Elk River, TN August 2012

My good buddy Mark and I hit the Elk for about 5 hours on Saturday.  We went further down river than we usually fish and got into quite a few fish.  Lots of browns and brookies.  Mark got his first brookie and boy it was a beauty!  He is having trouble catching as many fish as me...I can't figure out why.  I think possibly he is not picking up on subtle takes by the fish.  Trout will often take a wet fly in their mouths and swim in the direction of your retrieve so that it's barely detectable that they have the fly...since they are swimming in the direction you are stripping, it's hard to tell that they have taken the fly, plus it gives them time to determine if it's real food or not.  Often if I feel something that just doesn't feel right, I'll give a hard strip and many times that's when my line tightens up, then I set the hook!  Well, here are a few pics of our little trip: