S7, Ep 53: Mousing Around: Summer Fishing Adventures with Ellis Ward

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash reconnects with Ellis Ward for the latest East Tennessee Fishing Report. As summer settles in, Ellis shares his experiences navigating the waters of the Watauga and the exciting opportunities that come with the warmer months. With the river generating six days a week, Ellis discusses the resurgence of dry fly activity and the thrill of night fishing, particularly mousing, as he plans to dive deeper into this late night streamer technique.

Listeners will hear about the current water conditions, including the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene and the clarity of the water, reminiscent of the fishy green of Pennsylvania spring creeks. Ellis also shares insights on the ongoing bug activity and the importance of cloud cover for successful dry fly fishing, as well as the challenges that come with fluctuating weather patterns.

The episode is filled with practical tips and engaging anecdotes that will inspire anglers to make the most of their summer fishing adventures. Ellis also gives a sneak peek into the new bucktail colors he’s been working on, ensuring listeners have the right stuff for their next tying session.

To learn more about Ellis, check out our interview!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash,the host of the Articulate Fly. We're
back with another EastTennessee fishing report with Ellis
Ward. Ellis, how are you doing?
Well, Marv, how are you?
Probably better than you are.You probably have at least an oil
change from a quick turn andburn down to Florida, right?
Marvin, I'm a responsibleindividual and I take care of the

(00:24):
things that do the work forme. So I got my oil changed prior
to driving down to Florida,and it was only a few months late,
so I'm feeling like I havesome good boy points there.
Well, that's good. And, youknow, it's not like you're pulling
a boat or anything, so, youknow, whatever.
Thankfully this time, yeah, it.

(00:46):
It's.
Driving without pulling a boatis especially distances. Feels, you
know, it's 11 hours. That endsup being a long way. And then I got,
you know, drove back and hadsome long days on the boat in between,
woke up, drove up to seefamily, dropped one kid off, had

(01:11):
a day in between, and now I'mback and talking with you. So thankfully,
the not towing a boat anddriving feels a little easier has
made a difference.
Yeah. Although my point was ifyou were already overdue for the.
For a couple months for theoil change, you'd been pulling a
boat in those overdue months.
So, yeah, your point can gotwo or threefold because I'm probably

(01:36):
understating how late I was.
Fair enough.
I still gotta change, though.I get good boy points. Okay.
Yeah, it's all good. I'veheard annual oil changes are a thing.
So you're back. And we weretalking before we started recording
about a subject near and dearto your heart. Mousing.
Yeah. Kicking off this weekwith. And it really feels like summer

(02:03):
proper been gone for the lastweek and then had some trips here
and there.
It's.
It did start to feel likethings were settling into the. The
summer cruise control with theWatauga generating six days a week

(02:26):
and seeing the dry flyactivity doing what it should be
doing. And I had a couplenights on my own and a few with clients
in May at night, and wedidn't. I personally, and then with
clients, haven't dedicated awhole lot of time just because there

(02:50):
are. There are so many otheropportunities. Shad moving up, you
know, striper falling. The catis hatched. There's just. There's
so much stuff going on in thatlate May time frame. So I'm excited
to. To push more chips intothe. The night game and at the same

(03:13):
time, because I just Wanteverything at the same time. And
there's only 24 hours in theday. But really I'm still, I'll probably
say it for another couple,another couple episodes. I'm still
just enjoying the fact thatthere's a good amount of water and

(03:33):
we're getting rain and youknow, the, the Doe river tributary
to the Watauga is, is veryhealthy. So we're just, we're not
staring at a bunch of lowwater, which is always really nice.
And it's. While we all aren'tstaring at low water, we're also
not staring at 24. 7generation, which that's, that's

(03:57):
what we were looking at assoon as we dropped from the 24. 7
low water for both rivers formonths. I'm not sure if the TVA had
changed an algorithm orsomething was different because of
the impact that Helene hadhere, but there would be these, you
know, normally if there'srain, there's going to be a little

(04:18):
generation beforehand, duringand after. Maybe it's staged, you
know, four to eight hours aday, maybe three in the morning,
three at night, something likethat. It was going from off to 24,
seven, you know, for threedays in a row and then just off low
again. So in any event, thingsare feeling more right sized and

(04:43):
we're getting, you know, the,the low water at night and just have
so many more windows ofopportunity for night fishing in
a meaningful way and combiningthat with doing it on days where
the moon isn't rising until 1,2, 3 in the morning. Yeah, I'm excited.

(05:07):
Very, very cool. And I knowthe daytime. I know just from watching
stuff on the Internet thatgood bugs right during the day. I'm
sure the streamer fishing ispretty good. Or do you still have.
Because I've gotten a fewquestions. Do you still have post
Helene stain in the water oris that kind of done with at this
point?
No, it's still there. There isa, I would call it a stain, you know,

(05:32):
if I was just stepping onto myboat and, and maybe I'm a, a warm
water angler or, or did a lotof the freestones, limestone creeks
that type stuff. It reallydoes remind me. I fished a lot of
the, the limestone and springcreeks up in the Pennsylvania. Like

(05:54):
all those blue ribbon troutsrings, fishing creek pens, yellow
breaches, yellow creek. Likeit reminds me of this limestone turquoisey,
light blue, teal green thathas some clarity but, but when you

(06:15):
get to 3, 4, 5ft, you canreally. It starts to look like the
Caribbean and that feels Veryclear, I think to most people. To
me having fished these tailwaters for the five years, that's
stain. I mean that's color.And when you're starting to not necessarily

(06:38):
lose flies, but you're onlygetting those pops of flash from
the drunks or you're onlyseeing the, you know, the jig ear
flies dungeons like you. Youonly see it on the pickup and maybe
when it drops in the tailflares it. It does. Streamer fish
has been awesome and it reallydoes do a lot. My perception, at

(07:01):
least for the comfort of thefish. I'll let you know when I talk
with them.
Yeah, fair enough. But youknow, it's kind of funny. That's
what those PA guys, I thinkthey like to call that fishy green.
Oh yeah, yeah.
So. Well, that's awesome. So,you know. I know. I guess you're
probably starting to seesulfurs pretty regularly, I would
imagine. You know, at least,you know, in our part of the world
in the mid Atlantic, we've gotprobably storms or showers in the

(07:24):
forecast for the next week to10 days. So I would imagine you're
looking forward to the cloudcover on the flats for some dry fly
fishing too, right?
Yeah, it's been. I was, I wasburning it before I had left for
Florida, so it doesn't feellike I've been gone for that long.

(07:44):
And that, that little bit ofcloud cover we still. I had one day
that was a little. I like tocall certain days just, you know,
there's no data. You shouldjust have amnesia about it because
everything's great and thingsaren't happening the way that they
should. There was one day thatjust felt like, you know, cloud cover,

(08:09):
everything. Streamer fishingwas great, but it wasn't very buggy.
We ended up getting a downpourlater on that evening. And I like
to tell myself that the. Thebugs knew rain was coming and maybe,
maybe their timing was just alittle, a little bit off. But. And
that's because that prefrontaland those, those cloudy days for

(08:33):
the bugs and in high watermakes such a big difference. You
can see some, some properblizzards of bugs out there.
Yeah. Or maybe they just feltsorry for you for putting your camera
in the drink.
Yeah, I'm not sure thatanyone, nature included, feel sorry

(08:55):
for me for that one. Includingme. That if anyone listening to this
has not seen that video, checkout my Instagram. I put that camera
up and had a very consciousthought about how I was setting things
up and where my rod was in thenet and I was Trying to take a picture

(09:18):
of a muskie who is thrashingaround in the net. Really did go
through some, some cautionaryplanning in my head and you know,
about a minute later justerased all of that as I went for
something and knocked thatcamera into the boat. But I just

(09:40):
used that camera to get somegood pictures of tarpon so I can
confirm that it is okay.
Well, that's good to hear. Youknow, we didn't get a question this
time, but folks, we lovequestions on the articulate fly.
You can email me or DM me onsocial media, whatever's easiest
for you. And if we use yourquestion, I will send you some articulate
fly swag. And as I say, thesedays, I'll probably throw in a butcher

(10:00):
shop sticker or two and enteryour drawing for some cool stuff
from Ellis. And Ellis, beforeI let you, you said power naps. Out
of the question. So it'sprobably monster and fast food. Before
you mouse all night tonight,you want to let folks know where
to find you to talk aboutfishing. Since I haven't talked to
you in a while, why don't youlet folks know if you've got any
more bucktails rolling aroundand all that kind of good stuff?

(10:20):
Yeah, it's the two R's, rainand Reese's. I'm actually not just
making that up. I'm looking ata can of rain and a bag of Reese's.
It was buy one king size, getanother one for a dollar. So no monster
in fast food for me. I amhealthy. You can find me at Ellis

(10:44):
Ward Guides on Instagram. Mywebsite is ellisward flies.com and
best way to contact me aboutbooking bucktails, et cetera, is
513-543-0019. And I do have anumber of bucktail in some new colors.

(11:07):
Cheeto, a good chartreuse,lavender. I'm not sure if I call
this one cucumber. It's likea. Like a seafoam. Anyways, there's.
There's a bunch, including Ithink some grade twos, some still
[e-mail] and.Yeah, until next time.

(11:28):
Yeah, you kind of scared methere with that seafoam comment.
That was kind of frightening.
I. That's on a. We can go downthe rabbit hole of colors.
No, we're not going to dothat. And I was just, you know, it's
kind of funny you didn't sayanything about Zen. I hope they're
organic, right?
Yeah, I just assume everythingis. Otherwise it's going to kill
me.
There you go. Well, listen,folks, as always say this time of

(11:49):
year, you owe it to yourselfto get out there and catch a few.
Tight lines, everybody. Tightlines, Ellis.
Appreciate it, Marvin.