Ian Rutter: It’s that time of year…

[Ed: Slaw dog afficianado and top guide Ian Rutter joins us with a post about the Summer Doldrums and what they mean in Tennessee. Welcome Ian!]

New Year’s Day gets all the press when it comes to turning over a new leaf, but I’ve noticed that the summer doldrums are really when hard core fly fishers break out of their standard routine and try something different.

For example, Tom has left the Upper Sac to chase smallies and trout in mountain lakes, while in the middle of an East Tennessee summer, the best hatches are over, the rivers are crowded with swimmers, tubers, and non-native (yet hardly exotic) fishermen.

There isn’t any shortage of good water to fish, even in the dog days of summer, but when you’re on the water almost every day, the combination of oppressive heat and fewer rising fish tends to take the wind out of your sails. I do one of several things to keep things exciting.

The first option is to take a long hike into a stream so far back in the mountains that the sunshine has to be piped in. Fishing is typically very good in these places, but the fish are generally small, the walk seems to get more grueling with every passing season, and I seem to step over more copperheads and timber rattlers every year. (I suspect I’m stepping over just as many as ever but my slower pace has probably helped me see them.)

The second option is to head for one of our trout lakes. These are relatively unknown outside a four-county radius and they fish pretty damn hard even if you know what you’re doing. I’ve always been partial to fishing the lakes with dry flies, but hitting a rising trout that you usually can’t see between rises is pretty tough, particularly when the fish rarely have any rhyme or reason to their movements. This fishing always starts out exciting, but usually loses its luster after a few close brushes with the skunk.

Smallmouth are always fun in the summer. If you hit the right river they’ll bite all day long plus there’s always a cast of secondary species that will come to the fly. Bluegills aren’t a bad way to go when the smallies aren’t eating.

Plus, smallmouth rivers are almost always empty. In this corner of the country, bass fisherman own $30K bass boats with 150 HP engines, and apparently you’re legally required to use them to zip up and down the lake at 70 MPH.

River and stream fishermen tend towards trout so the river smallmouth occupies an interesting yet unexploited niche. [ED: face it - fly fishers don't love smallies like they should. More for you and me...] While this brand of fishing is rarely red hot during the hottest days of the season, at least it’s new, plus it makes me wonder just how good it is during the prime time when caddis and mayflies are proliferating back on the trout water.

Click to read Ian Rutter’s East Tennessee fishing reports.