Latest / The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 37: Streamer Secrets and Dry Fly Dreams with East Tennessee's Ellis Ward

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S6, Ep 37: Streamer Secrets and Dry Fly Dreams with East Tennessee's Ellis Ward · The Articulate Fly

• 0:03
  Marvin: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
• 0:06
  Marvin: We're back with another East Tennessee Fishing Report with Ellis Ward. Ellis, how are you?
• 0:12
  Ellis: I am doing well, Marv. How are you?
• 0:14
  Marvin: As always, just trying to stay out of trouble. And, you know,
• 0:17
  Marvin: as I always do, getting ready for these things, I looked at your weather.
• 0:20
  Marvin: And, I mean, you're going to get a kind of a gully washer of rain,
• 0:23
  Marvin: but then you're going to have some really nice temperatures,
• 0:25
  Marvin: like 70s, maybe bumping into the 80s in the next 10 days or so.
• 0:28
  Marvin: So I imagine dry fly action is right around the corner.
• 0:33
  Ellis: Yeah, I feel like my doing well, Marv, how are you, was a little more effusive than normal.
• 0:41
  Ellis: Been out on the lower Watauga, well, generally a few days a week anyhow,
• 0:49
  Ellis: but really just with my eye.
• 0:54
  Ellis: Had a great day fishing last week with a good friend of mine.
• 0:57
  Ellis: Um he caught a couple nice fish and
• 1:01
  Ellis: i i was like i was a little cranky i
• 1:04
  Ellis: was kind of like i wasn't it was
• 1:07
  Ellis: kind of like not a good day of fishing for me because i was really excited to
• 1:10
  Ellis: start seeing more caddis movement and just
• 1:14
  Ellis: because it was kind of cold windy um water
• 1:18
  Ellis: was off color and still super early so
• 1:21
  Ellis: that has in the last four or five days started and really the last two or three
• 1:27
  Ellis: it's it's very much um heading towards peak it'll get thrown a little bit,
• 1:40
  Ellis: uh we have 45 mile an hour gusts almost all day forecasted for tomorrow and
• 1:48
  Ellis: And kind of similar, I'm sure, Friday, along with some rain.
• 1:54
  Ellis: So I will still be out, and we will see what happens.
• 2:03
  Ellis: But bugs typically, it's an interesting one because it's actually low pressure.
• 2:09
  Ellis: So I will have to report back on that.
• 2:13
  Ellis: It's actually going to be in the 70s tomorrow. But yeah, we're...
• 2:18
  Ellis: We're there, man. For anyone listening, a couple days, we're there.
• 2:23
  Marvin: Yeah, the important thing is to remember to cast under the wind.
• 2:28
  Ellis: Yeah, exactly. With a 5-weight and 10-foot leader, just give that nice little
• 2:36
  Ellis: extra double haul on the way in, and you'll sink right under there.
• 2:42
  Marvin: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And of course, I know you're, you know,
• 2:44
  Marvin: while you're excited for dry flies, you know, your heart is, uh, fishing streamers.
• 2:48
  Marvin: I would imagine your streamer bites probably been pretty good too.
• 2:54
  Ellis: Yeah. Um,
• 2:58
  Ellis: You know, it just goes as the streamer light does and somewhat fits and starts.
• 3:07
  Ellis: So the last couple of weeks, it's been low water on both rivers,
• 3:11
  Ellis: which, you know, I dedicated so much time to figuring out how to make it viable
• 3:19
  Ellis: to be streamer fishing in all conditions on both rivers.
• 3:24
  Ellis: And what it comes down to is it's it's growing to spots which isn't necessarily
• 3:32
  Ellis: a bad thing but um it's a little more focused and,
• 3:40
  Ellis: i don't know it takes you know when you have big water and you're just cruising
• 3:45
  Ellis: along and you know maybe maybe the water's a little off and you get some intermittent
• 3:51
  Ellis: hatches because the hatch activity is also,
• 3:54
  Ellis: if you think about the shape of the river and what dry fly shelves are and tail
• 3:58
  Ellis: outs and all that, when it's really low water,
• 4:01
  Ellis: things become very defined.
• 4:05
  Ellis: So the fishing...
• 4:09
  Ellis: Can be streamer fish and dry fluffing can be
• 4:12
  Ellis: great and and even nymphing in those conditions it's
• 4:15
  Ellis: like well they're obviously not in that four inches
• 4:18
  Ellis: of water right there maybe in that six
• 4:21
  Ellis: inches of water and you know
• 4:24
  Ellis: this plunge pool over here with with some
• 4:27
  Ellis: juicy log jams behind it's the place that we're going to be fishing so um yeah
• 4:34
  Ellis: like you said with the rain coming in we've had a couple pushes that has kept
• 4:38
  Ellis: the major tributary of uh the watauga the doe river.
• 4:45
  Ellis: Uh pushing some good water but you know
• 4:48
  Ellis: i i do love dry fly fishing and um i
• 4:53
  Ellis: put a post up a few weeks ago it's just i don't
• 4:56
  Ellis: know if it's because there's just there's so
• 5:00
  Ellis: many people that put up like macro pictures
• 5:03
  Ellis: of flies that just look so
• 5:07
  Ellis: incredible um or if
• 5:11
  Ellis: it's some sort of differentiating you know not not everyone does what i do but
• 5:17
  Ellis: not everyone does what i do with the dry fly stuff as well and uh it's that
• 5:22
  Ellis: is one the caddis hatch in particular and a few other their bugs and sort of
• 5:28
  Ellis: my knowledge of these seasons.
• 5:31
  Ellis: And if it were up to me, I'm not going to say 50-50.
• 5:37
  Ellis: I'd probably like 60-40, 70-30 streamer fishing.
• 5:41
  Ellis: But I like to stop and hit risers and have developed a pretty good map of where
• 5:50
  Ellis: they're going to be and what they're going to be over the years.
• 5:54
  Marvin: There you go. I've got a question for you, too, because as it warms up,
• 5:58
  Marvin: that also means more people are going to be on the water.
• 6:01
  Marvin: You've got the tubers, the rafters, and more fishermen.
• 6:05
  Marvin: Brenner wanted to get your thoughts on pattern suggestions when trouts start
• 6:09
  Marvin: to get more heavily pressured.
• 6:15
  Ellis: Yeah, so I would say that there's so many cliches that are about to come out of my face.
• 6:28
  Ellis: What I think you should focus on the most when things, I don't know,
• 6:33
  Ellis: feel not great is whatever your confidence pattern is.
• 6:40
  Ellis: And that's a reason why I have people fishing the white dungeon.
• 6:46
  Ellis: And if they can get the strip cadence down and understand the casting,
• 6:49
  Ellis: the drunken disorderly and certain other subset of people, the swim bug.
• 6:59
  Ellis: Something that you are looking at.
• 7:04
  Ellis: That's making your brain go, wow, that's about to get eaten.
• 7:09
  Ellis: That's about to get eaten.
• 7:10
  Ellis: That's every single time you're stripping and killing and stripping and killing,
• 7:14
  Ellis: you're just, you're ready for it to get eaten because that gives you an extra
• 7:18
  Ellis: two or three feet on your ass.
• 7:20
  Ellis: And within that two or three feet, you're just focused.
• 7:23
  Ellis: Those two or three feet aren't just farther, they're more accurate. it
• 7:26
  Ellis: they're getting next to that log jam not four feet from it they're getting eight
• 7:31
  Ellis: inches from it and so i don't want to say it's totally pattern agnostic um but
• 7:40
  Ellis: but man i i think that external,
• 7:45
  Ellis: factors like weather barometric pressure um you know what what the seasonality
• 7:53
  Ellis: the river what type of bass move it around,
• 7:56
  Ellis: cloud cover clarity, water column all that stuff is probably going to play in a little more,
• 8:08
  Ellis: but you know that said and,
• 8:12
  Ellis: Over the summer when we're getting, you know, 10, 15, 20 boats,
• 8:16
  Ellis: just within a section on the tailwater, I mean, 40 boats per river or more,
• 8:24
  Ellis: I'm fishing, you know, 2 to 10.
• 8:29
  Ellis: Getting that last light window and starting as late as possible.
• 8:35
  Ellis: And, man, fishing low water around a bunch of boats under blue skies.
• 8:41
  Ellis: You take the boats away it's still going to be a
• 8:44
  Ellis: tough sell so a couple other
• 8:47
  Ellis: things just to to add on to that just
• 8:52
  Ellis: when you're thinking about pattern and and if what you are doing is not working
• 8:55
  Ellis: um and i'll throw out one somewhat counterintuitive but um i don't know some
• 9:06
  Ellis: something to change things up,
• 9:07
  Ellis: going higher in the water column and something with a more pronounced kill.
• 9:15
  Ellis: And that's really where my swim
• 9:19
  Ellis: bug came into play, trying to get over log jams and weed beds and stuff.
• 9:22
  Ellis: And it's step cousin, twice removed to the drunk.
• 9:27
  Ellis: Something with neutral buoyancy or a lot of friction in the head that's going
• 9:38
  Ellis: to give you that side-to-side dog walk.
• 9:41
  Ellis: And it's going to sit a little higher in the water column because brown trout
• 9:46
  Ellis: is, you know, my experience, observations, I have not had the opportunity to speak to one.
• 9:51
  Ellis: But they're they're they're coming from below and
• 9:54
  Ellis: they're eating from the belly and when they're being wary
• 9:57
  Ellis: they're not chasing the thing out they're
• 10:01
  Ellis: not stalking it they're they may stalk it from a distance and wait for their
• 10:06
  Ellis: opportunity and then they're going to come and absolutely smash it you'll get
• 10:12
  Ellis: the occasional you know come come from behind kind of like a musky follow but
• 10:16
  Ellis: But throughout that process, you need to be able to control your fly.
• 10:21
  Ellis: And we talked about this, you know, months ago with trying to convert those
• 10:29
  Ellis: follows in eights. And, you know, general rule is shorter and faster.
• 10:34
  Ellis: So a fly that you can get more of those different triggers, be it an up and
• 10:42
  Ellis: down, be it a side to side, be it stop, speed.
• 10:47
  Ellis: So some of the hair bugs provide.
• 10:52
  Ellis: All of those things, they require more from the angler, but their ceiling is much higher.
• 10:58
  Ellis: And then last complete cliche is don't be afraid to go super small.
• 11:06
  Ellis: And it's way less exciting. And for me, honestly, it takes away a lot of the
• 11:11
  Ellis: visual fun of streamer fishing, especially as a tire.
• 11:15
  Ellis: Seeing the dynamics of something that I've constructed. constructed um but yeah
• 11:21
  Ellis: going going real small like a clouser or you know having fun doing like a little
• 11:25
  Ellis: micro game changer two-handed that stuff across places that people aren't really pressuring.
• 11:34
  Ellis: Um i've seen some some large solution and had some heartbreaks on on really tough days,
• 11:43
  Ellis: just saying you know what i've been fishing
• 11:46
  Ellis: the right side so much and i know there's good fish issue over there
• 11:48
  Ellis: but whatever this day has
• 11:51
  Ellis: sucked let's go left i fished
• 11:54
  Ellis: that one like last year and i
• 11:58
  Ellis: watched someone pull out a complete stud that surprised
• 12:01
  Ellis: both of us didn't make it in the boat so um
• 12:05
  Ellis: yeah once once things start getting pressured it's really you you gotta go go
• 12:12
  Ellis: with what you're most confident in on the end of your rod and then you know
• 12:18
  Ellis: start getting sporty with the places that you're fishing well.
• 12:22
  Marvin: There you go and you know folks we love questions on the articulate fly you
• 12:26
  Marvin: can email them to us or dm us on social media whatever's easiest for you and
• 12:30
  Marvin: if we use your question i will send you some articulate fly swag and we're going
• 12:34
  Marvin: to draw for some cool stuff from ellis at the end of the season and ellis i have to ask you,
• 12:38
  Marvin: was the Easter Bunny able to pick up those pastel colored bucktails?
• 12:44
  Ellis: He picked up a few. There's still a bunch left. I think between the handful
• 12:49
  Ellis: of releases and a couple other folk putting tails out, there's not a craze in demand.
• 12:59
  Ellis: I also didn't push him too hard, but still got some good tails left.
• 13:03
  Ellis: Left in, I got this shaggy gray that I always think every color is just bananas.
• 13:12
  Ellis: Shaggy gray, some purples, some yellows, but, you know, typical natural range.
• 13:21
  Ellis: But still a bunch of grade threes and fours, and I think maybe even a one or
• 13:26
  Ellis: two sporting around in there.
• 13:28
  Marvin: Yeah, and also, too, we know spring break, so people are distracted.
• 13:30
  Marvin: So, you know, folks, remember, we've got two great opportunities in our Patreon
• 13:34
  Marvin: community on the Articulate Fly.
• 13:37
  Marvin: One of them will get you a discount on some of Ellis' bucktails,
• 13:39
  Marvin: but there's another one where you get a $100 per year credit off a trip with Ellis.
• 13:44
  Marvin: And Ellis, before I let you hop, I got you again with the pun.
• 13:51
  Marvin: Why don't you let folks know where they can find you, talk fishing,
• 13:54
  Marvin: and get on your guide calendar?
• 13:57
  Ellis: Yeah, you can follow along with a portion of the flies that I tie and fish on
• 14:03
  Ellis: Instagram at Ellis Ward Guides.
• 14:07
  Ellis: And my website is EllisWardFlies.com.
• 14:14
  Ellis: Best way to book a trip and fastest way to connect with me is my cell phone.
• 14:19
  Ellis: Text or call at 513-543-0019. nine.
• 14:25
  Marvin: Well, there you go. Well, listen, folks, we've got some great weather coming
• 14:28
  Marvin: on the other side of the system.
• 14:29
  Marvin: You owe it to yourself to get out there and catch a few tight lines,
• 14:32
  Marvin: everybody tight lines, Ellis.
• 14:35
  Ellis: Appreciate it, Mark.