Tennessee's South Holston River

[Tippecanoe Fly Fishers Admin]

Pat is having such a good time catching fish he email this to me asking me to post it so everyone could see how good his Thankgiving was.

He will add more info.

[flyfishingpastor]

Thanksgiving treat! I caught this guy on Tennessee's South Holston River as Les said (thanks, Les) the day before Thanksgiving. He had lovin' on his mind (pre-spawn) and wasn't paying too close attention to what he was eating! Caught him on the tail-end of a nearly perfect day.

Cathy and I had taken a half-day float with Matt Champion of the South Holston River Fly Shop. He back-oared up stream for about 100 yards to give us a second pass on the last good stretch before take out. Cathy fished it first time through and took out a couple of nice, but smallish hens who were egg-full. I had ALMOST told him, "Let's finish out." but I tried a couple more casts and hooked this guy on an egg pattern. Took me about 20 minutes to get him to the boat.

We had a great day. The temp was about 60 degrees, and the fishing was very good. Well worth your time. We had gone down to wade fish but due to all the rain they had this summer/fall they were generating electricity all day, everyday and there was no way you could wade so we booked Matt - glad we did.

Hope your Thanksgiving Day was great!

Pat

[barryl]

Very nice Pat, I'm going to have to look up that river. I went and looked at fish with my 10mo old grandson at Shedd for Thanksgiving. (wanted to fly fish the big tank)

[krebsie]

WOW
I'm not sure whats bigger, Pat's smile or the fish!! Awesome fish Pat, congratulations! Did you catch him on your bamboo rod?
Krebsie

[flyfishingpastor]

Gary;

No, I used my 6 wt. Sage graphite on this one. I rarely take my bamboo on a float - I've seen some very bad things happen to fly rods on a small boat with three people! Also, I rarely fish 9' bamboo rods - and you definitely need a 9' rod on a boat on fast, big water - they mend better. I do have a 9' bamboo (a beautiful Phillipson 7 wt.) that I use for Smallie's sometimes but I have a bad shoulder that doesn't hold up well with a rod that heavy (about 5.5 oz.) for several hours.

And, I DO have a big mouth, but, surely, NOT that big! Trent, you don't have to chime in here!

Pat

[Slartybardfast]

Very nice fish Pat. You look very happy in that picture. I know I would!

[barryl]

Pat I soooooo! empathize with the shoulder thing.