Unicoi guide Jake Darling had a couple of clients on Dukes Creek Section One yesterday and the fish were very active. Here's his report:
"The water was up about a foot and had a dark green stain to it. My clients were not used to big fish on a small stream and had some difficulty landing them but the bite was definitely on. We hooked and lost around 20 nice rainbows. One of my anglers hooked a real pig of a rainbow, fought it for about 5 minutes and it broke off right at the net. Just all part of paying your dues to the Duke! Nothing's easy there but those big fish are sick!
"Flies that were working were a size 18 brown or baetis micro mayfly and size 16 micro stones dropped off of something big like a size 8 Whitlocks Hellgrammite, or the new rubberlegs, and even a squirrel nymph. Fish were taking both the small flies and the big flies. even caught one 4 inch wild trout on a size 8 rubberlegs. That joker must have been extra hungry because the fly was about half his size.
"When fishing these rigs it took a lot of split shot to get the flies down, usually around 3 or 4 BB size split shot to hit the bottom. The flies had to be ticking along the bottom to get any strikes. So make sure you have your strike indicator up high when fishing in these conditions. No matter how much weight you have on it, if your strike indicator is only 4ft up from your flies then the chances are you aren't getting down to the bottom.
"Dukes Creek is fishing as good right now as I've seen it in a while. And there seem to always be some openings available and no-shows every day they fish. If you haven't fished Dukes Creek in a while, now is the time!"
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