Fish Friday

I spent the day at the Caney with the men of the Harston family.  From all accounts, it was a slow day for every one on the river.  Due to the fact that I forgot my sunglasses on the brightest day of the week and also that I threw my 2.75 reading glassed in the trash along with my empty Dr. Pepper can I didnt change flies as many times as I should have.  Excuses, excuses.  I caught three rainbows all fairly small and that was it .  I don't think the boys did much better.  I tried midges, scuds, and soft hackle and none really worked.  Earlier in the week they caught a bunch.  Other than the fishing, it was a great day spent with great friends.  We'll try it again, soon I hope.  Until next time, Pappy.

Almost a Movie

I decided to go fishing today because I wasn't sure when I would be able to go again, due to the fact I may be doing some painting for the next few days.  I was sure it was going to be a little chilly but I didn't know snow was in the forecast for the afternoon.  I got onto the water about 10:15  again below the steps at the nature trail.  Total time on the water was 5 hours, a long time to be standing and wading.  The morning started off slow with only a few bites and a couple of catches.  The aggravating thing was that the fish were surfacing all around me and would not take what they had been for the last couple of times; soft hackles, nymphs, scuds and some that don't have names.  A fellow fisherman that had caught a few told me to try a midge, that's what he was using.  Well, low and behold, that was the ticket for the next couple of hours.  When that quit, I went back to the scuds and finished the day in a blowing snow. Oh, about the movie.  Caught 22      Until next time, Pappy.

A Good Day In The Rain

Today, I was already close to the Caney so I decided I might as well finish the day fishing.  By the time I got on the water the clouds had opened up a little and the sprinkles began and continued for the next 4 hours.  I guess since the fish were already wet it didn't bother them other than they wanted to test the flies before they decided to eat them.  The first 5 trout I had on got off after about three strips to the line and that was only after I had been on the water for about 20 minutes.  About that time, a drift boat guide and his client floated up and we chatted for a few minutes.  As soon as he paddled off I netted my first, a beautifully colored Brookie. The fish today were scattered in the weedy, shallow water for the first couple of hours.  Later in the afternoon they had moved to the deeper water areas but still close to the bank .  By the end of the day, I had caught a mixture of rainbow, brown and brooks  Most were in the 10-12 inch range.  According to my counter, I ended up with  14.  A pretty good day to play in the rain.  Until next time, Pappy.

Back to Wading

I was awakened this morning by a text from a former relative around 6 am so that made my mind up to go fishing.  I decided to wade today since the last canoe trip wasn't very good.  I got in the water below the steps at the end of the nature trail close to the dam about 8:56. I then proceeded to walk in the woods another 7 minutes to an area I had never fished before.  There was only one other fisherman down that way so I figured I had a decent chance to catch a few.   I caught one rainbow and two browns within the first fifteen minutes and then ten minutes later I had caught three more browns.  By the end of the afternoon, I had caught a total of nineteen trout including two beautiful brookies.  I'm going to try to get a picture posted if I can get this thing figured out.  That's all for now, until next time.  Pappy

A little catch up here.  I finally decided to get out in my boat/canoe since I had had such good luck with Bill B.  I probably fished a total of 6 times around the dam, once with my next door neighbor and another time with my friend Buddy H. and the rest of the time by myself.  I averaged 25 trout while by myself with a high of 35 in about  4 hours.   There wasn't much of anything they wouldn't hit.  I then took off for about 3 weeks and went back yesterday.  My how things changed.  The weather had gotten much colder in that time, the time had changed; it was getting late earlier. The fish would not co-operate.  I only had 4 hits in 2 hrs. and tried several different flies.  To top it off, I almost flooded my canoe.  That was enough for one morning.  I'll probably get back to wading for a while, I don't want to go swimming in 50 degree water.  I'm going to try to go one more time before Thanksgiving and I'll report then.  Until next time,  Pappy.

Hi y'all.  I've been to the Caney maybe two or three times since my last post.  Each time the fishing was different.  One time the fish were hitting the dry fly and occasionally the nymph dropper.  The next time they weren't hitting anything.  The last time I switched to a sinking tip line with midges and bead head pheasant tails and caught 9 in about an hour and a half, even in shallow water.  Go figure.  I'm hopefully going Friday the 13th, tomorrow, maybe I'll have good luck.  Until next time, Pappy P.

I went to the Caney today after the generation completed.  Kinda slow at first and then the trout began to and I was able to catch two brookies and a brown in about two hours.  I then took a break and came back about 6 pm and stayed until dark.  I caught 4 more, 3 browns and 1 brook using a yellow dry fly with a brown zebra midge dropper.  All in all a good day.  Until next time.   Pappy P.

Good day on the Caney

This is my first post in almost 2 years mainly because there ain't been anything to post about.  I got to the Caney today at 9:00 today and spent time at Happy Hollow until the water started rising.  I had not a single bite for the hour and a half.  I took a couple of hours off and went to my stepdad's house and worked on killing some weeds.  I then went back after the generation stopped and fished close to the dam.  Things were much better there.  There were two rises that lasted about 10 minutes each about an hour and a half apart. I caught 10 of my 14 fish during this time.  Most were small, but fiesty browns along with a couple of brooks. Once the 2nd rise had passed, not much happened.  I caught 1 other brown and then went home,  I hope to return soon.  Oh, by the way.  I took a trip to Montana for a couple of weeks the middle of July.  What a time!                                         Until later,  Pappy

Back to Fishing

Buddy was headed to E. TN for a golf tourny and told me the water was low on the Caney; I got my gear together and decided to give it a try Monday afternoon. I first stopped at Happy Hollow with no luck. A drifter said he and his client caught almost 60 between the dam and HH but nothing at HH. I went to the dam area and caught 2 small bows in about an hours time and decided it was time to leave. The water was perfect for a 250cfs day. I has planned on fishing today but rain started about 6 a.m. and I felt like the day could best be spent at home, so that's where I am. Until next time. Pappy P

Time for EBAY?

River is up. No boat. Is it time to put my flyfishing stuff on EBAY? Not. Better days are ahead. Till next time PappyP

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

Good Morning and a Merry Christmas to you and yours. We have a small amount of snow on the ground in Brentwood but none on the streets. I don't know if this qualifies as a White Christmas or not,but its better than nothing. Now to the fishing. I went to the Caney yesterday with the Harston Brothers. I arrived a little after generation subsided and fished at the dam area along with a couple of other guys. The brothers got there a little later. The fish were there,surfacing and jumping like they were glad to see us. I guess they were playing hide and seek. They did an awful good job of hiding the rest of the afternoon. There was maybe one caught fish and very few hits. It was about time to leave in order to get back home for Christmas Eve festivities so I stopped by Happy Hollow for a few minutes. The water was still receding, there was also some surface action but no hits for me. Packed up my stuff and went home cold but still was good to be fishing with friends. Until next time Pappy P

A Decent Afternoon

I arrived at Happy Hollow Monday afternoon around 1:00. The water was going down but slowly. I had spent the last few days tying flies in anticipation of a day on the water. While I was approaching the water, I noticed several fish rising in the distance. Maybe good, maybe bad. Kinda in between for me, I'm still not sure what to throw so I didn't waste much time on any one fly. They seemed to like the tan midge with a little bit of dubbing more than any of the others. I had 6 hits on it with the best fish to the net being a 10" rainbow. That was also the best of the afternoon. More tying today for next time. Until next time Pappy P

Catching Up Again

Hi Y'all I guess I've been fishing 4 times since my last post. If I had done real good, I wouldn't have taken so long to post. The only decent day I had was at Betty's Island. It started out slow, but a fellow fisherman put me on to a fly pattern that worked for him so I tried it and vwela it worked. Even better when the current started getting a little more swift. A medium size green wooly bugger was the trick. I came home and have tied several colors along with a few whites to match the shad, if I get the chance to go back. This has been a great week, my son and daughter are in from out of town and each brought their children. So no fishing this week but that is fine. Until next time Pappy P

Getting Caught Up

I've fished a few times since my last post. A couple of times on the Elk with Buddy and a couple of other times on the Caney by myself. We fished out of the canoe on the Elk and had some success. I really put Buddy on the fish like a good guide should do. I would throw my fly a few times in a good spot and then allow him to throw in the same spot and catch the fish. This happened on more than one occasion, just to show how charitable a person I really am. I guess I was just as charitable on the Caney with the other fisherman because the same thing happened there. Now, to the present. I went Friday and Saturday to the Caney. My best day was Saturday after a mid-morning hatch. I had no luck the first hour at Happy Hollow until the hatch. At that time, I changed to a home made tan emerger that caught 4 rainbows in a 15 minute period. Two were 12 1/2 inches, one was fourteen and the biggest was 16. After that, the action died down considerably, for me. There were two Latinos with spinning rods that did quite well. I wonder why a game warden can't sit in the parking lot and earn his salary and then some on a Saturday. Just saying. Until next time Pappy P

Not a bad day

I'm a couple of days late posting, I've been so busy doing not much of nothing. I made the trip to Caney on Monday the 14th and arrived at the water at 11:00. The weather was perfect, a little warm, a few clouds and a slight occasional breeze. Not many fisherman but several groups of canoers landed. Within 10 minutes I had netted my first fish, a rainbow about 8" long. After a long drought, as a matter of fact not until the generation flow made it to Happy Hollow, I started catching more fish. It seemed like the swifter water really turned the fish action on. They were surfacing more and some were even leaping out of the water. I did manage to catch 3 more fish with a few more hookups. All in all a good day for me. I got to spend a day with Mother Nature and witness God's excellence. Until next time Pappy

This report is a few days late, I've been so busy doing nothing that I didn't take the time to quit doing what I wasn't doing to take the time to post this report. I did take the time Monday to go to the Caney to see how the fish were doing. The weather was perfect, warm with a few clouds and a slight occasional breeze. I drove by Happy Hollow fist

Finally Back

It's been awhile since my last post due to the fact that I haven't been fishing or tying I was in the vacinity of the Caney today helping my stepdad stain his deck at his camp on Center Hill so I figured I would try some fishing after we got thru. I got to the river at 5 30, generation started at 4 so the water was already running pretty good at Happy Hollow. I fished about 30 mins. and then got out of the water. I had no luck but a guy above me caught two nice size browns while I was there. So the fish are there, finally. That's all I got. Until next time. Pappy

Short,Wet Day

I headed toward Caney Fork with two purposes in mind. One was to fish for a little while and the other was to meet my mother and step dad at his camp on Center Hill. Well, I accomplished both and to make a short story long here goes. I arrived at my fishing spot about 9:30 and the setting was perfect. The water was still down, the sun was shinning and the cows were mooing. I started casting into some still water that turned into ripples and nothing happened. As I moved downstream into the more calm and deeper water, I thought that the water was getting quite a bit colder. It wasn't getting any colder, it was getting closer, as inside my waders closer. I then remembered scraping them on a fence earlier and low and behold a small tear. Well, not to be denied, I continued to fish and did hit a hot spot with five casts in a row resulting in a bite. I only hooked two but that wasn't bad the way things had been going over the last few weeks. The water had started to rise and I figured I better get out of there. Oh, when I got out of the water, I guess I looked like Chester, walking with one leg full of water. I guess if I had taken my wading belt off, I could have filled up both sides and looked like the Michlein Man. Anyhow, that was pretty much all the fishing that was done and then off to the camp to spend a little time with the folks. The end of a beautiful day. Until next time Pappy P

On the Road Again

The H. Bros. set the meeting time for this morning (Sat) at Cracker Barrel at 6:15. I get a call at 5:55 wanting to know where am I. Just getting on the interstate I reply, I'll be there at 6:15. Your posed to be here at 5:45 I hear on the other end of the line. My text said 6:15 I reply, oh well I meant 5:45 he says. Anyhow, I get there at 6:15 and we get to Caney at a little after 7:22. The skies were overcast with a threat of rain that never materialized into the real stuff. We put in at Happy Hollow and went up to the first island and casted our way back to the ramp. Nary a bite amongst the three of us, even with a spinning rod. We had to leave at 11:00 to get one of the Bros. back for whatever. When it was time to get the boat out, one of our neighbors from down south had parked his truck right in the turnaround spot on his second trip of the morning after disposing of his limit of fish earlier in the morning. I asked him to move his truck so I could turn around and he kind of looked at me indifferently and then I told him that the sign stating no parking down here was at the top of the ramp, but it was written in English. He finally got the message and politely moved his truck to the top of the ramp. I think this was the same fellow that had a few fish on the gravel bar when we got there and one of those big, long nosed birds carried off two of his fish. Pretty entertaining. We may have learned how to say "nice bird" in Mexican if we knew exactly which words were which. Another good day to enjoy fellowship with friends and enjoy Mother Nature and her marvelous works. Until next time Pappy P

New Waters,New Fish

What could be more appealing on a Friday morning after a theraputic workout at the gym than to fish some fairly new waters. My friend Buddy and I went to the dam area of the Harpeth and immediately saw a whole lot of fish in the shallow water where the rippling waters flow. I guess the theory that if you can see the trout they can see you. They hit at my first couple of offerings and then nothing after several changes. I then moved down river after hearing Buddy holler twice that he had fish on. I then proceeded to catch a 14", then an 18" and then a 16" rainbow in the swift water. Buddy had caught a 14" rainbow and then a smallmouth bass a little farther downstream. All this occurred in a 30 minute period and then it stopped except for maybe a couple of small hits. We left around 11:30 to make sure Buddy had enough time to attend to his his gold business. What a life,huh? That's all I got for today. Until next time Pappy P