Tennesee’s Wild Side Weekly Article

Two For One Weekend

By Richard Simms

Randy Holder looks on as Guide Larry Self shows off a pair of healthy bass taken from the Holston River. TWRA biologists call it one of the most productive smallmouth streams in Tennessee. Photo by Richard Simms, www.ScenicCityFishing.com/

Decisions, decisions, decisions - what to fish for?

There are so many choices - largemouth bass, smallmouth, crappie, catfish, bluegill, trout or even rockfish. It’s just hard to do it all.

But you can do a lot more than you might imagine, all in one weekend - what I like to call a “two for one” weekend.

That was the goal last year as Randy Holder and I escaped the confines of Chattanooga at 7 p.m. on a Friday night. We were resting comfortably in a Greenville, Tenn. motel by 10:30.

Saturday was to be dedicated to chasing river smallmouth and Sunday the target would be trophy trout.

Larry Self, outdoor writer and fishing guide steered us toward the Holston River well before daylight Saturday. We reached the ramp at Churchill, Tenn. just after sunrise.

The Holston flowed smooth and green. It was easy to see why Bart Carter, a fisheries biologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency calls the Holston “one of the top three smallmouth rivers in the state. As far as quality fish, 15-inches and bigger, it may be the top,” he said.

Carter should know. He gets paid to study every river in East Tennessee.

As the boat slid off the trailer I read the signs just upstream. They warned us to “Keep Out” of the Holston Army Ammunition Plant. Downstream however, there was nothing but inviting riffles teaming with hungry smallmouth - we hoped.

“I’ll know how our day’s going to go in the first ten minutes,” said Self. “If they’re turned on we’ll get one on top before we get away from the ramp.”

When we dropped the boat in the water Self never cranked the outboard. He simply dropped the trolling motor and we were fishing. It was about ten minutes later when the first smallmouth tried, and failed, to inhale a Tiny Torpedo. That was about nine minutes longer than Self had hoped it would take.

I guess it’s the guide in him, but Self keeps a detailed count of every fish that comes in the boat, even though they’re all released.

“The best day we’ve had on the Holston this year, we caught 62 smallmouth,” he said.

This was not one of those days. We only caught a third of that number - 21 to be exact. And it pained Self when one of the largest turned out to be a largemouth, a very rare find on the Holston. There are many hardcore anglers in these parts however, who haven’t caught 20 smallmouth bass in their life, especially river smallmouth. We didn’t find them on this day, but Carter says, “twenty-inch fish are fairly common.”

A healthy rainbow trout against a setting sun paints a pretty picture of the Clinch River in East Tennessee. Photo by Richard Simms, www.ScenicCityFishing.com/

Like so many streams in Tennessee, the Holston River rises and falls with the power demand. The river is fed by Ft. Patrick Henry Dam. When TVA is producing lots of power, which means spilling lots of water, you can travel the Holston in a small barge.

When power demands are low and TVA gets stingy with the water, a jet-drive engine like Self uses is a requirement. Unless you plan to just float downstream and take out at another ramp.

The same can be true on the Clinch River, just north of Knoxville where it flows from beneath Norris Dam. That’s where Holder and I pointed the boat on Day Two of our “two for one” weekend. On the Clinch, fishermen live or die based on TVA’s generation schedule.

Holder and I found there wouldn’t be enough water to float the boat until 1:30 in the afternoon. For some anglers however, that’s a blessing.

The Clinch supports two varieties of trout fishermen - the waders and the boaters. With little or no generation many stretches of the river are barely over knee-deep and are perfect for flyfishermen.

When TVA flips the switch however, “the bathtub fills up real quick,” as Holder put it.

Carter, a biologist and an avid fisherman, says he prefers the bathtub when it is full.

“For my experience, I high-water fish,” said Carter. “That's been my experience for catching large fish. If you’re going after big browns you want to throw big stuff.”

The Clinch River gave up the Tennessee state record brown trout in 1988. The fish weighed in at 28 lbs. 12 ozs. Carter says for the big browns anglers should be throwing spinners and jerk baits. He says that “Yo-Zuri’s and Rapalas are standard issue.”

He adds that generally the best time is when TVA has been in a consistent generation pattern for a few days. That gives the fish time to acclimate.

Holder and I found indeed that the fish had lockjaw after being hit with a 3-generator burst of water from Norris Dam. It wasn’t until late in the day that a bragging-sized rainbow found Holder’s jerkbait irresistible.

Sixteen-inches of chunky rainbow burst skyward, scattering green drops of water against a burnt orange sunset. A picture to commemorate the colorful occasion and our “two for one” weekend was complete. Sadly, it wasn’t a problem getting back to work on Monday morning.

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