Mostly Familiar Waters

In most ways Tennessee's Hiwassee River seemed familiar yesterday. It's the first place I ever fly-fished for mountain trout, and I've visited the same tailwater stretch numerous times over the years. It had been several years since my last visit, though, and the fishery has undergone changes.

One of Tennessee's most acclaimed trout rivers isn't producing the same quality of fish that it once did. I learned that from Bob Borgwat, a long-time friend, fellow writer and operator of Reel Angling Adventures, which runs guide trips on the Hiwassee. It seems that something has changed with the water-flow dynamics and the tailwater doesn't stay as cool through late summer as it once did. The result is that despite heavy stocking and restrictive regulations through a special "trophy section" the fish aren't holding over from year to year and the big fish are missing.

Well... the big trout are missing anyway.

The river also has huge stripers in it. They come up from Chickamauga Lake to feast on the trout. We actually started the day targeting trout and then hit some key holes where the stripers tend to feed, using big Red-Fins and swimbaits and such for the stripers. We caught lots of trout and had a blast doing so. The stripers eluded us.

The Hiwassee remains an outstanding river for catching plenty of trout and a fun place to fly-fish because of it's hatches and its open waters. And it will always be a beautiful river to float. However, I certainly hope the Tennessee Vally Authority will be able to identify and remedy whatever is causing the water temperature issues, because the Hiwassee is a big, productive river with fabulous hatches and was one of the best streams in the South not that many years ago.

Even as we floated yesterday, and I worked baits though beautiful runs above and below familiar shoals, I kept expecting to see the flash of a big brown trout's golden flanks. Bob told me that it probably wouldn't happen, and he was right.