Fly Fishing Guide and Fly Fishing Trips in North Carolina

Spring has arrived in the mountains around the beautiful city of Asheville, NC. With the warm temperatures the fishing has really turned on. From the tailwaters to the small streams to the smallmouth bass rivers- fishing is OUTSTANDING!

The blue winged olive mayflies have made for some excellent dry fly fishing on the Watauga and South Holston Rivers. Caddis flies are starting to appear and should intensify over the next 4 to 6 weeks on these rivers. Neither dam seem to be releasing much water right now, so the w ater is at an ideal level to really catch some large trout.

We are floating the Watauga River right now and wading on the South Holston. Beginners are having a hayday on the Watauga River float trips averaging 12-15 trout per angler w/ more experienced anglers catching from 30-50 trout with some real quality fish being caught and released. Small streams are all at GREAT levels for wading, with lots of bugs present- March browns, blue quills, B.W.O.'s, pheasant tail and stonefly nymphs should catch trout on any spectrum of the water column. Fish deep in the morning and expect to see fish rising in the afternoons.

The smallmouth bass have really started to feed over the past couple of weeks. Expect to get your strikes fishing deep and slow right now. Natural color and black crawfish patterns seem to be most effective. Vary the color according to visibility in the water. Floating the French Broad a couple of days last week produced several lunker bass for our clients. The key to catching the smallmouth right now is finding the holes. The river is unwadable so a boat is essential to reach these spots right now. The smallmouth action should really heat up over the next few weeks as the fish continue their pre-spawn feeding frenzie.