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Clay Gibson with more reasons for Winter fishing (click to visit)

Joe Gibson finds a hog on the South Holston River (click to visit)

Gordon Kay on the South Holston in December (click to visit)

Jason Jones brings us a Winter's Tale (click to visit)

A tale of Brians on the Davidson River (click to visit)

Blake Puryear hits the South Holston River (click to visit)

The Goering group hits the tailwaters (click to visit)

Betsy Dawson learns the South Holston (click for more)

Vee sends an update from Ontario (click for more)

A South Holston River report from Bill Matyi (click for more)

Benny Pearson's smallmouth report (click for more)

Madison's Watauga River report (click for more)

Ken & Tom conquer the bass (click for more)

Jeremiah on the Watauga River (click for more)

Largemouth bass in our mountains? click for more...

Doubled-up on the Watauga River (click to visit)

Smallmouth on flies (click to visit)

Charlie Helm master's the bass (click to visit)

Brian Dunlap hits the Davidson River (click to visit)

Mark's Watauga River report (click to visit)

Garrett Blodgett hits the Watauga (click to visit)

Watauga River stripers! (click to visit)

Scott Luttrell returns to the Davidson River (click to visit)

Team Zalesky on the Watauga River (click to visit)

Watauga River Stream Report (click to visit)

Jocelyn learns on the Davidson River (click to visit)

Dylan hits the Pigeon River (click to visit)

Bill Matyi can't quit the South Holston River (click to visit)

French Broad Muskie on the fly! (click to visit)

Tom Taylor finds some Smallmouth (click to visit)

Aidan Gomez with a Davidson River Report (click to visit)

Paul Tootleman returns to the South Holston (click to visit)

Jay & Teo with a smallmouth bass report (click to visit)

South Holston Stream report (click to visit)

Bill Matyi returns to the South Holston River (click to visit)

Winter Fly Fishing: Why Bother? (click to find out)

Todd Koenig delays the harvest on the Laurel River (click to visit)

Hap Clayton's Delayed Harvest report (click to visit)

Debbie Griffith on the South Holston River (click to visit)

South Holston stream report (click to visit)
Where's Your Picture?
If you were previously featured in this space, scroll to the top of the page and type your name into the search box. Or, look for your name in our Archives, here.
Altamont Anglers' guide Travis Honeycutt has techniques for fishing (and catching) big trout on the Davidson River that have made him a much-requested guide by our clients. While not revealing his techniques here, we can tell you that one of them is not catching big fish himself, in front of a client (strict rules at Altamont Anglers forbid a guide from fishing unless a client demands a "demo cast" from his guide). But, on Sunday, June 1 2008 the cardinal rule was broken...

Travis Honeycutt hoists a heft hunk of Davidson River Rainbow trout (click the image for a larger view)
It was the end of the half-day contract and time to head for the truck. As they were leaving Travis noticed his client--Gabe Lopez, angler extraordinaire from San Franciso--involved in the classic and time-honored tradition practiced behind the bushes by any angler who starts his day with a cup of coffee. Just killing the time, Trav threw a lazy cast towards a big shadow in the water and--the ultimate embarassment for a guide: the shadow ate the fly!
Gabe sent us these photos, along with these comments:
"What a morning! I still can't believe the size of the Rainbow Travis caught at the end of the day. What a monster! His pic came out great, mine - not so much. It was pretty dark and raining early in the morning. Plus the one fish has half its tail missing!"
Probably got chewed off by Travis' lunker...
Rest assured, Gabe: we've docked Travis a week's pay for his grievous transgression!

Gabe Lopez' soul occupies Travis Honeycutt's body to share in the glory of the trout that should have been Gabe's (click to enlarge)
In an alarming turn of events, we received an email from Gabe upon his return to San Francisco: apparently Gabe has a fishing buddy who is also an expert at photoshop voodoo sorcery, who thought it outrageous that Gabe had allowed his guide to catch the big fish of the day and vowed to right the wrong. In less time than it takes to say "hocus pocus", Gabe's friend opened photoshop transmogrified through time and space, replacing Travis' soul with Gabe's for the moment of piscatorial glory.
We'd just like to disavow any claims of photoshoppery sorcery that may arise involving the depictions of anglers and their fish elsewhere on this site: All the fish are real, the anglers are nice folks, and our guides are all above average...
Click the thumbnails below for larger views of Gabe's early morning work on the Davidson:

(Altamont Anglers operates on Pisgah National Forest Rivers under USDA Forest Service Permit #PIS6560)
They Coulda Been Contenders!
Or wall-hangers--but we released them all!!