A beautiful November brown

From us at Cumberland Drifters we hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Hopefully you were as fortunate as us and were able to get a few days off from the daily grind.  We know you ate too much.  We’ve never met a fisherman who turned down a free meal.  If you’ve met me (Brandon) it’s obvious I’ve never turned down any meal.  Unless of course it was a salad or something involving tofu.  That’s just gross and we didn’t get to the top of the food chain to eat that stuff.  Meat please….and don’t be stingy with the gravy….and pass the dressing.

So it’s winter.  That time of year when we as guides actually get to go fishing because most of you have shoved your fly rods into the back of the closet until it gets above 70 degrees again.  We don’t blame you, you can afford the wait.  Most folks look at fishing as a warm weather sport and at one time so did we.  That is until we became guides and your business forced us to pursue our hobby in conditions that were most unfavorable to you.  There’s a problem with being a guide in that it ruins your hobby to an extent.  We love being out there with you, don’t get me wrong, but by all means we would love to exchange seats with you and be that person fishing instead of the dummy rowing the boat.  You have to make hay when the sun is shining and that’s the choice we made.  So we fish when it’s cold…and we’ve become quite good at it.  What does that mean for the die hards?  Think about it.  The Cumberland River never freezes.  There’s always fish to be caught no matter what your thermometer says.  So go.  Get out there.  I’m not telling you to call us.  I’m telling you to go.  Fishing is good right now and it probably will be for a while.

So last weekend I had the pleasure of guiding two guides.  That never happens.  That’s like seeing Fox News agree with a democrat….or MSNBC praise George W. Bush.  So given this “I just hit the guide lottery” event I set these boys up with the big guns and we were going hog hunting with some streamers.  Guess what…nothing.  Streamer fishing was pretty much a non event.  When they killed the generator I insisted that we go nymphing and our luck changed.  Nymph fishing was…as it always is on the Cumberland, the way to go.  I really hoped for some good streamer fishing.  When it’s good there’s nothing better…but it sucked worse than Caddyshack II.

We have an interesting generation schedule going on right now and I kinda like it.  We’re getting a nice pulse of two generators in the morning and then no water for the rest of the day.  That means after 10:00 the water will drop for the rest of the day.  It only gets better as the water drops…as many of you well know.

Midges are hatching like crazy out there and you will see rising fish as soon as the water starts dropping so don’t forget your midge dries.  My money is on the old standby patterns.  Princes….zebra midges…copper johns…brassies…etc.  You WILL catch fish in the channels when the water is low.  Don’t have a boat? Wade and you’ll find fish.  Just know where you are and when the water turns off and how long it takes to get to where you are.  It moves at 4mph.  Figure out where you are and do the math.

We are more than willing to take the die hards out on a trip if you want to brave the elements.  We’ll have a hot pot of chili for you if you’re brave enough.  As for the rest of you we offer gift certificates for the holiday shoppers.

From Cumberland Drifters we thank you all for a great year.  We’re amazed at how many of you check our website and speak to us on the river.  We really do this because we love what we do.  We want every person that reads this to become a better fisherman and hopefully…in some way maybe we can help.

See you on the water,
Brandon

We didn't catch any big ones but we did get some nice fall weather on Saturday.

“Well that’s why they call it fishing and not catching.”  ”A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work.”  ”I just enjoy being on the water.  Catching fish is just a bonus.”  I heard all of these things over the course of this past weekend.  When it’s your job to make sure your clients catch fish….it IS a bad day at work.  Granted the office view beats the crap out of what most people see at work every day.  Unless of course you work at…..well you know what I’m thinking.

Fishing was slow all weekend.  We didn’t break the 20 fish mark on either day.  Sunday felt more like we were somewhere in South Dakota.  The 30 mph wind gusts made my shoulders feel like I spent the day doing pull ups.  For those of you who know me, you can chuckle at the mental image you now have of me attempting to do a pull up.  Even our go to honey holes let us down this weekend.  I drove home on Sunday feeling relieved that I wouldn’t be back on the river for a couple of weeks.  Maybe the water will drop and we’ll get our gravel bars back.

As of right now the flows have dropped from 3,500 CFS (Which fished great two weeks ago, then like doo doo this weekend) to 2,000 CFS and is projected to stay that way for the next week or so.  The river had dropped about 18 inches as a result so for the pedestrian fisherman this means you can finally go down there without screaming obscenities when you see the river.  You know who you are.  Sound travels much farther on water than on land….but thanks for the laugh.

Bread and butter bead head nymphs have still been working.  We tried everything under the sun this weekend and they still liked the standard fare when they did actually eat something.  Our good buddy, life coach, and world traveler Troy was back on the river a couple of days ago and said they caught a few on streamers and even moved a few really big ones but couldn’t get one to the boat.  This is a great time of year to go slinging exploded chickens at the big boys.  (Exploded Chickens is a slang term for big streamers.  Don’t call PETA.)

With the better flows I expect fishing to improve so blow off raking the yard and go fishing.  Or just do what I do and wait for a windy day to blow the leaves into your neighbor’s yard.  Sunday worked out nicely for that.

See you on the water,
Brandon

Our good buddy Howard with a nice 18" brown

Good morning from the land of 15 foot leaders and splitshot.  I have talked to MANY people this week who have been less than pleased with their trip to the river over the past two weeks so I want to explain something before we get into all of the fun catchy fishy talk.  When you look at the TVA website or the USACOE website and you see a big fat ZERO under “Generators” that doesn’t mean you can put on your hip waders and walk to Burkesville from Helm’s Landing.  Wolf Creek Dam has six sluice gates that each dump out 1,500 CFS.  Right now they’re running two of them.  The only way to see what they’re doing is to look at the data from the previous day on the TVA website and look at the hourly release totals.  Each 1,500 CFS is one sluice.  Two of them is essentially the same as one generator and will cover pretty much all of the gravel bars.  So if you’re planning a wading trip you’re pretty much hosed.  On a positive note the lake is just about where they want it and the flows will be down in a couple of days.  So if you’re reading this on Monday you can disregard most of what you just read.  Most people do anyway.

With the higher flows fishing from a boat is the way to go.  Some people have had good luck and others have not.  It’s all about depth and location when the water is up.  You won’t find as many fish in the main channels where the water is the fastest.  Concentrate on the insides of bends near structure.  We’ve been fishing anywhere between 8 and 10 feet deep with weighted nymphs and splitshot.  It’s like trying to cast with a fish already on your line and roll casting is almost out of the question but hey you gotta do what works.  I’m pretty sure my buddy Charlie was ready to kill me on Sunday after he tangled up for the 10th time trying to cast my crazy deep water nymph rig all day.  I don’t like making my clients use unorthodox methods but sometimes we don’t have much of a choice if we want to catch fish.  After losing my license to carry dynamite in the boat long leaders and heavy weight is the best I can do.

As we’ve stated in past reports, the browns are still on the move.  We caught a couple of pretty nice ones on Sunday but didn’t break the 20″ mark.  While anchored up at Helm’s Landing we witnessed a two footer come completely out of the water.  We exchanged glances and an awkward silence.  He knew I’d be back.

The weather is looking good and it’s looking like we’re going to stay dry for a while so flows will continue to improve for those of you who prefer to go on foot.  Just be careful out there.  If you fall in it’s going to take a LOT longer to warm up than it did a month ago.

See you on the water,
Brandon

11 year old Micah on his first fly fishing trip!

First of all I would like to kick off today’s report by saying congratulations to Chet and Kim.  Their wedding was the reason we took two weekends off from guiding.  The first weekend was the bachelor party fishing trip to the South Holston River in TN.  This is one of our favorite southern tailwaters and it didn’t disappoint on this trip.  Seven guys with a river house and 3/4 of a mile of private river access makes for a pretty darn good time.  We lauged, fished, gambled, and played indoor cornhole.  (It rained one night and we got bored)

Now that our heads are clear once again we’re back to fishing the Cumberland.  I think she missed us.

Saturday I had one of the great pleasures of guiding.  I got to take a kid fishing and not only get him on his first ever fly caught fish, but a whole bunch of fish.  Michah and his dad Garry spent the weekend in the riverside cabin and met up with me on Saturday morning.  It didn’t take long at all for Micah to get the hang of casting and mending line.  Within a few minutes he was a new addict and was out fishing his old man….mostly because his dad spent more time watching his indicator than he did his own.

Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday only much wetter.  The next couple of days gave the eastern half of the state over three inches of rain.  We were pretty much ready to call it quits for 2012 but much to our surprise the Corps of Engineers decided to give us an early Christmas present and NOT blow the river out.  So right now we’re still getting good fishable flows and it looks like that’s going to hold up for a while.

If you look out your window you’ll probably notice some leaves turning brown.  That’s mother natures way of telling you which species of trout to fish for.  Remember all of those big browns we were catching in the spring?  Love is in the air for our slimy friends and we plan on taking full advantage of it.

Right now fly selection is about as predictable as UK’s football team.  Midges and prince nymphs will catch fish and UK will lose on Saturday.  My advise would be to skip the game and go fishing.  It’s a lot more fun.

See you on the water!
Brandon

Shore lunch at our favorite spot on the river.

Flows on the Cumberland haven’t been this good in years.  The water is low enough to keep motorboat traffic to a minimum which is giving us the river to ourselves.  Yesterday was a beautiful Sunday and we saw three boats on the river all day.

Fishing remains really good on the Cumberland despite the lack of any significant insect hatches.  We saw very few rising fish all day yesterday.  It’s also sad to report that grasshoppers still aren’t really doing a whole lot.  As you may recall this time last year we were having a blast feeding these fish some foam.  I’m not sure why they’re not keying in on these delicious morsels but I’m not giving up just yet.  In the meantime the usual bead head nymphs are getting the job done just fine.

It looks like hurricane Issac is going to miss us and that’s a good thing.  We don’t need a flood in KY.  A little rain couldn’t hurt but it looks like this thing is dumping buckets of rain on the south right now.

If you go…and I think you should, make sure to think small during low water periods.  9′ leaders at a minimum.  We’ve been fishing 12′ or more with very small white indicators.  Think stealthy.  If you’re wading and you sound like a herd of cattle crossing the river don’t expect the fish to be there when you start casting.

This weekend we’re off to the South Holston for a bachelor’s weekend of fishing with one of our best friends.  It’ll be great to actually get to fish on the weekend for a change!  Have a great week everyone!

Brandon

Long time return client Mike with a 20" rainbow on 6x tippet.

Well folks we’re back in full swing now that our summer vacations have ended.  Fishing is still really good on the Cumberland despite the world’s worst daytime generation schedule.  Basically if you’re fishing the upper portion of the tailwater you want to be out there early.  We’re putting on as early as possible to beat the 9:00 A.M. surge of water coming from the dam.  We had a two boat trip on Sunday and both boats landed fish over 20″ long.  I even hooked a striper on the fly after the water came up and my clients needed a break.  Any time now we’ll be feeding these fish some foam as the grasshoppers are bound to start becoming a steady part of their late summer diet.

Small patterns are working better than big stuff under the surface right now and streamers are showing lots of variety after the water comes up.  We saw white bass, skipjack, and stripers on Sunday.

We still have some weekend dates open so give us a call.  The weather has been great!!!

Brandon

Mike Hughes ending a great day out with his daughter by landing this beautiful brown.

Sorry for the delay in getting an updated fishing report posted but I’ve been so busy on the river that I really haven’t had a lot of free time to actually sit down and do it.  Another reason for the delay is simply because not much has changed.  Fishing remains really good on the river.  It’s better in some places than others and knowing where to be can make the difference in a good day and a mediocre day.  We have been concentrating on places with moving water such as riffles and pools directly below riffles.

Fly selection hasn’t changed much.  If anything you might want to start using some lighter tippet and maybe go a size smaller on your nymph patterns, especially in lower water.  We’re seeing lots of grasshoppers in the fields so it might be time to try throwing a hopper pattern on top for some added excitement.

We’re taking vacation for a bit so you won’t see us on the river for a couple of weeks.  It’s been a great spring / early summer and we’ll be back in full swing towards the end of July.  In the meantime we can refer you to a few other guides who can take care of you should you need a last minute fishing trip while we’re gone.

If you would like a trip on the Cumberland or would like to try some of the excellent fly fishing in Tennessee give our friend Rocky a call at Rocky Top Anglers.   He guides on many of Tennessee’s premier tailwaters as well as the Cumberland.

See you on the water!
Brandon