I knew they recently stocked for the opening of the DH area on Tellico. I figured today would be as good as any to venture out. I'm glad I did. The weather was great and the water even nicer. The flow was swift and cold. I took the water temp and it's right at 56. The air temp was in the high sixties when I began fishing at 1:30 pm. I caught a nice 11" stocker bow on a olive bh size 14 almost immediately. I began fishing upstream and managed to catch four rainbows in two hours. One was a smaller wild fish. Then the fishing slowed. I decided to walk back to my truck and fish downstream for a couple of hours. In the first big run below my truck I hooked in to a better bow. It was a solid 12". Then another hit immediately after, this one was the best fish of the day. It fought hard and long in the swift current and I almost regretted not bringing my five weight rod. I fished with my St Croix Imperial 4 wt. This is the old style of Imperial with the soft action. This rainbow turned out to be a solid 14" and very fat.
14" Rainbow from Tellico DH
I managed to hook another pretty good fish and then I began loosing them. I lost two in a row and decided it was time to take a break. After the break I moved with my truck about half a mile upstream. Here I caught two more bows. These were wild fish taking an orange stimulator on top. I saw major hatches today. It began with Little BWO's in size 20 and then midges and orange caddis came off.
Here's a picture from this lovely stream.
I quit fishing at about 6:30 and was pretty tired at that point. I only saw one other fisherman the whole afternoon. I guess everyone was at home watching the game.
14" Rainbow from Tellico DH
