Winter Float Trip Discounts

I am offering Winter Float Trip discounts for trips taken from November 21st through March 15th. The cost for this trip is $235. This would be a 6 hour float trip for one or two persons with a lite lunch. Come fish the legendary South Holston or Watauga Tailwaters when there are little to no crowds.

The possibilities are endless.

Contact me through www.trout-fishers.net and come experience winter fishing in the mountains.

Paint Creek 10/30/09

Headed for Paint Creek on a last minutes whim. The original plan had been to float the Clinch and throw streamers, but TVA decided they wanted to run two generators. So in a last ditch effort to get a little fishing in, we headed over to Paint Creek.

The drive over was really cool. There is a some pretty country over there and the leaves looked amazing. We got on the water around 12:30pm. There was not as many fish in the river as years past, but there were some very nice ones and a few even cooperated and decided to eat for us.

It was a great day and we even managed to catch a few fish. Doug and Clay found one really nice run that produced some great fish. We wrapped it up at 3:30pm and made it home for dinner.

SoHo in the rain

We fished today on the South Holston Tailwater in the cold rain. I wanted to test out the new LineX coating I just had put on the bottom of my hand built wooden driftboat. The coating did its job and I was very pleased how the boat performed on this low water non-generation trip.

There were black caddis in a size 12 coming off all day. We also saw size 18/20 BWO's coming off in the heavier rains showers and the fish were feeding hard on them. We used a size 18 brown zebra midge with a stripper midge dropper about 14" under a small strike indicator.

When the generation hit us about 2:30 pm we switched to small white rabbit streamers and got a couple good slams.




This little brown hit this zebra midge and started bulldogging to the bottom, it made for a fun fight for my client as he tried to saw off the leader on the sharp jagged rocks.












This rainbow took a stripper midge and put up a great fight in the strong current. It is amazing how they can pull when they put their wide bodies sideways in the current. The camera washed out the really bright pinkish purple strip down his side.

Check out my website, www.trout-fishers.net if you would like to fish the legendary South Holston with the winter time midges.

I just got back from a week of fishing in the salt along the South Carolina coast. It was a blast catching redfish on the fly rod in the salt marsh during the morning high tides and then casting to cruising fish during low tide in the wild oyster racks.

Catching a couple of sharks on the fly rod was totally AWESOME!!! Watching them take the fly and then go on a drag screaming run while my guide poled the boat trying to keep up with them.

The sunrises while out in the boat were spectacular. Everything takes on an orange glow just as the sun starts to peek over the horizon. It makes you truly appreciate life.

All I can say is that I will be back and the next time it will be two weeks instead of one.

I recently took these gentlemen from Southern Indiana to fish on our new private trophy trout waters in Western North Carolina. There are two (2) miles of river on the property that is managed for trophy trout fishing. These waters are one hour from our base in Kingsport, Tennessee. These fish are currently taking size 14 tan caddis from the surface during the afternoon hatches, and the rest of the time it is size 14 Copper Johns with a size 18 red Zebra midge trailing as the dropper.

I had a blast watching them hook and land these fish in these waters. If you would like more information on fishing these waters contact me at www.trout-fishers.net . There are additional rod fees above the daily guide fee.

South Holston Oct 20th 2009

Tuesday was absolutely beautiful! Great sun, nice breeze and perfect temperatures. I love fishing in the fall. I met up with an old fishing buddy and the original plan was to fish the Clinch, however TVA had different ideas for us. We ended up driving up to the South Holston for the day as it was conducive to floating, plus I had been hearing of some great reports from other anglers and guides.

We put on the river around 9:30am and there were risers every where. Tiny BWO's seemed to do the trick. Once the water came up the fishing slowed a bit. Towards early afternoon we got to a good riffle section and started getting into a bunch of fish. Every good pocket held a few nice fish.

Not long after fishing through the riffle, the water started to drop out and around 4pm we started to see a lot of rising fish. There was a combination of BWO's, Sulphurs, Crane flies and Caddis hatching. Jake caught fish on BWO's and I caught them on dry/dropper rigs. It turned out to be a great end to a day that had started off slow. We both rode home with smiles on our faces.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Great Friends and Good Times!

It had been almost a month since I was last on the water. Work and yard maintenance, have kept me very occupied. I did make some overtime and hopefully the yard will look great next spring.

While at work I had been hearing of some good reports about the fishing on the Cherokee Trophy water and I had to check it out for myself. It just so happened that Doug and two buddies from Greenville, Clay and Allen, were also able to make it over for some fishing.

Clay and Allen were the first on the water as, Doug and I had to run up stream to the KOA Campground for some licenses. By the time we made it back to the water they had already landed a few fish a piece. So Doug and I had some catching up to do.

Fishing for stockers takes a different mentality. They have more than likely grown up their entire life eating trout chow/dog food. They don't really know yet that a size sixteen pheasant tail is super yummy. They are used to seeing brown pellets rain from above and yes they are good, but tying trout chow pellets is somewhat frowned upon. Trout Chow smells of just a hint of shrimp mixed with hot dogs, not that I'd know or anything.

As Doug and I were entering the water he mentioned that he had seen some guys throwing bread off the bridge while we were rigging up. Light goes on, bread eh, flash back to Tim Doyle and myself throwing biscuit patterns to the carp underneath Calhoun's on the River! Do I have any biscuit patterns left? Nah fresh out, size 8 Turks Tarantula should do the trick. Sure enough, first cast and I had fish trying to eat it. I stuck one right off the bat, then I couldn't get a good hook set after. Later I looked at my fly, to find that the hook had broken. I took that as a sign from the fly fishing gods that maybe I should not put another one on.

The fish had wised up to my fake bread fly very quickly. So I rigged with the old faithful Egg and Lighting Bug with a few spilt shot to get it on the bottom. Clay also had great luck with the Lighting Bug and Allen used a pink San Juan most the day. Doug started off with glo ball patterns and eventually switched to some large zebra midge patterns.

In all honesty I think it was important to use something big or flashy that would get their attention. Split shot and longer leaders were required to get the fly to the bottom and keep it there. In my experience stockers typically will not move too far for a fly so you have to almost hit them in the head with it.

It had rained all day long. Nasty days are my favorite days to fish. One, it keeps the fair weather fisherman off of the water. Two, the fish seem happier and happy fish means hungry fish. Third, I get to wear my awesome rain jacket!

We all left for lunch around 1:30pm and got some great food at the Riverside Cafe just down the road. By the time we had gotten back the river had rose substantially and by 4:00pm it seemed to have risen a good four inches and become very stained. This seemed to put the fish down. Oh well, we had caught plenty of fish and had a blast so we packed it up and headed for Knoxville. Despite the wet conditions it was a great day fishing with a bunch of great friends.

Clinch Sept. 13th and 16th

Wow, I've managed to get on the water a good amount so far this month and the fishing has been good. What makes it better is I have been able to share it with quite a few of my friends.

On the 13th I fished with Chad and Brad. Chad works part-time at the store and Brad works full-time. Even though Brad and I work together quite a bit, we usually work opposing schedules, so we have coverage in the fishing department at all times. This makes it hard to get away and fish together.

Chad with a nice Bow

On the 16th I had an old fraternity brother, who was in town with the family, and was able to get away for a day. I hadn't seen Brent since his wedding 4 or 5 years ago and it was good to catch up and talk about the college days.

Both days we got on the water around 9am. The 13th was nice and sunny and the 16th was rainy and over cast. We caught good fish both days. Before the water came up we fished dry/dropper rigs, casting to the midging fish. After the water came up we would switch to heavier double nymph rigs with larger flies. I also had a couple of fish chase streamers on the 16th. So I'm excited to pursue some more streamer fishing next trip out.

Brent's big Bow

Also on the sixteenth Brent landed his first Brook Trout and first Brown Trout ever. Plus he had a grand slam before we even made it to the first riffle below Peach Orchard. None of them were big, but it didn't matter. Then later towards the end of the float he caught one of his largest Rainbows ever on a fly rod. It was very cool for me to have just been there to see it.

Brent's Clinch Slam!
Brent's Clinch Slam



Brad with a nice fish

I caught a few too

I have been amazed at every trip to the Clinch this year. The river is amazing and it shows me something new every time I go. I have been having a lot of fun fishing it this year and can't wait to see what it holds this winter.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Clinch September 8th and 9th

Day One

It has been almost two weeks since my last fishing trip. That last day of work was brutal. All I could think about was fishing the next day.

The Clinch was back to running a favorable generation schedule for floating. Doug and I met up around eight in the morning and got on the water at about nine thirty after running a quick shuttle.

We started off with the normal dry/dropper rigs and caught a good number of smaller fish. Once we got down to the first set of riffles we switched over to a double nymph rig. The fishing wasn't gang busters, but it was consistent and we would land or hook a good fish fairly consistently.


Later after dropping over one of the better shoals in the river, we anchored up the boat and got out for a little wade fishing. We were both wet wading and although the Clinch is very cold, it felt really good to cool off and get in the water. I kept with my double nymph rig and fished some faster water right below the main drop off and stuck six fish.

I am always amazed out how slow you can get the indicator to drift in heavy current with proper mending and line control. There are so may little micro eddies throughout a run. I don't think "micro eddy" is a real term, but I hope you get the idea. It is usually when I find these slightly slower areas in heavy current that I pick up fish.

Shortly there after the water began to rise and we caught a few more as we floated with the rising water. All of these were really good fish. We were just floating with the current and every ten minutes or so we would have a fish eat. It doesn't get any better than that. It reminded me of fishing on the Big Horn river and a few of the fish must have thought they were on the Big Horn, because they would pull like a freight train.

The next day, Wednesday, September 9th we headed up to do a little wade fishing, instead of taking the boat out again. On the way up Doug had to stop by CR Outfitters and talk to Cal. We ended up talking with Cal for almost an hour. He has got some great stories about the Clinch and has been fishing that river for a very long time. If you have a question he is definitely the guy to ask. Check them out atCR Outfitters.

Back to the fishing, so we got on the water a little later than we had hoped. we started right in front of the church and fished our way up to the second island. I picked fish up on Hickey's Auto Emerger, Black Zebra Midges and a Pheasant tail pattern that we tie up. The rig I was using was a double nymph rig with the top fly tied off of a tag and a yarn indicator. I really like using yarn now, as they seem to be more sensitive than the others. If you watch me fish you will see me set the hook a lot. I'm not necessarily seeing the indicator go under, but just hesitate or a movement that I was not expecting, so I set the hook. Sometimes it's a fish and sometimes it is not, but you won't know if you don't try.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Caney Fork 8/26/2009

If you hadn't read my previous post last Friday was awesome! Twenty inch fish rising to dry flies. I don't think I can imagine anything better.

Well Doug and I thought it would be a great idea to check it out again. TVA was going to generate one hour later than they had the previous trip up. Other than that it was for the most part the same conditions. We dropped the boat and were fishing by 7am. We started picking fish up on dry/dropper rigs, then switched to streamers for a bit.

At a real nice riffle section, we both got out and did a little wade fishing. Doug was fishing a dry/dropper rig and landed a few fish. I was using a double nymph rig with a zebra midge on top and a sow bug on bottom. I had landed three fish fairly quickly and the fourth fish was a really nice brook trout.

That's when I realized there was something wrong. With every flip of his tail I had a terrible pain growing in my finger. Oh no, I'm hooked, fish is hooked! I grabbed both lines and broke the fish off, so I could check the damage. He got me good, the size 14 sowbug was completely buried in my finger along the side of my finger nail. I gave it a few tugs with my hemostats, but it wouldn't budge, this was going to be brutal, I thought.

About that time Doug rowed up and I hoped in the boat. There was no way we were going to cut this fishing trip short for a teeny hook in my finger, but I had to get it out some how. Doug most graciously offered to do it himself, but I didn't go for that. Especially when he had that half grin on his face. So after much haggling from Doug and having soaking my hand in the cooler to numb everything, I man upped and with one quick pop ripped it out. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it'd be, but wow it stung!

Okay back to fishing and after all this drama we were up on the good stretch where we'd done so well the week before. It took a little time for the fish to start rising again. The only thing left now was for us to put the fly in front of them and not mess it up. We fortunately had some great success. I'll let the pictures speak for them selves.






We did have two fish break us off and I missed a few again, but was much better on my hook sets than our last trip. One of the coolest moments was when I had a really nice twenty plus inch Brown jump about three feet out of the water! It was absolutely insane.

Definitely a great way to spend the day after my birthday, with a great friend on a great river catching some great fish.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Absolutely Insane! 8/21/2009

Sometimes you get surprised by a river that you thought you knew. Doug and myself both had Friday off, so of course we had to go fishing, like there is anything else to do on a day off. The Clinch was again blown out and I had just been up to the South Holston and needed to try something else. On a whim we checked out the Caney Fork generation and to our surprise the generation schedule looked great. We had not been on the Caney since early spring, so it seemed like a logical choice.

Steve Sylvis had recently been up in Knoxville, we had wanted to fish the Clinch, but it didn't happen, so we ended up in the mountains. I gave Steve a quick call on my way home to pick his brain about floating the river. Steve runs Xtreme Trout and is probably one of the best guides on the river. Well we lucked out and Steve agreed to meet us and fish! Sweet! there is nothing better than fishing with a great friend and guide on his home water. The generation was such that we needed to meet very early to get ahead of the water. This required a 4am departure time from Knoxville. Doug gave only a few grunts and grumbles when I told him what time we were going to leave.

We arrived at the boat ramp about 25 mins early. We were scheduled to meet Steve at 6am, I always try to be early for fishing trips, it doesn't always happen, but when you are meeting up with someone that has agreed to show you the river at no charge, early is a good thing. After dropping the drift boat in and running a quick shuttle, Steve hopped on the sticks right off the bat and I lucked out with the front of the boat and Doug took the back. After pushing off the boat ramp we immediately started sticking fish. I had a grand slam within my first ten casts and not more than a hundred yards from the ramp! I thought to myself that this could be one of those days for the record books, but kept my mouth shut, not to jinx us.

Within thirty minutes Doug and I must have landed twenty fish on dry dropper rigs. We were catching mostly smaller fish, so I decided to switch over to a small streamer in hopes of catching something a bit larger. After a few quick pointers from Steve on my streamer stripping methods, I was hammering them. After three fish to the boat, Doug was giving up his dry/dropper for a streamer as well.

We continued to fish streamers until the water came up. They were doing a two hour pulse and we pulled the boat over to wait out the water and eat a little lunch. My wife had made some killer brownies the night before and I had a sweet tooth to satisfy. After lunch we noticed a few fish rising here and there, but nothing crazy. Then underneath some over hanging trees we all spotted a pretty decent fish rising.

We rowed over to get in casting position with our dry dropper rigs. First cast I missed him and it looked to be a good sixteen to seventeen inch Brown. Then Doug missed him and finally I farmed him one last time. We backed off to rest him for one last shot, then I noticed another fish farther up under the tree, which seemed to be a bit bigger. I retied with a rubber legged parachute hopper and botched the cast really bad, however this brown materialized just as I was picking my cast up and he bum rushed the hopper. We all freaked out, this was not the fish we had been casting to, he was much bigger. I of course pulled it away from him. After resting the run a little longer I threw a better cast up under the tree again and gave it one twitch. That twitch was the key and the behemoth rose and ate the hopper! This time I was on point and fish on!

I had done everything right up to this point, but then I realized that I had just stuck my largest fish on a dry fly and I was fishing my 3wt Helios mid-flex! I came out of my haze and hear Steve telling me to take it easy, take it easy. The monster then decided he wanted to make a run and do some huge head shakes. With that the hook slipped loose and the line went limp. We all looked at each other, jaws dropped to the bottom of the boat and asking each other if that just really happened.

Okay so I just lost my largest ever trout on a dry fly. Wait, what river are we on? Oh, the Caney Fork. What fly did he eat? A hopper. Really, did that just happen? Yeah!

So the excitement was over, right? Wrong, we dropped down just fifty more yards and again found rising fish in the trash line right along the bank. Doug throws a para-adams, no luck. We start to move farther down stream and I throw a long cast up to where Doug had just been casting and Wham! Fish on, a big Rainbow. This time I was bound and determined not to loose him. Not this time brother, fish in the net! By this time we were absolutely freaking out. Steve said it was his second largest rainbow to the boat that had not been caught on a streamer.

"So, Doug do you want a rubber legged para-hopper," I asked? "What do you think" was his reply. Doug's first cast and bam! big brown on. Yeah, hopper fishing! There were a couple points when I thought he might loose the fish, but not this time.

Doug's second cast, slurp, yes another fish on the hopper, this time another big rainbow. Seriously are we still on the Caney Fork, is this really happening?

After all of this commotion we did not see any more fish rising, so we floated on out. I don't think any of us cared if we caught another fish all day. We had already had one of the best days imaginable, and left content.

Tips from the trip: Para-adams with a midge dropper on 6X floro, White streamers on Class II Density Compensated sinking line. Don't get caught with blinders on, think outside the box. Rising water, trash lines, summer, beetles, hoppers, fish the trash.

I'd like to give another shout out to Steve, he is one of the best guides I've ever been in the boat with. Check him out at Xtreme Trout

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

South Holston 8/19/2009

Wednesday I got up on the South Holston to fish with Randy Ratliff of Troutfishers Guide Service, . They were going to start generating around 9am and we were on the water by 9:30am. Randy has a sweet wooden drift boat that he does some of his float trips with.

We started off with some double nymph rigs and immedeatly started sticking some smaller fish, which gets the day rolling and gets the skunk off. We nymphed for a good bit early on untill we ran across a few rising fish up under some over hanging trees. We through beatles, sulphurs and soft hackles, but couldn't by a look. Then just as we started to pick up the anchor I stuck a little brown on a soft hackle.

After lunch we switched over to streamers and got some fairly consistent follows and picked up a few fish here and there. Towards the end of the day we got into some really nice pods of decent fish that were following and swiping at our streamers.

It was not a spectacular day but a very good day of fishing with a new friend.

Change of Plans

Unfortunately, fishing plans don't always work out the way you had hoped. TVA apparently decided that they needed to produce more electricity and therefore were running two generators both Wednesday and Thursday last week. Which were the days that Steve Sylvis from Nashville was planned to be here.

I had called Steve the day before and told him that things looked bleak for the Clinch or any other tailwater for that matter. Steve is a pretty easy going guy and said it was no big deal, and suggested we fish the park. I hadn't been in the park for a while, so it seemed like a great alternative.

Steve brought along his friend/website guy/producer/publisher, named Peter (Pete I'm sorry I already forgot your last name). They wanted to get some video footage of us fishing the park. I called Doug to come along and we now had a new plan.

Wednesday morning we headed to Greenbier. We went almost all the way up to Ramsey's trailhead before getting in the river. Doug, as always was the first one rigged up and stuck four fish right in front of the truck. Steve and I went down stream and landed a few. While we fished Peter bounced around between us getting a little video footage. He had positioned himself on a small bluff overlooking were I was fishing and after about ten minutes I hear him screaming and he takes off running. My first thought was snake, but when I saw him swatting at his hair I new it was hornets. I went the other way around the stream to see if he was okay. Sure enough he had crawled onto a hornets nest. He said he looked down and his waders were covered with them. Luckily he only got stung four times, and wouldn't you know it I had left the first aid kit at home. He was a trooper and stuck it out for the rest of the day.



The four of us fished almost all the way up to Ramsey trailhead. Everyone caught a few fish and I learned how tough it is to film while fishing. It is also a little nerve racking knowing you have someone over your shoulder with a camera. Doug however showed us all up and seemed to do no wrong. Peter did a little fishing and caught his first mountain rainbow and brook trout back to back. Later on the way home we tried to catch a brown on Little River, but the fish didn't cooperate.



On Thursday we didn't have as long to fish, so we headed up to Tremont for a while. The fishing was a little slower than the day before, but it was the middle of the day. I had a nice Bill Dance hook set on my nicest trout of the day which resulted in the fish getting to keep my size 16 Yellow PMX.

Both days were pretty good and it was great to just sit around after dinner and listen to Steve tell stories about guiding in Alaska last year. It sounds completely wild somewhere I hope to be able to visit one day.

Tips from the Trip: The flies that were productive were a size 14 Parachute Adams, 16 Mr. Rapidan, 16 Yellow PMX and Pheasant Tail Soft Hackles. Also longer leaders seemed to do better than a short one. We also caught a good number of fish at the very bottom of a pool.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

One More Day to Go!

I am sitting in bed, I can't sleep because I'm anticipating fishing with Steve Sylvis from Game Fair Ltd. Doug Moore, myself, Steve and one of his friends have been planning to get together for sometime now. We're scheduled to float the Clinch Wednesday and Thursday(Generation permitting). He's got a presentation with the Clinch River Chapter of Trout Unlimited Thursday night.

Steve is about as true a Troutbum as I can think of. The first time I met him he had a beard that hung half way down to his belt and you'd swear he'd just crawled out of the mountains. I thought man he is the real deal. He dosen't have the "long" beard any longer, but still smells fishy. Last year he spent the summer guiding in Alaska and has some absolute killer stories from being out there. Besides trout he also chases Redfish, Stripers and who knows what else.

Steve manages Game Fair Ltd's Hunting and Fishing Department. I know most of the folks over there by name now and they are all great people. Seeing as how we're all in the same business it's good that we can get along. I think it is better for us all that way. Steve also runs www.xtremetrout.com and as recently published a killer map of the Caney Fork.

The Caney fished off the Chain last year. I made about nine trips over there throughout the fall. It gets a bad rap for weekend fishing, but if you can hit it during the week, it can be awesome.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the generation.

Clinch River August 4th

A day that we could do no wrong. It is not very often that you have a day where everything comes together perfectly. The type of day that the fish cooperate and every fly that you pick seems to be the ticket. When those days happen you need to take advantage and really enjoy them. The only thing that makes it better is being able to enjoy it with friends.

It has been a few weeks since I last floated the Clinch. The rain and high water and possibly need for increased electricity had TVA running almost constantly. The flows are back to being conducive to floating and Doug and myself had the day off, so it seemed like a good idea to float. Coincidentally I had a new associate, John, start at the store and we invited him along as well.

We got on the water around 9:00am after having to weave the drift boat in between two bait fisherman's cars. I don't have anything against bait fisherman, but wish they would practice proper boat ramp etiquette. Anyways as soon as we got pushed off we started catching fish on dry dropper rigs. We stuck fish consistently all the way to first set of riffles. So consistently that Doug had landed 20 fish by the time we got to the first set of riffles and reluctantly handed the rod over to me so I could get off the oars. John had also landed a good amount, but was still getting some of the cob webs knocked off.

Doug and I continued to switch off about every dozen fish, which on this day didn't take too long. Since John was the newbie he got the front of the boat pass. All newbies get this the first time, and if they fair well, they'll get to row from them on.



Around noon we stopped for lunch and Doug got out to do a little wade fishing. I should say wet wading and for those of you that have fished the Clinch that is a cold proposition. While I was eating my sandwich I think I must have seen him land at least 8 fish!

Just as soon as we had pushed off John hooked up with a huge fish. All I saw was a gigantic brown tail flash as John set the hook. I thought this was the brown of a lifetime, but as it streaked by the boat I saw it's big scales. It was a very nice carp. Although John had my 8'4" 3wt Helios! in his hands with 6X tippet. I honestly thought there was no way we would land it, but I did my best to keep close to it with the boat as John played it perfectly. After a good fight we brought the bruiser to the net. Nothing better than a carp on a Midge with 6X tippet and a 3wt!



Just past Cold Water we got a text from Doug's girlfriend saying that severe thunderstorms were heading our way. Honestly at this point we had caught more fish than should be allowed and we reeled in our rods and headed for the take out. We had been lucky enough all day and did not want to tempt our luck any longer. This had been one incredible day that will be remembered for a while.

Tips from the Trip: The rig of choice was dry dropper with and Adams size 14 dry fly and midge dropper. I don't know if the dropper really mattered as the fish really wanted to eat that day. We used a red midge or the new Hickey's Auto Emerger in Sulphur/PMD, both flies were size 16 to 18. Long leaders of 12ft and 6X fluorocarbon was a must.

Tightlines,
Kris Maurer

Clinch River June

I’ve fished the Clinch six times in the last month and it has been fishing great! We’ve managed to catch good numbers and land a few respectable fish each trip. The menu has been made up of sulphur dries, split back sulphurs, pheasant tails and sow bugs in sizes 14 to 18. Most days We’ve kept the same size 16 split back sulphur on till it is literally shredded. Dry/dropper rigs or two nymph rigs with yarn indicators have been the name of the game. Once the sulphurs are done I'm sure it will switch over to more midges and standard tailwater fare.



Doug and I have floated Peach Orchard to the 61 bridge twice recently and fishing was spectacular. There is some really great water throughout that float. We landed fifty or more fish on each float. Both times we only made it about three fourths of the way before the water came up and pushed us out. There were only a couple places that get a little tight in a drift boat, but nothing unbearable and we had to get out once because we took a wrong turn around a shoal. I’m really looking forward to seeing the entire stretch on low water and really learning this river.