Being a tailwater fisherman can be a roller coaster from joy to disappointment and back again. Hours are spent poring over forecast rain amounts, then analyzing actual rainfall totals during and after a precipitation event. If you live out west then you might spend your winters checking out the latest Snotel information to see how the snowpack is coming along. Long term generation guidance is also consulted on a regular basis, all in an effort to figure out when your favorite tailwater might be fishable. Of course, in a dry year, all of this becomes unnecessary as anglers enjoy the rare opportunity to fish whenever and wherever they desire.
Over the past few weeks, I've been checking the generation schedules daily, sometimes even multiple times a day. I guess I'm just optimistic. Maybe the schedule will change for the better, and of course, eventually it did. Unfortunately, the theme this year is that low flows signal the next round of heavy rain. Streams here on the Plateau shot up from around 500 cubic feet per second (cfs) to over 15,000 cfs over the last few days. One stream went from 70 cfs to over 3,500 cfs. That's a lot of water no matter where you live, and when you consider that 3,500 cfs is approximately the amount of water that one generator releases at a time on my favorite tailwater, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that many days of generation are on the horizon. All that water here on the Plateau eventually drains into the valleys on either side and into either Tennessee Valley Authority or Corps of Engineers controlled dam systems.
As the major weather system this week started to really get cranking, my nearest tailwater finally cut back on the generation. I planned to fish Monday morning, but early day storms were already rolling in and prompting the first local tornado warning of the year. My fishing trip became a storm chasing trip, and I was stuck waiting for the next opportunity. Tuesday morning was shot as well, and Wednesday was the last day of low flows, my last chance to get on the water.
My friend Tyler, who has quickly become addicted to fly fishing, had never fished a tailwater before. I explained that the water would be cold but that people had been known to wet wade there before. He was all for it so we planned on when and where to meet. Wednesday morning couldn't come soon enough for me, and before long I had scarfed down a quick breakfast, made a sandwich, loaded my gear, and headed out the door. Tyler was on time and we were soon headed for the river.
Muddy water...
Upon arriving, I headed straight for a favorite run that requires less wading than some spots. After all, I knew Tyler was excited but if he didn't have to freeze then all the better. Driving along the river, the first thing we noticed was mud thick enough to walk all the way across the river on. On second glance, we realized it wasn't quite that bad but we definitely weren't going to fish in the slop. Back up the river we headed to the clear water just below the dam. Several other anglers were already crowded in the best spots (for easy wading that is), and I was concerned that Tyler was going to be stuck getting soaked and cold.
One possibility remained and we headed down to a favorite spot of mine. Another angler was fishing just upstream but otherwise we had the water to ourselves. Showing Tyler a rising trout and explaining the process of mending and fly placement, I started downstream to get some fishing of my own in. Just as I was getting my own rod ready to cast, Tyler yelled as he hooked the first trout of the day. It turned out to be his first brown trout so I brought the net and camera for a quick picture. As I made my way back down the river he hooked another, and another, and so on and so forth. In fact, he soon lost track of how many he had caught.
I found a nice hole and started catching a few of my own, and then more, until I was catching fish after fish as well. Over the next two hours, we never ventured far. Tyler didn't have to wade deeply to fish, and I was having some of the best midge fishing I've had in a long time. Both of us quickly lost count of how many fish we caught and even had several doubles as the fish were almost racing each other to get to our flies.
Now that tailwater is pushing a lot of water down the river as the lake continues to rise. We'll be lucky if it is fishable anytime in the next two weeks and if we get more rain it will take a lot longer than that. A more realistic prediction is a minimum of 3 weeks but we'll have to wait and see what happens. When it does drop again, I'll be back looking for another fantastic day on the water.
Oh, and I should mention that Tyler forgot to be cold. He was catching so many fish he didn't even notice the 50 degree water flowing around his legs. His comment to me was, "Knapp, you've created a monster!" Yep, tailwaters can be fun, and I'll look forward to getting on one again. Hopefully it will be sooner instead of later...
On our way home, we stopped to chase some bass, and I had my best bass day on this particular lake ever, but more on that a bit later.
