Date: March 6th, 2008
Location: Watauga Trophy Section
Conditions: High 55 Low 35, Partly Cloudy/Sunny, Heavily Stained Water
Guides: Justin Shroyer, Theo Copeland, David Stelling, Rhett Shroyer, Haden Copeland, and Shane Shields

We had a six-boat trip down the Watauga Trophy Section. The muddy water had the fish holding tight, however some great fish were caught throughout the day. The best fish of the day was caught around noon. Theo had his guest dead drifting crawfish patterns around some submerged grass when a 20+ inch brown smacked the fly. The crawfish bite will continue to heat up throughout the spring. A few other nice rainbows were caught on sculpin and bugger patterns. The overall bite in the morning was slow, however, the afternoon was a different story. Most of the anglers on this trip had no to little experience fly-fishing. After diligent schooling by our guides all members of the trip were catching fish. As we reached to the afternoon hours the midges and bluewings finally showed up. Good numbers of rainbows were caught in riffle water on softhackles, micro mayflies, and red asses. The biggest fish of the afternoon was caught on a size 18 red ass nymphed in 6ft of fast water. The fish measured 20 inches and looked like he had been eating well down in his deep-water slot. In muddy water conditions remember it is often better to fish big flies, as this was the case in the morning hours. As the water cleared and the bugs started flying about, the fish seemed to key in on the blue wing emerger patterns.