2016 Spring fishing is on!
Get ready to catch a LOT of these guys!!
Rainbows, brook, and brownies are getting ready get feisty!
Spring has finally arrived in the bluegrass! After several recent rounds of teasing weather, spring is finally happening! It’s a great time of year with blooms everywhere, foliage turning lush green, and fishing plans materializing. Hopefully everyone has their fishing license and gear ready to go. I've been chomping at the bit for spring. I've tied enough flies to last all year waiting for spring conditions. Weather and temperatures as recently as last weekend have been up and down. Fishing on the Cumberland has kind of been the same. TVA/ COE have been ironing out generation schedules and water releases look to be quickly becoming favorable for fishermen. As usual, the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place is water quality. It won’t be long before the Cumberland River is back to its old self though. The river exhibits the same pattern of requiring time to increase clarity year after year. It will take a little while for the chalky/milky to go away, but once it does you better hang on. Cumberland trout are ready to stop fighting the wall of water they’ve been staring at all winter and start their spring feasting.
Expect catching tons of these average sized rainbows right now.
Earlier this week I made my first visit to the river. Fishing was good in the morning, fair during the middle of the day and red hot in the afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful and only one other boat was seen all day. That's getting ready to change. Nothing of any real size was netted, but plenty of 15-18” fish made it to the boat. I fished with a 4 weight for a couple of hours just for fun and had a blast! Several of the rainbows caught were thick and healthy. Brooke trout are everywhere. I noticed that there are a few new sweeper trees in the river that weren’t there in the fall, keep an eye out for them. Flies that produced fish to hand were bead head black wolly buggers, large hares ears, small chartreuse/white clousers and a very productive egg pattern that I learned from steelhead fishing the Pere Marquette in Northern Michigan. Takes were strong so watch those indicators. Remember to check your line if your indicator ticks even a tiny bit. Great fishing is right around the corner!
A look at current river conditions
Changing subjects now, the Hatchery Creek project is basically complete. I had the opportunity to meet with members of the Louisville and Lexington Trout Unlimited chapters on April 9th and plant trees along the bank in several areas. When the work was done Brad Redmon the design guru and trout freak from EcoGro in Lexington took us all on a very detailed tour of the entire creek. The tour was cool because Brad was very generous with his intimate knowledge of the creek. If you see Brad, shake his hand, he and his team did a great job. This thing is going to be very nice when it establishes it’s habits. This creek is something that we should all be very proud and appreciative of. I’m sure it’s going to be very busy for a while, but it will calm down soon enough. I was glad to hear Brad state that Hancock Biological Station from Murray State University will be involved with stream studies. I spent quite a bit of time over two summers at Hancock during graduate school years ago and am proud that my alma mater is going to be involved with this project. Small stream trout fishing has just arrived in full force in KY! Opening ceremonies are scheduled for April 29th.
Hatchery Creek
In all, spring fishing on the Cumberland is heating up fast! If you would like to schedule a trip I still have a few dates available. Give me a call or e-mail and let's go fly fishing!
Respectfully,
Greg