Dave Acker with a typically chunky South Holston River brown trout caught on a dry fly on July 28, 2010 (click image to enlarge)

Dave Acker first fished with Altamont Anglers 5 years ago and both he and his guide forgot their cameras. Dave has returned to fish with us as often as possible since then, and on his return last week he brought all his cameras! We'll let Dave tell the tale in his own words:

"Thank you for arranging for me to fish with Jay Dodd on Wednesday June 28th, 2010.  What a great guide and a great day on the South Holston River!  I lost count of how many fish we fooled; Jay estimated 20 for the morning's wade fishing, and I'm guessing we got 12 to 16 more in the afternoon session floating and casting to the "Hatch of the Sulfurs".  Not to be missed was the lunch at the little country restaurant; both Jay and I tried to get the pork chop recipe from the proprietor, but no luck.  Hands down those were the best chops that ever passed our lips!  And dessert?  Yellow cake with peanut butter icing that was still warm .....
"My goodness, those sulfurs were thick!  We landed no real 'monsters', but we got our share of 13" - 17" fish, both rainbows and browns, along with some smaller ones, too.  Mostly rainbows in the morning's walk-and-wade, and mostly browns in the afternoon's float.  The health and the strength of these fish in this cold water is amazing --- each fish fought like it was 3 or 4 inches longer than it was, and many of the larger fish were extremely thick and strong.  And yes, as always, there were a few bigger ones fooled and lost (due to me, not to Jay for sure!).  I get to fish hard like this so infrequently --- it was a pleasure "knocking the rust off" with a great guide and teacher like Jay!
  "The South Holston is one beautiful river that people need to see and experience for themselves..." 

The next best thing to seeing it for yourself is clicking on any thumbnail below for a slideshow of Dave Acker's images capturing the South Holston River during a great Sulphur hatch...

(Altamont Anglers operates on Pisgah National Forest Rivers under USDA Forest Service Permit #PIS6560)