Random Thoughts of the Day - March 13th, 2026

Today's Ponderings:

1. Need to drum up some plans for the weekend. The dam for our local tailwater has been dumping water nonstop, so that's likely going to be a bust. We'll see if they give us a break for the weekend. If not, I might check out an access point for another river that supposedly has good smallie fishing. Worst case scenario, I've got a small pond in a park near my house that I haven't checked on in over a year, and could take my 3wt out to see how that's doing.

2. I needed to refill my tailwater box, which means midges. This time, I flipped through as many midge pictures as I could find, and there is a distinct silver/grey coloring with reddish copper segmentation. Here's a good example from the FlyGuy's website. So I tied up a bunch of them in larva and pupa form.

   

   
   

Trip Report - Early March Smokies

This past Saturday, March 7th, 2026, I headed into the Smokies to try to catch a BWO hatch. I'd heard that the Quill Gordons were hatching, and with temps on the rise and an incoming storm front, I figured there was a good shot for a BWO hatch. So I spent the week tying up some Parachute BWOs, RS2s, and pheasant tails in a variety of sizes and headed out to the park with my 8' 4wt Fenwick Aetos, along with a couple new things I was testing out.

Flies for the day. (Also, this may be the worst flybox picture ever. Straight to picture jail.

I fished pretty much straight through from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., switching between a double-nymph indicator rig and a short dry fly/dry dropper rig. For the indy rig, I usually was fishing a chunky size 14 beaded hare's ear or pheasant tail, and an RS2 or smaller pheasant tail below that about 18-24 inches. For the dry setup, it was a Parachute BWO with an RS2 about 12 inches off. I usually use loop-to-loop connections for my leaders, but I think I'm going to just tie a clinch to my fly line loop from now on. It just saves a bunch of time when making those changes, and doesn't remove a whole lot of material from the butt section of my leaders.

Fishing conditions were a bit challenging. Aside from casting space being limited, the flows

were up and the water was fast moving. Casts had to be well-placed to get good drifts to the bottom of surprisingly deep holes. Thankfully, there were a few sparse Quill Gordon hatches throughout the day that brought fish a little higher in the water column. This made things a little easier, but I still had to nymph for most of the day. Also, sadly, the BWOs were missing in action throughout the day. A couple more weeks. All in all, I caught three fish that punched above their weight in self-justification. I did not get skunked, and that's good enough for me.

But more importantly, I learned a lot. I learned that there are lots of ways to approach a target, but getting down quickly and keeping a tight connection to something, anything, will result in more fish. I've read about these principles nonstop, but there's no substitute for getting the water and seeing and feeling these principles in action.

I've learned that I need to slow down, stop to read the water, get into position with a good angle on my target, and execute my best cast on the first attempt. I've learned that, while fishing directly upstream gives me the best angle for not spooking the fish with my silhouette, it is an extremely difficult angle for managing line, especially in fast water and casting with some distance. Rather, I'm most effective when taking a bit more time to get a little closer to the fish and fishing at a 20-45 degree angle.

These are fundamentals that are required for success on my local tailwater. I'm eager to get back there and put them to good use.

Until next time...

Random Thoughts of the Day - March 11th, 2026

I'm working on a summary of my trip to the mountains this weekend.

Today's Ponderings:

1. If I'm out for the whole day, I really don't like carrying around my water. Water's heavy and I'm old. So I usually bring a water filter. I was using a Nalgene with a LifeStraw, but wanted to streamline the process. Enter the Platypus Nalgene Daycap Water Filter. Really great product, makes staying hydrated super simple. The bottle stays empty and clipped to my wading belt on a carabiner, and I just fill it and drink when I need.

2. I need to start experimenting with where I put weight on my two-nymph rigs. I've always run the heavier fly on point, lighter fly on dropper, but mainly for avoiding tangles.