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Home > Trip Reports > The Caney Fork River - October 28, 2006
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A nice little brown trout from the Caney Fork River.
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The rainbow from the rock bluff.
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My home waters.
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The Caney Fork River - October 28, 2006
October 2006
Smithville , TN
posted by Buster
Caney Fork River – October 28, 2006
Last weekend was the Caney Fork Outing for Middle Tennessee Fly Fishers, www.mtff.org, but I was unable to attend. I told myself I would make it to the river next weekend. On Friday I started questioning if I would be able to fish on Saturday, due to all of the wet weather middle Tennessee has been receiving. I figured the corps of engineers would be generating all day long. I checked the internet to get the generation time, and to my surprise I was wrong, the corps was operating one generator from 7 AM to 11 AM. This was great. I could run around Saturday morning, go to a couple of fly shops, and hit the river around 1:00 PM. This should allow enough time for the water to drop out and make the river safe to wade and fish.
I guess I should give some background information on the Caney Fork River since this is my first, but not last, trip report for the Caney. The Caney Fork is my home waters. I fish the Caney Fork fifteen to twenty times during the year. There are other trout waters (Elk River) near Nashville, but the Caney Fork is my home. The Caney Fork River is a cold water fishery and is the tail water from Center Hill Dam located about 50 miles east of Nashville, TN. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency, TWRA, releases rainbow trout and brown trout into the river throughout the year. The TVA and the army corps of engineers use the lake water to generate electricity off the dam and the generation is important for trout fishery.
Trout require cold water to survive and would not live during the hot summer months, if it were not for the cold water and dissolved oxygen from the bottom of the dam. But there is a thin line. If the army corps of engineers generates too long, and no one can fish the river; if they don’t generate enough, the water will get too warm and there will not be enough dissolved oxygen in the water and the fish will die. It is important to know that when the army corps of engineers is generating, the water rises several feet and becomes a dangerous situation for wading the river.
I arrived at the dam shortly before 1:00 PM and noticed about six cars in the parking lot. This was good; I should have a good portion of the river to myself. The weather was nice for this time of year. It was about 50°F to 55°F with a slight wind. I put my waders on, stung up my fly rod, and headed to the river. Instead of fishing at the dam, I decided to head down stream and try my luck there; hopefully everyone else is upstream. When I was planning this day trip, I decided to take my 9 foot, 6 weight fly rod. This was a very good decision. After I waded downstream, a strong wind kicked up and having the extra punching power of a heavier rod was needed. Fortunate for me, the wind would kick up and die down and was mostly down.
I started throwing midges and nymphs and had some luck, but I was not really “in the fish”. Of course, I and everyone else have to realize is that winter fishing is much more difficult than summer fishing. The aquatic life (bugs, bait fish, etc) slows down during the winter months, which means less food for trout. This is why trout spend all spring, summer, and fall fattening themselves for the long winter months. Don’t get me wrong, the fish eat during the winter months, but not as steadily as they do the rest of the year.
In the upper section of the river where I started out, I caught a rainbow, but mainly I was catching brown trout. This was fine by me, I rather catch the browns. I think they fight harder and are more difficult to catch. All of the fish were between eight to ten inches in length, which is small, but they were fighters. They jumped numerous times out of the water trying to shake that hook out of their mouth, but I am skilled fisherman. I know what to do and I landed several fish. I am a “catch and release” fly fisherman. I return all of my fish back to the water to survive another day. Hopefully, I will catch them again, but maybe next time the will be a couple of inches bigger. I do carry a digital camera with me, so I do have evidence I caught fish, but I don’t take a photo of every single fish. I wouldn’t ever get any fishing done.
After fishing several small runs, I waded down stream to a slow deep section of river with some trees that hang over the bank. I wanted to see if I could catch something a bit bigger, so I tied on a heavy weighted streamer, bait fish. I casted my fly line about four to five feet from the bank. I let the fly slowly sink several seconds before I started stripping the line back to me… then bam. I could feel the nice tug on line as the fish ran up and down stream and back again. After fighting the fish for a few seconds, I slowly pulled in the fish. It was a nice brown, a strong 13” to 14” inches, with bright spots orange spots, golden yellow belly, and white tips on the edge of the fish’s fins…what a beauty. I gently placed the brown back in the water and watched it slowly swim away.
If there is one, there has to be another. I casted back to the same spot and several other areas along the bank but no luck. There were a couple of fisherman about 100 to 150 feet down stream of me and I think they fished the bank pretty hard before I got there. I reeled in and moved on downstream. I wanted to fish a rock bluff and I still had about a quarter mile of river in front of me to waded, plus I was racing the sun. Remember, the sun is setting at 6:30 PM; now 5:30 PM due to the time change. Before I went on the White River Trip, I bought a Petzl Tactikka headlamp. The headlamp is light and comfortable. Plus, the head lamp has a red filter that flips up for night travel. I have the headlamp stashed in a pocket of my lumbar pack, next to my fly boxes. I was going to get some use out the headlamp tonight. I guess I should do a gear review too.
After a little walk, I arrived at the rock bluff. I like to fish the rock bluffs, but I never catch a lot of trout at this location. I usually pull a few rainbows out, but nothing to write home about. For some reason, I decided to switch flies, which now as I look back, that was not the correct thing to do. What is that saying…hind sight is always 20/20? I cut off my streamer and went back to the midges and nymphs. After several casts with no results, I tied on a black streamer and went deep again. I casted to the other side of the river towards the rock bluffs, and as I had done earlier that day.
I let the fly sink again giving it seconds for the fly to get deeper and deeper. I gave a quick short tug on the fly line to tighten the line. I then stripped the fly line a couple of times, pause, then several short strips, pause and then several more strips. Nothing. I casted back to the same spot and repeated the process. I let the fly sink, and stripped the fly back, but this time something hit the fly. This time, the fish was bigger, I could tell by the bend in my rod, and the difficultly of pulling the fish in. I got a quick glimpse of fish. It was a rainbow trout about 15” to 16” inches and as quickly it appeared it was gone, plus the fish took a souvenir with him…my black streamer. I was getting even. I tied on another black streamer and went back to same spot, but after several failed attempts I gave up and waded a little bit further down stream with a new black streamer.
Again, I went back to the same process, but now I was casting at a downed tree. Cast, let the fly sink, strip back…repeat, cast, sink and strip…Bam…Fish On! This fish was eager; it hit the fly hard and after several acrobatic jumps I pulled the fish in snapped a couple of photos and release the fish back into the water. This happened several time in the at little area. The sun was well down below the hills and the light was fading, but I was steady, still casting to and catching the fish. But now I wasn’t letting the fly sink as deep as before, now just a couple of inches. After about 30 minutes of steady catching and releasing, feeding stopped and the day was over; however, I didn’t receive the notice.
For me, when I’m not busy catching fish, my attention wonders and I start to notice the environment around me. I am standing in the river in 60 degree water and I looked up. The moon is hovering above the silhouette of the trees, the night sky is a dark navy blue, and the temperature has dropped and I can see my breath. I guess it is time to head home. I dug around for my trusty headlamp, reeled in my fly line, and tucked away my streamer for another day.
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