Hiwassee River

[daymere]

[size 2]The current water temperature is 62º from the powerhouse to Reliance. The natural streambed above the powerhouse and the feeder streams are running cooler than the river. TVA is currently running two generators at 2800 cfs 24/7. They are scheduled to continue until January 2004, in preparation for the replacement of one generator at Apalachia powerhouse. The Hiwassee is fishing great. We are currently catching fish in numbers rivaled only by those caught in early Spring. Large fish are still a rarity, however. We are spotting larger fish in the upper river and expect to start catching them soon. Cooler weather will certainly help. Cloudy days are more productive than bright sunny days, but the catch rate is consistent from morning until dark. We are using a variety of streamer and nymph combinations on floating and sinking lines until mid-afternoon. Around 2:00 p.m., we are seeing a false baetis hatch. They mayfly’s color is redfish brown. The size is very small. On cloudy days, we are seeing sporadic hatches of other insects as well. After lunch we have been switching to dry flies and small nymph combinations. The fish are rising consistently and preferring the emerging nymph. Their selectivity seems to have diminished from weeks past, but could change daily. The big news is that the new trophy brown trout regulations have passed and will be implemented in March 2004. The river-wide limit on brown trout will be two fish, 14 inches or better. The brown trout fingerlings stocked in March 2003 appear to be doing very well. Adequate river flows have certainly helped. Last week TWRA stocked 15,000 two-inch brown trout fingerlings. I fully expect the combination of favorable occurrences to provide us with a trophy class brown trout fishery on the Hiwassee River in two years or less.[/size]
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