Marvin: Hey folks it's Marvin Cash the host of the Articulate Fly and we're back with

Marvin: another East Tennessee fishing report with Ellis Ward. Ellis how are you?

Ellis: I've been doing well Mars how are you?

Marvin: As always just trying to stay out of trouble and you know it's kind of funny

Marvin: we had a couple days together last week and then you tell me your you know crazy

Marvin: fishing schedule bouncing between like mousing from four to four to fishing

Marvin: like noon to nine the next day and then And sleeping all day Sunday sounds like

Marvin: you've been burning the candle at both ends.

Ellis: Yeah, I was sleeping all day Sunday.

Ellis: I had a guy and his 18-year-old son, and this was after you and your son.

Ellis: And sleeping all day starts to mean something different after you have kids.

Ellis: So, you know, sleeping until 10 feels like what 2 or 3 p.m. used to.

Marvin: And then, you know.

Ellis: In between that, you know, hanging out with the daughter after school.

Ellis: And we went up to a little creek and got a little rainbow trout.

Ellis: And, of course, played some pertain pirates. lots of fishy stuff.

Marvin: Yeah. So, you know, the cool thing is, you know, you know, while I was with

Marvin: you, that hurricane came and amazingly didn't really drop very much rain in

Marvin: Johnson city, but it did kind of mess the fishing up and, you know,

Marvin: looking at the weather, you're kind of back kind of like what you like, right?

Marvin: Cloudy, not super hot for angler comfort only. Uh, what are you seeing on the water?

Ellis: Um, yeah, that was a weird,

Ellis: really couple days. Um, um it was nice you were here for two days so you got

Ellis: to see the the bad side and the good side um you know the,

Ellis: the river just looks different when that the bite the barometer cloud cover

Ellis: whatever when when that stuff's going you start seeing you know that that fish

Ellis: under the overhang in the perfectly cast-proof,

Ellis: osprey-proof spot that wasn't going the day before and.

Ellis: And you start seeing fish scream out of banks that, man, it can be frustrating

Ellis: when I know fish are here and the casts are there and everything's lined up.

Ellis: And most of the time when that is occurring and we have even slightly favorable

Ellis: conditions, we're getting feedback.

Ellis: Back um but yeah

Ellis: there there was i'm not

Ellis: sure if it was because it was the edge of that depression versus something passing

Ellis: through which is somewhat more of a predictable dropping in the barometer cloud

Ellis: cover etc rising some wind and restabilization but yes we are we are back to

Ellis: at what I would call normal,

Ellis: which relative to our fishing in the tailwaters, normal is super high ceilings, super low floor.

Ellis: So, Marv, I got to tell you, we hooked that trout under the tree.

Marvin: Did you really?

Ellis: Yeah, yeah. And went... straight into the lab jam and, uh, the angler just sat there.

Ellis: I started laughing immediately. I mean, he just sat there with his rod up in

Ellis: a tight line, kind of jaw dropped that the fish ate and he had it on and,

Ellis: and the line was back in the boat.

Ellis: Um, so there's not a whole lot to be done with the fish like that, where it was.

Ellis: Fishing, uh, size 24 on six eggs.

Marvin: So, so just so we're clear, this was that last dry, last dry fly spot we fished

Marvin: before we went back and fished streamers to the bitter end on the last day?

Ellis: Yeah, that one spot with the, you know, the nice brown on the other side of

Ellis: the stick under some overhang stuff where we tried a couple different angles

Ellis: and it just wasn't happening.

Marvin: Yeah, yeah. It's basically we dropped down below your buddy,

Marvin: right, at the end. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Marvin: Yeah. Well, at least we know it was a good fish. I didn't know that.

Ellis: Yeah, it was a nice fish, and there were a couple more there.

Ellis: So, yeah, it's been good. And it's starting to get to a blue-wingy season.

Ellis: You've still got some yellow bugs around there.

Ellis: But, man, the 20 to 24s are really where it's at.

Ellis: And, I mean, really, if I'm going double dries, I'm going 18, 22.

Ellis: If I'm just doing one, it's a 20 or a 22.

Ellis: And, yes, there are bigger bugs in the water. And, sure, they'll eat those.

Ellis: But if you're casting the rising trout, smaller 18s or the 20-22 draws are smacking fish.

Marvin: Yeah, they were a little snotty, though, for us. I mean, they were not whacking them, right?

Marvin: And sometimes they were actually, you know, turning around and taking them going

Marvin: downstream. I mean, it was kind of weird.

Ellis: Yes. Yeah, that's that. Whatever we want to call it. I just call it tailwater

Ellis: trout fishing, but there are certainly conditions that play into it.

Marvin: Yeah. So I got a question for you from Brenner, and as we start to think about

Marvin: pumpkin spice lattes, he wanted to get your thoughts on what you change up from

Marvin: a streamer color perspective as we start to move into fall.

Ellis: Yeah. So it's interesting that you say pumpkin spice latte.

Ellis: To say I like to just sell, sell, transition from my whites and olives to everything

Ellis: in a burnt orange palette and I'm not going to take that joke any farther.

Ellis: I'm a bad person to ask about this, I'm going to be honest, because and this

Ellis: is an answer to the question in fairness, but I don't really change color as much as other people and.

Ellis: At this point, I'm looking at, you know, a thousand or so days on the water,

Ellis: just me fishing along with as many with clients.

Ellis: And most of that is strictly streamer fishing.

Ellis: It's an insane amount of data to be working with.

Ellis: And I just don't see an impact switching colors.

Ellis: There's profile water column action so whether or not you're giving it longer

Ellis: pauses i mean if you're fishing let's say a yellow dungeon and one cast is a foot off the bank,

Ellis: and you let it rest for a quarter

Ellis: of a second and then start working it back with four to six inch strips and

Ellis: your line's a little downstream so it's sort of getting swept that is a different

Ellis: universe than if you cast with your rod tip ending slightly upstream,

Ellis: tight line the bug hits the

Ellis: water your cast begins as your rod is coming down even with the fly it's had

Ellis: a chance to sit or at least get stable there and you start retrieving it from

Ellis: that slack point against the bank, this time two inches from the bank,

Ellis: and you give it half-second, three-quarter-second kills.

Ellis: And 12 to 18-inch drifts, that's the same fly.

Ellis: And those two presentations, dude, I don't care if you throw in a musky fly

Ellis: and the other option is a single hook woolly bugger.

Ellis: Those two presentations from the same yellow dungeon may as well be different lies. So...

Ellis: I would just caution people to, I love playing with color.

Ellis: Dude, I mean, I'm staring at a box of dozens of colors of dyes.

Ellis: I like the art side to it. I like stuff that looks cool.

Ellis: That's one of my biggest recommendations to people is, and one of the reasons

Ellis: that I have people fishing white so much is because they see it and say, ooh,

Ellis: and then all of a sudden when you get that ooh, rule

Ellis: they're casting you get that extra six eight

Ellis: ten inches to the bank and that's

Ellis: when things start to happen but if that's yellow or

Ellis: if that's uh you know brown to chartreuse

Ellis: comp like whatever it is for you that has you feeling good that's that's what

Ellis: you're going to um there's there's just not as serious in the river or stepping

Ellis: in the river that looks like so many of the things that I fish,

Ellis: but relative to where the trout are eating, what the profile is doing,

Ellis: the different bite triggers in your cast and conditions, all of this stuff outweighs

Ellis: is color, in my opinion, more than tenfold.

Ellis: It's, I would rank that as unimportant, honestly.

Ellis: So how do I change my colors moving into fall? I don't.

Marvin: There you go. But you do go to coffee Zen packs, right?

Ellis: No. As discussed on our trip, it,

Ellis: You know, if it's early in the morning, you just had your breakfast burrito

Ellis: from the gas station, coffee's in packs, that's like a lab experiment that I'm

Ellis: not going to recommend to anyone who wants to have a good day.

Ellis: So I stick with cool men and others who like to live on the edge, they can go coffee.

Marvin: There you go. But just let's be cool. You're a real man. You're doing six.

Marvin: Six is not threes, right?

Ellis: I think there's some 12 or 15

Ellis: milligram pouches out there that I feel like would put a small horse down.

Ellis: But yes, 15 years of dipping grizzly long cut, the six milligrams are a little

Ellis: bit of a methadone for me.

Marvin: Yeah, so there you go, folks. That's a great stocking stuffer for Ellis.

Marvin: And you know, folks, we love questions on the Articulate Fly.

Marvin: You can email them to us or DM us on social media, whatever's easiest for you.

Marvin: And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag.

Marvin: And we're going to have a drawing for some awesome stuff from Ellis at the end of the season.

Marvin: And, you know, Ellis, before I let you go and tell people how to reach out to

Marvin: you and all that kind of good stuff and remind people about the great opportunities

Marvin: in our community, why don't you let folks know that you are going to be traveling

Marvin: and tying in Chattanooga at the end of the week?

Ellis: Yeah i'm doing tying night at the

Ellis: hatch outfitters in chattanooga i'm tying the swim bug

Ellis: which i have a couple videos on this is

Ellis: the first time i've done um live tying in

Ellis: a few years so i'm pretty excited you can find information on the time i believe

Ellis: it's 8 p.m it could be six uh but check out hatch outfitters Instagram and it's 15 bucks.

Ellis: You get all the materials and supplying the deer hair and mallard and preselected

Ellis: feathers and all that stuff.

Ellis: Um, and I'll have more information on my Instagram and those are more guides.

Marvin: Yeah. And I will drop that in the show notes and, uh, you know,

Marvin: folks Remember that we've got two great benefits in our community that we host on Patreon.

Marvin: At one level, you can get a discount on Ellis' Bucktails, and he's moved to

Marvin: a new place with a massive workshop.

Marvin: So it's going to be Bucktail Central here in about, I don't know,

Marvin: three months, four months.

Marvin: And then at another level, you get $100 annual guide credit with Ellis.

Marvin: So two great ways to support the show and to support Ellis.

Marvin: And Ellis, before I let you go, you want to let folks know kind of what your

Marvin: guide calendar looks like. how to reach out and all that kind of good stuff.

Ellis: Yeah, I mean, after I unburdened my shoulders from the weight,

Ellis: you know, to an army, I don't know.

Ellis: I'm already a little anxious about bucktail season coming up,

Ellis: but, you know, it happens every year. I'm excited for it.

Ellis: So, bucktail, flies, guide stuff, that's all at elliswardflies.com.

Ellis: And calendar, I'm going to be starting to look at musking pretty soon.

Ellis: And there are some different reasons why we can talk about that in a couple weeks here um,

Ellis: but i i will be starting to do that uh the

Ellis: headwaters that i fish and then some of the reservoirs that

Ellis: that i fish here in tennessee and western north carolina are

Ellis: you know they stay much cooler than

Ellis: a lot of the musky water in the

Ellis: the south and the southeast so i'm gonna

Ellis: start to push that otherwise i big push

Ellis: on malican i want to do as much of

Ellis: that as possible until it gets

Ellis: too chilly and a decent

Ellis: amount of availability august is a little spotty but um you know weekends are

Ellis: starting to go in september so scoop them up and again sites ariswordflies.com

Ellis: that's what uh Ask for availability,

Ellis: ask questions, whatever it is.

Ellis: Text or call my cell at 513-543-0019.

Marvin: Well, there you go. And folks, as I always say, you owe it to yourself to get

Marvin: out there and catch a few. Tight lines, everybody. Tight lines, Ellis.

Ellis: Appreciate it, Marv.