I am very excited to share with all of you a Winter Bucket List trip that I finally got to check off my list. But I’m really sharing it with you to let you know that I would love to advise anyone interested in taking this trip for themselves. The adventure is Fly Fishing for Sailfish. This angling event is actually very easy and successful by going to the right place at the right time and with the right captain. If you are interested, please let me know and I can give you more details and steer you in the right direction!

Here is one of many that my son, Colter, caught on fly in Guatemala. (this trip is recommended for Jan/Feb 2023).

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We had a wonderful experience working on an article for Waking Up In Boone, a fresh new site featuring awesome photography and stories on area sportsmen, artists, and a healthy crop of guides to scenic mountain activities and destinations. The author, Adam Miller, featured Judson and Colter in action in his story, Fishing in a Winter Wonderland. Photographer David Uttley joined us and captured some amazing moments, including this shot below to pique your interest to check out the article…

Also, click the image of Judson wading through frigid waters to enjoy this beautiful, short video on Instagram with more photos and video captured during our winter fishing excursion! Feel free to “tag” and “share” to help spread the word on how great mountain winter fishing can be!

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How Pam and I are longing for a trip down the New with you boys….good times.

We were just talking about some of our experiences with you over the years to someone the other day. Of all the Teambuilding experiences we had over the years, that our trips with ECO were by far our favorite. That says a lot considering we did a few trips to Grandover Resort and Spa in Greensboro to have spa services done!

We have many special memories, pictures, fish tales, and Judson Conway stories to treasure wherever we end up. I keep 2 photos of scenes from the New on my cube wall still – it’s my “happy place” and I can look at those and escape to another world whenever I need to. One is the abandoned white house with the fence around it to keep the cows out. : ) That’s my favorite spot on the river – except of course wherever we stop for lunch to eat crab cakes!

Tell all the boys Pam and I said hello and that we’d love nothing better than to be on the water with you guys.

Take care and happy fishing…
—Wendi

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(EDITOR NOTE: If you’re looking for a fun, productive float trip that you can enjoy on a quick getaway, then subscriber Eric Shea may have found the trip for you. It’s for rainbow trout and smallmouth bass with an outfitter who guides on numerous rivers in Appalachia. We think its such a find, that we’re adding Shea to our Subscriber Honor Roll and sending him a cap for sharing it with us.)

I had been itching to wet my fly line somewhere within a day’s drive of my New Jersey home, when I got a call from Cory Tumolo, suggesting I come down to North Carolina and fish with him for trout and smallmouth bass. I had fished with Tumolo two years prior in Dillon, Montana, and he proved to be quite competent as a guide, so I decided to take him up on his offer and booked two float trips with Elk Creek Outfitters in Boone, North Carolina. Boone has developed a reputation among lovers of the outdoors as a great base from which to fly fish, hike, mountain climb, kayak, and even ski. If you have never been to Boone, you will find it to be a charming and lively college town with decent restaurants, pubs and an array of good hotels and bed and breakfast establishments. I knew I would have a good time, but my expectations for the actual fishing were moderate. I was correct on the first count, but wrong on the second. The fishing was superb.

Elk Creek Outfitters (ECO) is owned by Judson Conway and Mark Gould, both very experienced fly fishing guides and natives of the area. Besides having extensive knowledge and experience of their home territory, they have guided in Montana, Alaska, and Chile, just to name a few places. All the guides at ECO are experienced, possess a wealth of knowledge and are extremely enthusiastic. It is a pure pleasure as a customer to see real enthusiasm in a guide. It happens, but not as often as it should. My son and I fished with Tumolo as our guide with our trip consisting of a smallmouth float down Tennessee’s Watauga River.

In my insatiable quest to fish as much trout water as possible, I had forgotten how fun fishing for smallmouth could be. While on the New River, we fished almost exclusively with small popping bugs and caught a lot of bass in the on- to two-pound range, a few in the three-pound range and one over five pounds. It was great fun, and the fish were feisty. The New River is virtually unpopulated, and I felt as if I were on a float trip somewhere out West. We floated eight miles of river and did not see one angler the entire day.

The river also has many, quite large muskie, and we tried to coax a few of them to bite by sight casting, using some big lures from time to time, but we only had some follows. This is a tough fish to catch, although a few anglers have landed some big ones with ECO. For those who enjoy spin fishing for bass, fishing with rubber worms can be incredibly productive here as well.

After an action-packed day of bassing, fishing for trout on the Watauga was a nice change of pace. The Watauga holds a small native population of brown trout, but is jammed packed with good-quality stocked rainbows. Most of the Watauga’s water is textbook dry fly water. We fished exclusively with #18 elk hair caddis with a bead head dropper on 6X tippet using a five-weight rod. The upper part of the river produced many smaller rainbows – 10 to 14 inches on average. We must have caught 30 or so trout in the first few hours of fishing. Floating this river also gives you the opportunity to nymph, if you wish. Nymphing can produce good action – and is the only way to go when you float over the “brooders” on the lower river.

The lower part of the river holds some very large rainbows – 19 to 22 inches on average. You can see them in the crystal clear water, and we spent a good part of our time trying to lure these monsters to our flies. This river is incredibly beautiful and offers every opportunity to catch many good-looking, strong fish. We fished a Saturday and thus experienced some traffic on the river. The river was not crowded, however. It was very tolerable for even the most discriminating angler.

While I did not have the opportunity to fish the South Holston, my son did, and this river holds large trophy trout, with two-pound fish common. Again, this is a picturesque river, and it offers more challenging/technical fishing, much like some of the larger rivers out West. These are difficult fish to catch but well worth the effort. Other fisheries in Southern Appalachia include the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, the New River in Virginia/North Carolina and the Holston proper in Tennessee. These are mostly smallmouth rivers, but they also host populations of trout when water temperatures are right.

ECO offers full- and half-day walk-and-wade trips for $250 and $125 respectively, and full-day float trips at $275 for one person and $350 for two persons. Everything the angler needs is supplied, from flies to sunglasses. Only licenses and gratuities are not included. They supply an excellent lunch, including crab cakes, and offer an overnight package, which is two full days of fishing and one night of camping, with two lunches, a gourmet dinner of steaks etc., and full breakfast for $425 per person. All in all, it is an excellent value, and I give it very high marks.

—Eric Shea

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In the eyes of many anglers, the elusive muskie ranks as the most difficult fish to catch, often being referred to as the “fish of 10,000 casts.”

If that’s true, Andrew Howard will be fishing on credit for years to come.

He began amassing his deficit last weekend during an annual fishing outing known affectionately as “Old Whitey Weekend” in reference to a particularly effective white plastic fishing grub that has become an integral part of their tackle selection.

On this yearly assemblage of eight Greenville-area friends on North Carolina’s New River, the standard quest is the smallmouth bass, for which the river is indeed much revered.

But in recent years, another fish has captured at least a few anglers’ imaginations.

“Every once in a while in the past few years our guide would get all crazy because he’d see a muskie,” said Howard, a veteran Old Whitey Weekend participant. “We’d try to sling a lure toward them a couple of times and of course, they’d never bite.”

But even a wily, big-toothed, top-of-the-food chain predator such as the muskie has to eat every once in a while, and last weekend happened to be one of those times. Suffice it to say that the Old Whitey Weekend got wild.

As the group of eight buddies and four guides set adrift on four raft-boats, lead guide Judson Conway of Boone, N.C.’s Elk Creek Outfitters offered this early observation: “Boys, these first several hundred yards are flat, so we’re hunting for muskies.”

Howard and his fishing buddy needed little prodding, quickly shunning the ultralight spinning outfits typically used for smallmouth bass and grabbing medium-action, seven-foot rods spooled with heftier line and steel leaders to withstand the gnashing of muskie teeth.

Thirty minutes down river the group had nary a bite. But the guide kept their confidence up, proclaiming that someone would catch a muskie “within 10 minutes.” Nine minutes later, while bumping the bottom of the shallow water with a six-inch long rainbow Rapala plug, Howard felt something that got his blood pumping.

“As the lure passed a deeper hole, it went straight down into the hole,” Howard said. “Twenty feet from the boat I knew I had more than something off the bottom. It was all frantic from there.”

The other three rafts drew near to watch the action and the muskie came to the boat in relatively short fashion. On the third attempt at netting, the muskie’s big head found the bottom of the net and was pulled aboard amidst much celebration.

“It doesn’t happen that often; our outfitter had only boated three muskies all year,” Howard said, “so everyone was excited.” 
After some quick photographs, the fish was released, but the excitement was just beginning.

“It was like we had broken the sound barrier or something, so we said, ‘Let’s try it again,’ ” Howard said.

“Our boat decided we’d fish for muskies until lunchtime.”

Shortly thereafter, Howard snagged his lure. While the guide was postioning and anchoring the boat in order to retrieve the lure and preserve the steel leader, Howard decided not to waste any time. He picked up his ultralight rod — equipped only with six-pound-test line and a grub — and began casting.

Another big muskie bit Howard’s grub.

“It just about broke the rod in half,” Howard said.

Fortunately, the muskie was hooked on the top lip and was unable to snap the frail line with its teeth. A minute later, the fish was in the boat.

“I was lucky enough to reel him right into the net,” Howard said.

Celebrations and photos ensued once more.

“In less than an hour we had boated two muskies and none of us could believe it,” Howard said.

The group spent the night in a riverside farmhouse, then hit the water again the next morning.

“It was flat water with a lot of structure,” Howard said. “It just looked like muskie.”

He was right. A boat up ahead yelled back that they’d seen a muskie swim under their boat. Ten casts later, Howard watched in amazement as a large muskie darted out of the depths and smacked his lure.

By 9:40 a.m. — less than 24 hours after catching his first muskie — Howard had reeled in a third.

The muskies, which were all released, ranged in size from 10? pounds to 12 pounds, 9 ounces. All were between 34 and 36 inches in length.

The fishermen spent the rest of the day casting for smallmouth bass.

“I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself had I caught a fourth (muskie),” Howard said.

Howard’s fishing partners — the regulars of the Old Whitey Weekend — kidded him good-naturedly.

“I told them that I thrived on their envy — that was my catch-phrase for the two days,” Howard said. “But they were really good sports about it. They would hound me a little bit, then offer some praise.”

Still, Howard admits that he’s been “giddy all week,” and the monster muskie memories have only fueled his passion for fishing.

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We would rate this a four star fishing trip!

—Michael & Linda Laughlin

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—John Augsburger
Cape Carteret, NC

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We saw trout yesterday that were world class. Although they did not end up in the boat, I am sure we had fish on and saw fish, that were over 30+ inches. The monster Striper that Dale had on at the end of the day was a perfect ending to an almost perfect day fishing.

wonderfully impressed,
—Chad Davis

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Luck would have it that the storm went both sides of the Cherokee National Forest, and our river, so our three guides decided it was a “go.” We were on the river by 8:30 a.m. Excellent, considering the six of us assembled there from Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee. It turned out to be a great day of fishing on the “Chucky.” The river’s scenery is magnificent, with little of mans’ clutter to mar the view on either bank. A hot lunch of crabcakes, salad and By Golly Pie on the river was interrupted by a 20-minute downpour, but the rain let up and we were on our way again in our three rowable pontoons.

Clark, my friend from Atlanta, and I probably landed 80 fish between us, including about 14 trout and the rest smallmouth on fly rods and light weight spinning outfits. I snagged a good size smallie that was blind in one eye, which, of course, provided me with bragging rights of best angler. “On that drift, do you know how hard it was to put that lure in front of that fish’s good eye?”

There are rumored to be some monster musky on this river, but alas, none peeked for us. That evening we arrived at our already assembled riverside camp while our guides/chefs quickly prepared a fine steak dinner for the six of us. It rained that night all around us, but not on us, which was nice, except the next morning the river was up another foot and colored darker than a witch’s wart.

After coffee, eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns and some discussion, it was decided that we would pull the boats and transport them to the nearby Holston River. The Holston, Upper, Lower and Lower Upper sections, yeah, I know it’s confusing, even to a native, has some great fish habitat on it as it flows from Virginia south into Tennessee, eventually joining the French Broad to form the Tennessee River. The Tennessee Valley Authority threw some dams in along the way, one of which forms Cherokee Lake, making the river mostly tailwater in Tennessee.

As beautiful as those habitats are, it’s not where we fished. That morning, we fished “citified” waters in the heart of downtown Kingsport with Eastman Chemical plant on both sides of us for miles. You’d think this would be “toxic” water, and likely was at some point, but today it is full of trout on the upper end where we put in and the water is cooler and then many smallmouth bass on the lower end of our float. It’s kind of strange fishing into effluent pipes, but by God, there are fish there. Now, we did not eat any of these, so I couldn’t tell you if they have a slightly off taste to them from the frying pan. Again it was a good day. Lunch of blackened Ahi Tuna was served on an island in the middle of the river with freight trains providing background music.

This was a great trip and credit has to be given to our guides Adam Vurnakes of Silverbow Anglers, Elizabethton, TN, and to Judson Conway and Evan Merrill with Elk Creek Outfitters out of Boone, NC. In addition to an unfathomable knowledge of the rivers we fished, they provided a first class experience for the six of us. If you’re “fishing right” with these guys, expect a reward of Blueberry Pie and a liquid concoction that goes down smooth, but for the uninitiated, “sure caries a bite the next morning!”

—David Ezell

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