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