I grew up trout fishing the Clinch River below Norris Dam. My first memories were with my parents as a child. I remember spending more time playing in the water catching minnows and crayfish than fishing. We would also gather chestnuts and pecans in the fall after fishing. Most of the time, we fished from the bank in deep holes using night crawlers. Later we got hip waders and chased fish around Miller Island hoping not to get caught on the back side of the island by the rising water. I never failed to fill my hip waders with icy water trying to push them to their limit.
As a teenager my brother and I had upgraded to chest waders and would fish with rooster tails, panther martins, and corn. Still on occasion I would push the chest waders past their limits.
A tradition that was started some time back with long time friends was to start the day off by meeting somewhere on the way to the river. Then stop for a dozen or two donuts and chocolate milk. I believe this is why some of my friends like to go. We would catch up on the latest gossip and plan our strategy to help in catching our limits.
Later we started fishing from boats in the winter after hunting season had ended. It always seemed colder on the river than anywhere else, most of the time you would have to dip your fishing rod into the water to melt the ice from the rod eyes so you could cast. Occasionally we would combine a little waterfowl hunting with the fishing which would make for a full day.
Recently I heard a report of some trout being caught while the water was generating. I got my small john boat and a fellow worker that had told me that he also fished the Clinch as a boy. We headed up after work for an evening of fishing. The first float was very productive; within the first 100 yards we had landed three fish and missed several others. At the end of our trip we had caught over forty fish which included rainbows, brown trout, and some Brook trout. We keep our limits of rainbows and release the rest.
There are some special rules that now apply on the Clinch River. They now have a slot limit. Trout from 14 inches to 20 inches may not be kept. One over 20 inches and trout less than 14 inches for a total of 7 trout may be kept.
Take someone fishing, Greg
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See more photos like this from Greg Jones under the Outdoors section of the SORSN galleries.