Tim Fischer and Teo Whitlock with an enormous striped bass caught by Tim--on a fly--on the Watauga River, Saturday, May 30, 2009 (click image to enlarge).

Tim Fischer does most of his fishing on exotically-named rivers like the Namekagon, the Chippewa, the Bois Brule, and the St. Croix. When he comes to visit us in Asheville, NC, we make him feel at home by fishing the exotically-named Watauga River.

Tim isn't really a client of Altamont Anglers Fly Fishing Guides^®--he's a fishing buddy of AA guide Teo Whitlock--but when he makes the trip from his home in Wisconsin for a little fishing, he gets treated like a special client. When he fished with us on Saturday, May 30 Teo decided to make Tim feel really special...

Negotiating the weekend flotilla of boats on the Watauga River proved no challenge at all, landing the usual variety of trout species seemed routine (although the size was above average), but adding an approximately 30-pound striper to the species caught on the fly was truly special! With no Bogagrip™ on board we can only guess at the weight, but we invite you to click the picture to the left, make your calculations, and send us your best guess as to its actual weight.

The big striper was caught on a streamer created by Teo Whitlock to mimick shad, and was caught by Tim fishing a 6wt rod and Teeny 200 sinking line. The same rig also caught one of the browns (the third fish) pictured below.

Enjoy the variety of gamefish available on the Watauga River by clicking to enlarge the thumbnails below, taken on Saturday, May 30, 2009:

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