Back in Bama

Back in August of 2020 we met up with Adam Hudson from Blue Line Co. to fish some of Montana’s and Idaho’s most notable rivers. We had an amazing time and knew it wouldn’t be long before we all met up to fish again. After keeping in good contact with the guys at Blue Line, we planned to fish nearby to Adam and Collin’s homewaters of Northern Alabama. With cold, early February rains and frigid temperatures in the forecast, we opted to fish the Elk River tailwater just across the Alabama/Tennessee border.

We met up with Stephen (Blue line Co-Owner) and Jared Moore mid morning on Saturday in hopes of sticking a few nice holdover fish with streamers. For most of the morning we cherry picked water and would nymph fish in certain areas in between the superior streamer water. As the day progressed and temps rose into the 40’s, we started to see more follows and bites with streamers in the faster flowing sections of the river. Blue Line’s Rabbits foot and Sculperino in white were hot flies on the day and everyone was able to land a few rainbows and browns using these flies. We were also able to test out variations of the new Shock Leaders Blue Line released just a few days ago. We were already big fans of the standard fluoro/micro swivel leaders that Adam introduced us to back in August but these shock leaders take it to a whole new level.

When throwing the heavier Sculperino pattern the shock leader helped absorb a lot of the “kickback” when presenting the fly and helped keep fished buttoned during acrobatic maneuvers, which proved to be a huge advantage when fighting these scrappy stockers. The extra stretch the leader provides helps in more ways than one might think. Though we couldn’t find the right fish to test all aspects of these new leaders, Adam assured us that abrasion resistance was also a key element of their new leader series. Simply put, these shock leaders make casting larger flies a breeze all while catching more fish…which is why it will be our leader of choice once smallmouth season rolls around. We continued catching fish on both streamers and nymphs throughout the lower sections of the float and were able to pick up a couple more fish before Mother Nature forced us to high tail it back to the truck. We loaded the rafts and rallied at a nearby Mexican restaurant while planning our next day.

After another night of rainfall our options were limited so we decided to give a Tennessee river tributary a shot in hopes that water levels would be fishable. We loaded the Hog Island up with our 6wts and made the run up river in search for migrating white bass. This would be an all or nothing endeavor as we did not know whether the migrating white bass had even entered the river system yet on their annual spawning runs. After some hard fishing and a surprise largemouth catch we decided to call it a day with plans to come back in early March when water temps are warmer. We took the boat to a few different places around north Alabama and spent the rest of the afternoon riding around and checking out water we wanted to revisit in the spring. While days like this seem like a total bust we still managed to keep in high spirits and began planning the next few months of fishing as a result.

We always look forward to fishing with the Blue Line folks and appreciate the time they dedicate to making fishing a little bit easier for the rest of us. We have provided links to a few of the products used over the weekend and encourage you to check it out and try them for yourself!

Collin FullerBlue Line Fly Co., blue line flies, blue line co, streamer fishing, sculperino, rabbits foot, elk river, fly fishingComment