Lower French Broad

[JoePhish]

I’ll be fishing the lower section of the French Broad River next weekend for the first time. Can anyone give me any pointers, tips or “secrets”? 

[JoePhish]

Forgot to mention that I’ll be in a yak.

[TnRiver46]

Dude! That’s dangerously close to my house. It’s been fishing good, everything is working. There are dead times , but that’s the nature of the beast. They are already in summer mode, the lack of current this spring has warmed the water up really quickly . Top water, soft plastics, cranks, swimbaits, all been good. There’s 300 billion skipjack herring that may get in your way, large stripers are in there after them 

 

Let me know if ya need anything, not sure if I’ll be around but maybe. There can be a ridiculous amount of recreational paddle craft clogging the accesses 

[JoePhish]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

 There can be a ridiculous amount of recreational paddle craft clogging the accesses 

I was planning on putting in at Island Home Airport.

[TnRiver46]

56 minutes ago, JoePhish said:

I was planning on putting in at Island Home Airport.

In a yak? And going upstream? That airport is 1.5 miles from my driveway, I put in there Wednesday evening and paddled around in my canoe , caught lots of baby smallmouth, rock bass, skipjack, a big bluegill, and 1 lb largemouth 

 

if people are parked on the ramp at the airport, sometimes they will move for ya but it takes them forever. If I see a crowd there, I go to james white parkway bridge instead 

[JoePhish]

Yeah, I was planning on paddling up stream then floating down. 
 

So no big ones? 
Is that typical for that stretch? I’m tournament fishing on Saturday.  I wanted to avoid the lakes because boat traffic will be insane. 

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, JoePhish said:

Yeah, I was planning on paddling up stream then floating down. 
 

So no big ones? 
Is that typical for that stretch? I’m tournament fishing on Saturday.  I wanted to avoid the lakes because boat traffic will be insane. 

There are always big ones, I just didn’t encounter them, and didn’t make it up the French. That’s a bit of a haul but not bad right now because there’s minimal current. I’ve seen times when it’s 3 mph at the airport. You’re still in party boat territory almost all the way up to highway 168 bridge on the French. Prop boats can make it a mile or two above that bridge. 

[JoePhish]

Thanks for your advice. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, JoePhish said:

Thanks for your advice. 

Anytime man. My buddies have been catching a good many 18”-20” on upstream. 

[Unk]

Please pardon for me jumping this topic but I gotta ask ..  Where ya'll are talking about is only a mile or two above Neyland . Never thought about fishing around Neyland and just wondered if it's done much ? I've heard the stories of the raft up parties at Neyland but none about fishing  Again , sorry about jumping the thread .

 

[JoePhish]

15 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Anytime man. My buddies have been catching a good many 18”-20” on upstream. 

How much further upstream?

6 minutes ago, Unk said:

Please pardon for me jumping this topic but I gotta ask ..  Where ya'll are talking about is only a mile or two above Neyland . Never thought about fishing around Neyland and just wondered if it's done much ? I've heard the stories of the raft up parties at Neyland but none about fishing  Again , sorry about jumping the thread .

 

One thing is for sure, it’s not as pressured as other stretches of water. 

[Unk]

3 minutes ago, JoePhish said:

One thing is for sure, it’s not as pressured as other stretches of water. 

Thanks . That's sort of what I would've thought but didn't know for sure . From what I can see , the river looks better around the 168 bridge . I would imagine the pressure can get pretty heavy at times.

[TnRiver46]

9 minutes ago, Unk said:

Please pardon for me jumping this topic but I gotta ask ..  Where ya'll are talking about is only a mile or two above Neyland . Never thought about fishing around Neyland and just wondered if it's done much ? I've heard the stories of the raft up parties at Neyland but none about fishing  Again , sorry about jumping the thread .

 

Funny you’d say that……… I saw this yesterday 

  I’ve caught some nice fish by the stadium, got about a 3 lb with a frog there last summer . In the 2021 elite event in Knoxville, I saw Steve Kennedy catch a nice one and lose a really nice one at the basketball arena. And Jason Christie was spinnerbaiting laydowns there and a big fish kept blowing up top water in the branches but he didn’t catch it. In February, water was cold and swift 

11 minutes ago, JoePhish said:

How much further upstream?

One thing is for sure, it’s not as pressured as other stretches of water. 

They have jet boats so they fish all over it. You kind of have to float from point A to

point B up there, but maybe you could use one access and get on them 

[VolFan]

I caught many many fish on and around that area while at school there - I fished around the creeks, mostly 2nd and 3rd, and upstream by Ijams and Forks of the River WMA. Hunted rabbits up there too. It’s really a great fairly urban fishery.

[Unk]

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

In the 2021 elite event in Knoxville, I saw Steve Kennedy catch a nice one and lose a really nice one at the basketball arena.

I guess if I had taken time to think on it I wouldn't have been surprised . But , for years and years I just associated the area with the third Saturday in Oct. 

[VolFan]

Yeah no - I actually had some wins in that area in the last 20 years…

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Unk said:

I guess if I had taken time to think on it I wouldn't have been surprised . But , for years and years I just associated the area with the third Saturday in Oct. 

I get chills just reading that 

[TnRiver46]

Update: the French broad will be ripping about 2-3 mph mid week, combined with a lot of milky brown water coming from the little pigeon watershed . I’ll keep an eye on it. Going upstream might be a challenge, potentially impossible 

[TnRiver46]

I put in at the airport last night and paddled up a bit. Didn’t make it up to the French broad, current was starting to pick up . Caught this monster 

then I figured I’d try slamming a crankbait through some laydowns, caught a small LM and small SM, but bigger than what we had been catching with worms 

 

the water has been slow and warming quickly most of the spring while they fill Douglas and Cherokee lake. Douglas is now full so they are pumping water, you can literally smell the difference, but also see fog like this when they start moving fresh water from the bottom of the lake
 

cherokee lake isn’t going to make it to full this year so they are running minimum flow for probably the entire summer on the Holston side 

 

 

this morning when I crossed the river, the water had turned brown and was flowing fast 

[JoePhish]

Thanks for the update. 
I’m still pondering where to put in and whether I should scrap the whole river thing and just deal with the lake idiots.

[TnRiver46]

24 minutes ago, JoePhish said:

Thanks for the update. 
I’m still pondering where to put in and whether I should scrap the whole river thing and just deal with the lake idiots.

There will be lots of idiots in the river too, I might look into the Holston if I were you 

 

 

[JoePhish]

I might drive by Holsten River Park on the way home to see what that looks like.

That opens at dawn like a lot of the other ramps. I would love to get on the water before then so I can start fishing at 7.  
I probably won’t decide until Sat morning. Lol

[TnRiver46]

Ok looking at TVA predicted data, they will be moving less water than they initially posted so getting swept away might be off the table. 

[JoePhish]

That’s a good thing. 
My goal right now is to find a place where I can put in early so I can paddle upstream as much as possible before lines in.

[TnRiver46]

Here’s the scene at the airport launch at 6:17 am this morning, indeed closed until 7 am