Then, prepare your 2 fly rig accordingly (cripple and emerger, dun and emerger, etc.).

If you dont see this behavior, fish a double nymph rig (pheasant tails, stripper midges, zebra midges, disco midges, Hise's hetero-genius nymphs, egg patterns, Mercer's micro mayflies, copper John's, shop vacs, serenstupidies, Hise's sili skin caddis, rainbow warriors, Duke's Prince John, gooey caddis larva, squirmie wormy, etc.) for the most consistent success. Nymphs and larvae fished deep is always a great way to go, day in and day out on any trout stream in the world. Remember, most of the time, larger trout will move laterally for their food as opposed to vertically.