Will with a nice fish on dry-dropper rig.
May Fishing Report For South Holston & Watauga Rivers:
May is here and many would consider it to be one of the very best months to book your trip to fish the South Holston & Watauga Rivers. This spring has been a little more challenging than a typical spring. With low water around the clock on both rivers and most of the fishing pressure being applied to the upper Watauga the fish have started to get selective. Being stealthy has been the name of the game to put more fish in the net. I have kept 3 setups in the boat that I rotate between depending on water type we are fishing and fish activity we are observing:
Jerry with a monster brown trout that was sight nymphed on the South Holston
T&T Avantt II 9′ 5 wt Fly Rod (Dry Dropper) – this is the setup I use when fishing water that is less than 3 feet deep to avoid spooking fish in low water that have became indicator shy. I am fishing this rod with an 11 ft 5x leader to some sort of visible but not too obtrusive dry fly as an indicator, a micro chubby or elk hair caddis… olsens front end loader is one of my favorites for this tactic. I find using an oversized dry can put these fish down just as fast as a regular indicator. I’m using dries in the 14-16 range that have enough buoyancy to float the nymph. I fish a tungsten beaded dropper under this depth depending on what part of the column I’m taking fish. It’s best to experiment with this until you find the sweet spot.
T&T 10’ 4 wt Avantt II Fly Rod – This is my everyday tailwater indicator nymph rod. I’m fishing this setup in water depths 3 feet and greater with broken and swift currents where I typically couldn’t keep a dry dropper afloat. I’m fishing this setup with a 7 1/2 ft 3x leader to the yarn indicator and then dropping my depth below the yarn depending on the water I’m fishing. With these pickier fish I’m catching most of my fish on 18-22s on 6x tippet. Drab flies have been the name of the game. Give the fish less things to say no to!! No hot spots no flashy ribbing. Keep it simple less is more!
T&T Paradigm 9’ 4wt Fly Rod (Dry Fly Rod) – this needs minimal explanation.. it’s sulphur season for the next couple of months. You will see some bugs hatching most afternoons and evenings. I fish a 15 ft 6x leader. Keep the fly line away from the fish and the long leader reduces drag substantially.
Plain drab pheasant tail nymphs… when dealing with picky fish give them less things to say no to. Keep it basic and realistic!
Flies:
Tungsten pheasant tail (16-20)
Walt’s worm (16-18)
France fly (16-20)
Zebra midge olive (20-24)
Weiss BP (18-20)
Splitcase (18)
Sulphur cdc comparadun (18)
As of 5-14-2025 the South Holston Reservoir is full and the predicted outflow is showing we will start to see some generation! As of now they are predicting 12 hours per day of generation. This will kick off some great fishing moving forward on the “SoHo”. This will cool things down spread out the fishing pressure and kick the fish into feeding mode with a ramp up in flows and bug activity. I would predict we will see sulphurs on the soho most evenings moving forward.
The rest of the month we will also see opportunities to target large lake run browns as they continue to migrate into the river. For the technical angler after the trophy brown trout this is your time to shine. These fish will be in the river from now through the rest of the season.
My May calendar is fully booked but I have some availability in June which is also a great month to fish these rivers! Give me a shout and let’s get you on the calendar to take full advantage of these upcoming opportunities!
Tight lines,
Sam
