My son Craig decided to check out the Tricos hatch off Quarry road yesterday and see if fish were rising. His report was that there are plenty of Tricos and pods of fish eating them. Over 100 yards upstream he broke off on what he thought was a decent sized fish. Therein is the beginning of my fish story.

I decided to go back there today. After 3 phone calls to Craig, I found the exact tree where he found some rising fish and also where he broke off…..and a few fish rising just like he said. As it frequently happens on the heritage section of the Falling Spring, the fish shut down after several casts….. even with 12 feet of leader tied down to 7X and a size 28 gray hackle midge. So, I waited. Finally, another rise and I was back in business. This time, a 16″ Brown cooperated. Now the rest of the story.

After guiding the fish closer to the bank so I could get a quick picture,  I dug out “my fly” and dropped the fly attached to my hemostats with leader attached in the water so I could release the fish. To my amazement, the fish started swimming away but still attached to the leader on my fly rod. This time I removed MY FLY. Craig’s fly and leader was the first one removed. I stung one other fish later in the am but left with one good story. Thanks to Craig!

Over the last several weeks, we have had great success fishing the upper stretches of the Yellow Breeches for wild brown trout. My son Craig and I have explored fishing some new stretches and found most to be productive. I also had the opportunity to fish with my granddaughter Leah and nephew Lance Hill and his son Lance (Chip).

Lance and Chip spent 2 days fishing the Breeches (fly fishing for the first time) and by day 2 were making good casts and catching fish. Leah and I also got out for a day and I was impressed to see her cast and catch fish on her own.

The great thing about the upper section is that there are tons of fish, lots of structure and very few fishermen. We use caddis, parachute adams, cracklebacks and various attractor flies. Ants are the ticket on some of the quieter pools.

Due to recent storms, the water conditions are high – should be fishable later this week.

We had a return visit to the South Holston River Lodge (www.southholstonriverlodge.com) last week. The fishermen consisted of Laylon Cox, Guy Hendrix, Jay Carawan of Motion Industries and Ted Banakis (Altra) and myself (retired from Altra).

South Holston River: Low water conditions due to limited release of water from the reservoir caused a change in tactics this year – an opportunity to wade the river. Fishing was still productive and the upper section had a sulphur hatch with rising fish in the afternoon.

Watauga River: Several of the guys got the opportunity to fish the Watauga and it proved to be “hot”. Ted and Laylon caught around 60 fish on the first day…mostly rainbows.

This was another great fishing experience including the accommodations, food, and outstanding guides who work hard to find you fish and improve your fly fishing skills. We all gave this trip a “thumbs up”.