Asheville Area Fly Fishing Report October 25 2019

Davidson River

The Davidson has been fishing ok the last week. We have had a lot of good rain fall and flows are great. The fishing has been somewhat technical. The best fishing window has been from 10-3 when the most sun is out. There are good midge hatches mid day for the small dry angler. And by small we mean small. 22-26 dry flies on 6x are necessary. The fish are very picky during that time period if they are rising. There are caddis and small may flies flying around and fishing a soft hackle and a small ptail should do best as droppers and on nymph rigs. More rain is coming this weekend. Enjoy!

Pisgah National Forest Delayed Harvest Rivers

The DH rivers are fishing surprisingly well. Crowds have thinned most likely due to the difficult fishing we had the first part of the month. The water levels are slightly lower than normal, but better than a few weeks ago. We are having to use small flies to get fish to eat, but eating they are. We are less than a week away from our second stockings and all of our rivers that didn’t get a full stocking should get the necessary replenishments. If the rain keeps falling we could erase the drought soon.

Watauga River Fly Fishing Report

The Watauga has been great and difficult. The lower half of the river has been fishing great since the rains last week. The water is starting to get low again but more rain is coming this weekend. The upper has still been tough. Small technical midges are ruling the day. The fish are pretty picky and the bugs that are hatching are pretty tiny. Keep an eye on the doe river. It is running about 200 cfs right now. A big jump could mean it will get muddy. If it gets just a little dirty it will be game on!