Anglers who want to match mayfly hatches will face a challenge in the Tellico area, because the mayfly hatches there are usually described as either sporadic or sparse. Epeorus (Blue Quills) and Stenonema (Cahills) are the most likely genera to be encountered. Caddis, stoneflies, and terrestrials, however, can provide good fishing.

Because of the unpredictable nature of the local aquatic insects, prospecting is the best tactic on most Southern streams. Many local anglers prefer traditional attractor and searching patterns. For drys, they use various Wulff patterns, a Trude Coachman, or a Parachute Adams, and for nymphs, they use the Tellico Nymph, George Nymph, and Zug Bug.

Caddis are easily the most reliable and numerous aquatic insects in the area and can be found hatching just about every day of the year, and they provide the basis for year-round dry-fly fishing. Though yellow and olive Elk-hair Caddis are hard to beat as searching patterns, I favor a fluttering Caddis design as a fish exciter. [See the book, Fishing the Dry Fly as a Living Insect, by Leonard M. Wright, Jr., 1972. THE EDITORS.]

My Haw Knob Caddis was designed specifically with the Tellico and North rivers in mind, and in its light incarnation, with a yellow mixed dubbing of rabbit, Antron, and hare's ear, it imitates many Southern caddis species. In spring and summer, try any #12-#18 high-floating caddis pattern, however; and in winter, stick with a #18 dark caddis. The large (#6-#8) ginger-colored Great Autumn Caddis (Pycnopsyche) hatches in September and October, and a good imitation can produce some spectacular surface fishing for large trout. I tie a simple pattern on a 2X-long hook, #8-#12, and even though it has the elegance of a hairball, the trout don't seem to care.

Several species of stoneflies hatch throughout the year, but they are most numerous from May through September, with little yellow Isoperla stoneflies ranking as the most conspicuous. Many anglers match Isoperla stonefly hatches by using the "two bugs with one stone" approach--they use a #12-#14 yellow Elk-hair Caddis.

Access to many Tellico basin streams is easy, but the best fishing for wild trout requires a hike into the mountains. In Tennessee, the Tellico is stocked but has many holdover browns.

I match the stonefly hatch with a realistic Idaho pattern, Mike Lawson's Henry's Fork Yellow Sally. I spent an entire day last summer on the brook-trout streams catching and releasing brookies on a #14 Henry's Fork Yellow Sally. One foot-long fish I caught, I've been told, was one of the largest brook trout reported from the area in several years.

Big stonefly nymphs regularly account for some of the largest fly-caught trout in the region. Good numbers of stoneflies, ranging from large black Pteronarcys and golden Acroneuria to small green Chloroperlidae, inhabit the fast clear waters of the Tellico basin. A Tellico Nymph up to #6 can be considered a golden stonefly nymph imitation. A #16 or #18 black stonefly dry can produce outstanding winter angling, especially when fished drowned or spent.

When all else fails in the summer and fall, my wife, Melanie, and I fish terrestrials. The two most productive patterns are a Letort Cricket (#14-#16), which is also a regional favorite searching pattern, and a herl-bodied Crowe Beetle (#14-#16). I have caught more Tellico-area browns on Letort Crickets than on any other fly. A #12-#14 golden-colored Letort Hopper doubles as a hopper or a stonefly imitation, and is also a good fly for brown trout. In the fall, I tie on a #18-#20 Grizzly or Ausable Wulff, and the trout slurp it down like candy.

The equipment used to cast this bug assortment should be simple, rugged, small-stream tackle, unless the mission is trophy brown-trout hunting. Rods in the 2- to 5-weight range are ideal, in lengths ranging from six to eight feet. My personal favorite outfit is a 61/2-foot, 2-weight with a double-taper line. Its lightweight nature has not prevented me from pulling 14-inch wild rainbows out of logjams.

Because of the rough water, plunge pools, and overgrown vegetation that characterize the Tellico basin, 4X to 6X tippets on leaders as short as six or seven feet work best. Some anglers claim an average cast on the wild-trout streams is no more than six feet, and some old-timers fished with cane poles with just leaders and flies--no reels or fly lines. Legendary angler Carl Standing Deer of the Cherokee Nation reportedly refused to use even leader material. He fished with only a line made of braided horsehair. The Tellico basin streams have thick, overgrown vegetation because the area averages about 70 inches of rainfall a year. Raingear is a necessity, though the rain is unusually distributed--fall is the driest season; summer is the wettest. Fall and winter can be mercilessly cold or unbelievably mild.

In February 1996 the temperature hit the upper 60s, so Melanie and I went to the Tellico for some winter dry-fly fishing. After dodging the melting snowbanks on Tellico River Road, we found early black stoneflies everywhere, and trout gobbled them during midday egg-laying flights. Melanie fished one of her favorite little wild-trout streams, and I took to the main Tellico. We agreed to meet back an hour and a half later.

I began with a black stonefly imitation. It is so realistic that I reach for the collecting bottle every time I see it. The rainbows would have none of it. In frustration, I turned to a #14 fluttering brown stonefly pattern, a Stone Hare, because I dimly recalled having seen one adult earlier in day. The trout went crazy over it, and after catching eight fish, I was sure my fly selection would prove me the genius of the day.

Melanie returned with a pleased expression on her face. She announced she had also caught eight fish, and she assured me her trout were bigger. I asked what fly pattern she had used. "Surely it was a brown stonefly," I said.

"No, a #14 Haw Knob Caddisfly," she replied.

A brown stonefly and a yellow caddisfly? In February? The fish were playing tricks on us. Or maybe their brains were still frozen. But the similarity was obvious--the fluttering wing. As it turned out, the trout had just wanted something, anything, that looked alive. On some days, on the Tellico River, the wing is the thing.