Hiawassee River

Reliance, Tennessee

29 July 2004
 

    
Nice Bow on the River                            Mountain Shadow Cabins

 

This was one for the record books. My first true Guided Fly Fishing trip. Definitely something I haven’t done before. Thanks to my wife, Ann. She decided I needed something different for my 41st birthday, and set up a one day guided trip to the Hiawassee River.

 

Needless to say her intentions were three fold. Not only did she want me to have a special birthday treat, she wanted to get me out of the house that we recently moved into so she could unpack boxes without my “assistance” and wanted me to check out real-estate in southeastern Tennessee for future retirement purposes.  Two out of three ain’t bad. I didn’t get to see much land for sale.

 

Anyway, I arrive at the Mountain Shadow cabins at 6 PM on the night before the trip and proceeded to prepare all my gear that had set dormant for the last year and three months. I sorted through flies, lines, rods and kit to ensure I was ready to meet any contingency. My fly fishing gear was pretty much a mess after leaving it for a year while I was in Iraq.

 

My guide, Dane, arrived at the cabin at 10 AM sharp the next morning, and we drove to the put in ramp of the Hiawassee River for a day on of drift boat fishing for Rainbows and Browns. The river and conditions were looking pretty good. It was partly cloudy and about 80 degrees when we put in.

 

We started with a grasshopper and quickly shifted to a nymph in the late morning sun. Caught a few and a few more small ones. As the day wore on it began to cloud over and then it started to rain. Not a light rain. We’re talking major rain. We fished through it for a while and headed to a bridge over a feeder stream to wait it out and have lunch.

 

After lunch and the major thunderstorm, we headed out for more fishing using both dry flies and a black gold bead head woolly bugger. Both were productive and allowed me to catch several fish to include a nice 15 incher. While the weather didn’t clear completely, I wasn’t totally miserable since we were catching a few.

 

Cold, wet and exhausted, we exited the river around 8:30 PM and made it back to the cabin around 9:15 PM. A good day of fishing – much more relaxing than many of the self guided trips I’ve been on in the past. I definitely learned a lot and have plans to make return trips in the future – guided or unguided.

 

What did I learn?

 

  1. Long Day. 2-3 hour fishing trips do not equate to the endurance required for an 8 hour float trip. My arm was tired after all that work.

 

  1. Practice Makes Perfect. Related to the above, you gotta build up arm strength to cast for almost 8 hour straight – otherwise your technique begins to lag. It takes a lot of concentration to keep casting well.

 

  1. Guided Trips Are Cool. While I’m not a guided trip type person normally, this is was an experience I won’t forget. Dane was a great guide. He really helped me catch fish on an unknown river, and made it fun. 

 

  1.  The Hiawassee River is a great river in a beautiful setting. It’s worth your time and a trip to this unique fishery.