Paint Creek

Did a couple of hours of fishing in Paint Creek the other day and had some pretty good luck.  I caught one rainbow that was around 17 +/- inches on a double nymph rig with a floating strike indicator.   I had the nymphs tied about a foot or so apart with a heavier nymph on the bottom.  The rig looked like:

{           1 ft              }
nymph--------nymph-------------strike indicator/float tied at connection with leader-------fly line
{                     3 ft                       }

The water was a bit cloudy from rain and the flow looked a bit high.

I was fishing deep runs and had the rig set to allow the nymphs to get down to about 3 feet.  I slowly fished up a nice looking run and when I got about 1/2 through it BAM, a nice firm strike that doubled my fly rod over!  I set the hook as soon as I felt the hit and started playing the fish.  She surfaced and my fist thought was that I had a nice fish.  With the light rig I was using I was afraid the line would break so I had to play her a little.  It took me a few minutes to get her in, but it was worth the fight.  I love landing a nice fish.

For more information on Paint Creek (http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/cherokee/recreation/fishing/recarea/?recid=34910&actid=43)

Hikers hogtie man who attempted to take them hostage

Interesting article on a "Druggie/Drunk" taking 4 people hostage at a popular and remote parking area in his search for drugs.
 
Police: Hikers hogtie man who attempted to take them hostage

This is also a good reminder to stay aware and know how to defend yourself no matter where you are.

FYI - There are no "Game Wardens" in TN.  We have TWRA Officers and they have easily recognizable uniforms and carry badges.  They are also very nice folks.  Everyone of them that I have had the opportunity to talk to have been very professional, helpful, etc....  Here are a couple of pictures of their uniforms:

• TWRA Uniforms 1
• TWRA Uniforms 2

Pond Mountain Wilderness

Fished up in the Pond Mountain Wilderness the other day.  I hiked in in mid-morning on a Sunday and I was the only person up there fishing that I saw.  There were a lot of hikers in the area heading up one trail or the other, but I guess it's too far up for most fly fishermen.  I have noticed that if you get more than 1/4 mile away from the road the number of fly fisherman seen falls off drastically, and generally the fishing improves.  The conditions were perfect.  It had rained a little the night before and the water had some color it, but it hadn't rained so much that the streams were hard to wade.  It was warm, but not hot.

I was using my 7' 6" Redington fly rod, about an 8ft leader, and I fished with a larger Yellow Stimulator (#10) and a Tellico Nymph (#14) as a dropper fly about a foot and a half below.











The fishing started off slow but ended up being really good.  I caught around 20 fish.  Ten were nice sized and brightly colored browns and the others were "horny heads" and a few other warmer water fish.  The browns were smashing both flys.  I caught a few on each one.  I also actually had a first and hooked fish on both the dry fly and the dropper at one time.  One managed to get off the hook though and I only landed one of them.   That was pretty cool!

 
This is a typical Brown Trout that I was catching.  He hit the Yellow Stimulator.