Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Tailwater
Species
Brown Trout
Rainbow Trout
Brook Trout
(Stocked with holdovers)
(Some Wild brown trout)
Size
Small
Location
Northeast Tennessee
Nearest Towns
Elizabethton, Tennessee
Season
Year-round
Access:
Good for wading, Fine for drift boats
Special Regulations
None
Non-Resident License
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
TVA Release Schedule
Click for information
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Watauga River, Tennessee – Fishing Report – April 12, 2024. The stream levels will likely be above normal most of the time. Good Light Green and Red, or Blood Midge hatches continue to take place. Blue-winged olives, little Brown Stoneflies and Little Black caddis are also hatching.
7 Day Weather Forecast: (click the link below for more detailed weather information)
Stream Conditions: Afternoon Water Temperature: 45 (Upper section)
TVA Release Schedule Wilbur
Recommended Trout Flies:
Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, 18 nymph, emergers, duns and spinners
Aquatic Worms, size 12, pink, red, and others
Midges: Light Green and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Little Brown Stoneflies: 12 nymphs and adults
Little Black Caddis, size 18, pupa and adults
Stream Description: Fly Fishing On The Watauga River In Tennessee. The Watauga River is a tailwater trout fishery located in the upper Northeastern corner of the state of Tennessee near the little town of Elizabethton. It’s cold water flows through the Wilburn Dam from Wilburn and Watauga Lakes. The tailwater is stocked with rainbow, brook and brown trout by the (TWRA) Tennessee Wildlife resources Agency. There is a small population of wild trout. Both the rainbow and brown trout holdover from year to year because the stream stays cold even during the summer months. There are some very large brown trout in this river. The Watauga can be waded when they are not generating power and fished from a small boat anytime. It is best if one generator is running if you intend to use a drift boat. There is a lot of shallow water and canoes and small rafts are popular. There is not a great deal of access for the wading angler but a few locations exit. The main attraction is the opportunity to catch a big brown trout. Caution should be used anytime you are fishing a tailwater, so be sure to check on the discharge schedule and keep an eye out for changes in the depth.
Fly Fishing Guide To The Watauga River: Fly fishing the Watauga River can be dangerous if you are not careful wading.Fly Fishing Guide to the Watauga River: Fly fishing the Watauga River Tailwater is considered to be a little on the difficult side by many anglers. At the time I published this website, we had only fished this stream about six times. Our efforts were not made towards catching a large brown trout. We haven’t had much luck in catching larger browns using dry flies and luck is what it will take to do that on dry flies.Because the stream has very good hatches for a tailwater, we have stuck with dries on our few trips. Streamers and nymphs are much more effective for the larger browns. We have caught some browns up to fourteen inches and of course, a lot of stocker rainbows and smaller browns. We have not fished the river from a drift boat and as already mentioned, floating the stream is the best way to fish it. The odds of hooking a large brown on a streamer are considered very good according to the anglers we have talked to that frequently fish this stream. I think any angler would be interested in trying for one of the Watauga’s large holdover brown trout. It is a beautiful little river. This is especially true in the trophy section of the stream. It is very near the South Holston River tailwater, so a visiting angler could easily fish both tailwaters although I wouldn’t advise that for a one-day trip.I definitely rate it as a good “destination” stream along with the South Holston. By “destination stream” I mean a stream that is worth the time and effort it takes to travel there to fish it.
Watauga River Hatches: Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Watauka River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726. The main hatch that occurs on the Watauga River is the Sulphur. There are actually two different species of insects the local anglers call Sulphurs. One is called an Eastern Pale Evening Dun in most parts of the Eastern United States. The true Sulphur is the is the dorothea species the huge Ephemerella genus of mayflies. The other insect called a Sulphur by the locals it the invaria species of the Ephemerella genus of the Ephemerellidae family of mayflies. Both look much alike and both species are plentiful. They do have slightly different behavior patterns. The Eastern Pale Evening Duns prefer faster water than the true Sulphurs. These two hatches last a very long time on the Watauga. They usually start in May and continue off and on into the early Fall months. Other than the Sulphurs, there are some very good Blue-winged Olive hatches that take place. There are several species called BWOs including the Eastern Blue-winged olive species. The hatch start taking place in November and continue all winter and spring month through the month of June. Little Black Caddis start hatching in April. This is a very good hatch that is called the Mother’s day hatch in some parts of the nation. It last about a month. When it finishes, various species of Cinnamon Caddis start hatching. They hatch last through the month of May. Black flies are another source of food for the trout. Trout eat the Black Fly larvae, pupae and the adults. The colder parts of the year is black fly season but imitations of the larvae will take trout all year long. The river also supports plenty of scuds. Imitations of scuds usually work best starting in May but you can catch trout all year long on them. Often times, in fact more often than not, when there are no large aquatic insect hatches taking place, the midge is king on the Watauga River. Imitations of the larvae, pupae and adults will catch trout throughout the season. Cream midges are the most common ones but there are also some light green midges and plenty of blood midges, or red midge larvae and pupae. The adults that hatch from the blood midge pupae are black. The Watauga River also has a lot of different types of baitfish and sculpin. That’s the main reason the brown trout grow to large sizes. The large browns will also eat crayfish and the river has plenty of them.