Okay, so me and five friends decided to do an overnight on the Nolichucky River that runs through upper East Tennessee and eventually backs up into Douglas Lake near White Pine, TN. The buckets of rain that were falling as I departed for Erwin, TN, that Monday morning in mid May didn’t bode well since the “Chucky” is a free stone river and any moisture from above builds the stream higher and makes it dark and almost impossible to fish.
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