Current streamflow- 50cfs
Water temps- mid to low 50s
Hatches:
Blue-winged olives
Midges
Hot flies:
Parachute Adams 16-14
Griffith's Gnat 18-16
Chubby Chernobyl- 14-12
Pat's Rubber Legs 12-10
Pink eggs 18-14
Blowtorch 16-12
Walt's worms- 18-14
Rainbow warrior- 18-16
Jigged leeches & buggers- 12-10
It's been a week of beautiful, albeit dry, Fall weather in the Tellico area. Streams continue to run a bit lower than average although cool temps, especially in higher elevations have kept streams cold and the trout happy. The Tellico was recently stocked and now has a great number of bows, browns and palominos, with some substantially large fish. With the low water conditions, sight fishing for browns and bows over 20" is a real possibility this weekend.
Since stocked fish are in high numbers at the moment, we would recommend starting with your favorite 'junk' flies and working your way down to smaller and more natural patterns if the junk flies aren't producing. Once they're in the river stocked trout will soon switch over to a natural diet, usually in a week or two, so it doesn't take long for them to start looking for more natural offerings.
Brook trout are spawning in the highest elevation streams (3,000'+) so please keep an eye out for redds (clean gravel, fish paired up) and avoid fishing for spawning trout and consider fishing elsewhere. Our native brookies only inhabit around 10% of their natural streams in the Southern Appalachians, so need all the help we can give them to ensure their populations remain healthy.
Other wild streams in the Tellico area are still providing great dry fly action for bows and browns, but low water conditions are making these wild trout skittish, so use the utmost in stealth when approaching likely runs and pockets and keep your casts precise, using small dry flies.