Fantastic Fly Fishing? Head to TVA’s Tailwaters

In the Clinch River, under the shade of low-leaning trees, fly lines lashed like lassos.

Ken Weisz stood in a sun-sparkled slice of water near Hibbs Island, at the tailwaters of Norris Dam, pointing to a calm circle where insects puckered the surface.

“You’ll look for those flat spots where the bugs land on the water,” Weisz, TVA’s Northeast Region land use and permitting program manager, said.

His voice grew just loud enough to hear over the river’s rush. Other fly fishers dotted the river below, in search of elusive fish.

“We’ve got so much fly fishing in our area,” he said. “You can really fish all year round. We’re pretty lucky.”

This world-class fishing is found in Tennessee Valley Authority tailwaters – cool, oxygenated water flowing from dams across the seven-state service area – because of careful management by TVA experts and partners throughout the region.

The Clinch River offers prime access. TVA recently rebuilt Hibbs Island to restore flow over the weir dams and improve river habitat.

Already by early summer, 22,000 hatchery-raised brown and rainbow trout had been stocked in the Clinch River, according to Bob Stephan, vice president of the Clinch River chapter of Trout Unlimited.

And the fish get big.

Fly fishers are known to catch and release 2-foot-long trout here.

TVA’s partners, including Trout Unlimited, also host workshops to invite people of all abilities to try the sport, ensuring everyone can feel confident wading into these legendary rivers.

Dick Geiger, a member of Tennessee Council of Trout Unlimited, casts a fly during a recent visit to the Clinch River. Geiger has been fly fishing for the better part of six decades.

‘We’re Pretty Spoiled’

When TVA releases water from Norris Dam to generate clean energy, the river rises.

Kayakers and boaters often float the Clinch River to a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency boat ramp a few miles downriver.

“Warm water species like the bass and the bluegill, those tend to be in the lower stretches of the river,” Weisz said. “You might get a mix of all the species. We’re pretty spoiled.”

Fly fishing means learning to watch the water.

Fish rise to sip insects from the water’s surface in different ways.

Rises can look like swirls or splashes, rings of bubbles left drifting on the water, or even a whole fish flinging itself into the air.

“You’ll see just their nose and all of a sudden the bug will disappear,” Dick Geiger, a member of Tennessee Council of Trout Unlimited, said.

The types of insects fish eat change with the seasons. In spring and summer, hatching flies dimple the water’s surface.

“During the winter, this is mostly a nymph river,” Geiger said.

Nymphs are the larval stage of insects. Fly fishers will tie their flies to mimic crawling aquatic insects on the rocky river bottom. All of this takes patience and practice to learn.

Geiger estimates he’s been fly fishing for more than six decades. But don’t try to call him a pro.

“Ehhhh,” he said, smiling. “I’m not sure anyone’s an expert.”

He held up a streamer – a fly he tied using chicken feathers and a bit of metallic flash to resemble a bait fish.

“This will move with the water,” Geiger said. “It’ll pulse like this and catch (the fish’s) attention.”

The streamer is a wet fly, which Weisz also fishes, sending his flies floating in the current.

Weisz, who studied fish with renowned ichthyology professor David Etnier, works with natural resources as part of his job at TVA. He finds every part of fly fishing, year-round, intriguing.

“I like the art of the fly tying itself,” Weisz said. “I like the biology of trying to match the insects. I love being outside. I like the science and tactical part of trying to know where the fish are, then hopefully getting them to take what I’m throwing.”

Geiger displays a streamer, a fly he tied to mimic a small bait fish swimming.

Conservation and Community

Everyone has their own reasons for fly fishing.

It’s art.

It’s science.

It offers solitude and an incredible immersive experience in nature.

And it engages people with their home rivers, building a community that cares for the health of the region’s waters.

“When I’m not fishing, I work with a lot of youth (fishing) programs,” Geiger said. That includes the Institute of Tremont’s summer camp for kids. “We’ll be fishing tied flies, but we’ll also be looking at stream ecology, biology and all kinds of other educational programs.”

“We try to do a lot of conservation work,” Stephan agreed. “And we educate people.”

He and board member Dennis Baxter, a retired TVA zoologist, worked with Dave Matthews, TVA aquatic zoologist, to establish Trout Unlimited’s benthic macroinvertebrate sampling program in the Clinch River.

“Dave Matthews provided us with field manuals as well as instruction,” Stephan said.

Trout Unlimited, which purchased equipment and nets, works with the University of Tennessee, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and students from the American Fisheries Society.

“These young people are the next generation of doing conservation,” Stephan said.

Recruiting new fly fishers means creating advocates for clean rivers, and Stephan relishes teaching others the craft.

“With fly fishing, you’re not casting a fly,” he said. “You’re casting a line.”

He held his hand out as if gripping a long, light rod, then swooped his hand over his shoulder and back.

“You build energy in the rod, getting (it) to bend,” Stephan said. “Then in the casting motion, you reverse that bend, which transfers the energy. It’s rhythmic. It’s almost like dancing.”

Weisz, Geiger and Stephan said they fish for the experience outdoors and the chance to soak in the cool waters of their home rivers.

And, of course, for the unrivaled solitude.

“You’re standing in the water and a flock of geese will fly over your head,” Stephan said. “You can hear the wind passing through their wings.”

He looked upriver, where the morning sun had burned off most of the mist and the water glowed green, a mirror of the forest above.

“Trout don’t live in ugly places,” Stephan said, smiling. “Only beautiful ones.”

Every new fly fisherman is a new advocate for clean rivers, Bob Stephan, vice president of the Clinch River chapter of Trout Unlimited, said.

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: Ken Weisz, TVA’s Northeast Region land use and permitting program manager, casts a fly in a section of Clinch River near Hibbs Island.