A few weeks ago a friend and I ventured north to fish the Caney Fork tailwater in TN. The results were not as good as we would have liked but the trip, fishing, and just hanging out together was all worth it in my opinion. Earl was the only one to bring a trout net. I hooked two and lost both. The second slung my San Juan worm (that Earl had tied) just as he was grabbing the leader and within an inch of netting my fish.

It is close to a 4 hr drive (just under 300 miles) from Birmingham to the state park where we camped. I think we put right at 8 hrs on the water but according to some local guys, the TVA was burping the river and the short bursts of release have everything all screwed up. There are a LOT of fish in that river as we saw a lot of them while wading and paddling. Just couldn't get them to hit what we were presenting. I checked the rocks and we were fishing what we found. A day or two of more fishing would have probably helped us develop some patterns and a better idea on how to fish the river.

The fishery not only has rainbow but some rather nice Brown trout as well. Maybe I'll get back up that way before too long.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos from our trip.

Here is a typical Sipsey Fork rainbow. He was caught with a beadhead prince using a strike indicator. Some people don't like using indicators but I actually prefer them at this point in my development.

The trout on the Sipsey seem to like smaller presentations but others have been successful with size 12 woolly buggers. I've actually caught them on nymphs and midges of varying colors and size.

Welcome!

Welcome to my corner of the universe. My name is Scott Spencer and I am a fly fisherman from Alabama. I began fly fishing as a teenager but for whatever reasons I got away from it. Boy how things have changed in the fly fishing world over the past 30 years!! I've recently gotten back into fly fishing with a vengeance with four trips in the last 6 weeks. I'll be posting some photos and thoughts on those trips over the next few days.

Whoever is reading this is probably thinking, "Fly fishing in Alabama!?!?!?" Well, we actually have a tailwater in the State of Alabama that can support trout. The Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River is our little world for trout fishing. The downside is that we only have rainbow trout and the State G&F doesn't have any plans to allow the stocking of any other trout (brown, cutthroat, or brook). For information on the trout of the Sipsey Fork, see this http://www.outdooralabama.com/Fishing/freshwater/where/rivers/smithtailwaters/

Scott