Foreign.

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.

We're back with another East Tennessee Fishing report with Ellis Ward.

Ellis, how are you?

I am doing well, Marv.

How are you?

As always?

I'm just trying to stay out of trouble.

And, you know, it's damn near spring in Johnson City, man.

It's spring today, tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, and then it's going to be winter again, I think over the weekend.

But it's, you know, low 50s today, and then we're getting mid upper 50s the next couple days and might even get some rain, which all precipitation, cloud has been.

Well, we got a little rain a couple days ago, but it promptly froze into sheets of ice on all roadways the next morning.

So, yeah, you know, you get soft here.

It's the.

The weeks or the weekends or, you know, the periods of time where it's in the, like, mid to upper 40s is kind of the normal.

So we had a nice little push of hovering around freezing and then a week or more where, you know, we're getting highs in the 20s.

And my family, Michigan, grew up in Ohio.

That's.

Those numbers are very soft, but it's cold.

And then as it relates to fishing, it's too cold.

So nice to have the weather we have right now.

Yeah.

I bet you're wearing shorts too, right?

Yeah, I was yesterday.

Yeah.

So, you know, obviously it's thawed out, so you're not sliding all over creation with a bunch of people in the south that don't know how to drive in snow and.

Or ice, you know, what do you expect to see when you get back on the water?

Yeah, it's.

It's been a couple days, but we're still very firmly in the post spawn.

The Watauga continues to clear up both with time, and I won't run that down as I have in previous episodes, but with time and with more releases of water, it's continuing to clear up.

I'm guessing the dough and, you know, all the little feeder creeks up in North Carolina and the Wataga's gonna have color for quite some time now, but the.

The clarity is just couldn't ask for more.

And given the amount of precipitation from, you know, from snow and.

And ice and all that in the last few weeks and the temperatures forecasting some.

Some good flows and been.

Been sort of waiting on some real good blue wingy days.

I.

I think the.

On the Wataga in particular, the South Polson's basically back to its normal self and has been for a little While, which is just, it's very interesting if you look at the South Olson Reservoir and Watauga Lake on a map and just as the crow flies, you're thinking about, I'm talking about the influence of Helene back in October.

The watershed from the Watauga and then the watershed from the whole sin.

It's, it's, it's wild how much more the Watago is influenced and you know, relative to the size of, of that storm, those two pieces of water and their watersheds are I would say, you know, almost the same thing but vastly different results.

So I would hope with you know, the continuation of water clearing that's really the, that that's been the culprit for a lack of hatches on the Wataga.

But yeah, you get, you get really nice blue wing days.

You know, even, even in the pits, you know the, when it's snowing 30 degrees and kind of socked in weather.

Those are typically great dry fly fishing days.

So outside of that on the streamer front, it's, I'm not going to say it's, it's sort of businesses as usual just because this post spawn time period is where you can and should explore.

You know, they're not eating, you know, a four plus inch white dungeon.

And this is, you know, two weeks ago I was like, oh well given the clarity and this time of year I put on just, just a big triple drunken disorderly and you know, fishing pretty close to the surface and just getting smashed and it is, it's a whole mess of fun.

So got another good month of that.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm going to be there for the tail end of that month and last time we spoke.

Yeah.

You were doing, you were doing muskie reconnaissance.

You've been doing more of that?

No, not in the last.

I've been taking care of a newborn baby on my off days and you know, picking up some guiding here and there as I get back into what feels like sort of a normal life.

So I got my eyes on getting back there and actually just finished a few different flies this morning and yesterday and working on a video for one of them some big muskie flies and doing some video work mid month.

So I'm to get back up to speed there.

Yeah, there you go.

And got a question for you from fleas and meat and he's feeling life at the vice too and he wanted to know, you know, if you're kind of playing around with some new things on the tying front and know if you're making any adjustments during the Winter.

Yeah, I would say that I'm thinking of the period of time where I sort of stay stable or consistent or boring.

And, and I think that would be, I don't know, like a Juneish maybe through fall.

And then, and, and you know, after that it's I, I really have a hard time just, you know, tying the same thing.

And there are some flies that I, I can tie the.

I love tying the drunken disorderly.

It's just, it's a lot of fun.

I think.

It's.

I, I have so many.

It took so long to get to a place where I feel good with tying it and I understand that when I tie it it's going to do certain things and I, I think there's, there's just part of, part of that discovery, part of that process that, that makes it so fun to tie.

And you know, the, the dungeons and the peanuts, just a little double, double bugger platforms with whatever on the head and, and switching weights up and the swim bug and you know, double bufords for, for muscular.

Those are more, you know, that, that would be like the, the starting lineup for, for guiding.

And then there's, you know, I, I can only do so much that.

So I'll tie some, you know, I'll do like three or four, like white or tan back sections of what might be peanuts or dungeons or gangas or whatever and just like put those off the side and then you know, kind of go.

Go off to the races with some other stuff.

And so I, I guess a couple of the, the different things that I've been playing with have been some of the finesse changers with, you know, some different weights where just being able to explore getting that, you know, getting those kill triggers, getting that movement.

And so many of the reasons that I've designed the swim bug which, you know, given that it's deerhead and three shanked and you know there's.

There, there's some intricacy in, in fishing it and you know, I love it for certain reasons.

Love the drunk for certain reasons, love the game changer platform for certain reasons.

And I'll just get into, you know, a, a changer platform every now and again and you know, two or three years ago it was the craft for a changer.

So I've been, I've been kind of playing with the finesse changers a little bit and then I guess something sort of, I don't know, off, off peak, if, if that's a term that I can use for fly time is doing muskie drunks and so this would be on 4 odd TP650.

You know, it's a piece of meat and that's a.

Or a piece of metal, I should say.

It's a big hook and it's, you know, I'm not really sure what you would use it for other than a musky size.

Drunken disorderly.

So I started playing with this like, gosh, I can't.

I have a couple hung up on my wall probably four or five years ago.

And when you get up, this is with all big flies and profiles and all that.

When you start really, really sizing up, all of these things have exclamation points on it.

The swim, when you want to walk the dog and get all this, that and the other.

Right.

You can't use rabbit.

It doesn't work.

It's, you know, so should, you know, just bucktail also doesn't work.

There's.

There's too much buoyancy within the water.

So you don't get that the momentum of the hook in order to get your dog walk is sort of overridden by.

You can kind of envision it as friction, but the, the buoyant bucktail is basically just stopping it.

So you can't necessarily just put a drunk head in front of a Beaufort and, and fish it that way.

So I, I started tying them with, you know, Magnum Flashaboo and really using that as almost like a bucktail type support or, you know, added structure and swim and, and craft for instead of rabbit.

And.

And then you start getting into casting implications and there's durability implications and you know, I don't want that rattle up on the front hook.

So I played around with a bunch and got to a place this last year that I feel really good about.

And on, on more than one day.

That has been the answer for clients fishing for muskie.

And this is one where certain sections, they just, they see lots of baits and lots of flies.

And the fish we were moving and where we were moving them and when we were moving them, I mean, there were, there were two fish in particular that, that moved on the drunk and, and this is a client fish.

And I mean, it was just me and him and you know, he and I have known each other for a while and he encourages my fishing.

So I was, I was sitting there chucking the bait caster and I didn't move a fish all day.

And, and he moved too on this thing.

So it's, he.

It's a different look.

And I've, I've had Other clients sort of take the idea and run with it back at.

In their home waters.

And it just, it's a, you just think about the changing size and profile and water column and all that.

It's a, it's a really powerful tool when you're restricted to the world of fly fishing, to be able to.

And same with, you know, the smaller ones for trout to be able to employ that like, vastly different presentation.

So, you know, each.

All these things have endless rabbit holes and I've been, I've been kind of diving down that one recently and have the, the first half of a tine video on that film.

So I'm going to stop talking there.

Yeah, I was getting ready.

I was getting ready to recall the drones.

Yep, it's time to go.

Yeah.

So, you know, folks, we love questions on the articulate fly.

You can email me or DM me on social media, whatever's easiest for you.

And if we use your question, I will send you some articulate fly swag and you're drawing for some cool stuff from Ellis at the end of the season.

And Ellis, before I let you go, I know you got a lot going on, Know how to get on the boat, how to talk fishing, how to buy bucktails, all that kind of good stuff.

You want to let folks know.

Yeah.

Best way to, to talk fishing trips h.

Whatever is my cell phone at 513-543-0019.

You can follow along.

I, I've been a little quieter on social media and that's just somewhat intentional.

I got just.

I haven't been pushing as much of my attention there, but I am on Instagram at Ellis Ward Guides.

And then bucktail availability, you know, purchasing bucktail in general can be found on my website @Ellis Ward flies.com and you know, there's pictures and you can find out more about trips and get some, some musky baits or some, you know, I'll put trout flies out there every once in a while.

So, yeah, lots of good stuff.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, folks, if you're going to be at Bobbin this weekend, I'll be up there.

And I may or may not have some samples of Ellis's bucktails for you guys to check out.

And you also remember that if you are a bucktail fiend, if you join our community that we host on Patreon, we've got a couple of opportunities, one of which is a discount on bucktail, the other of which is a guide discount with Ellis.

And then I guess it's a lot of public service announcements this time, Ellis, but also want to let folks know if they didn't see it on our social media feed.

We are getting ready to launch a new kind of predator fly specific podcast called the Butcher Shop and super stoked about that.

It's a project I've wanted to do for a while and, you know, we're coming out in full force.

I think the first three guests are Blaine Chocolate, Russ Madden and Tommy Lynch.

So, you know, check that out wherever you get your podcasts, right?

Yeah, you know, a lot of public services announcements, but we each do a lot of things, so I think they are deserved.

Yeah, there you go.

Well, listen folks, you know, if you're thawing out, you're wearing shorts, go fishing.

And if you can't do that, tie some flies or get to your local fly fishing show.

And if you're going to be a bobbin this weekend, you know, grab me and say hello.

I'll be there all weekend.

Tight lines, everybody.

Tight line.

Zealous.

Appreciate it, Marvin.