March Trophy Trout Report
March is easily one of the best months to land a trophy brown or rainbow trout. Over our last dozen trips in Tennessee alone, clients caught 10 fish over 20 inches — several even stretched into the mid to high 20s.
This month’s standout? Ben Boehm, son of David Boehm, landed a whopping 27-inch male brown trout on March 17th.
(See headline photo.)
The runner-up was Don Baggett with a 25-inch brown, pictured above.
Meanwhile, on the Smith River in Virginia, Guide Carter Ailsworth also reported impressive numbers, landing brown trout between 18 and 22 inches on just a few outings
Caddis Season Is Heating Up
Tennessee trout are keying in on larger spring nymphs and caddis as they prepare for the coming Mother’s Day Caddis hatch. They’re feeding heavily on active nymphs during this pre-hatch window.
In higher water flows, streamer fishing remains an exciting and effective option for targeting big fish. But for nymph anglers, our top-producing patterns lately include:
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Red and green soft hackles
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Peacock soft hackles
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Large prince nymphs (sizes 14–10)
(See fly photos below.)
Many of the fish featured in this report were taken on large caddis nymphs. These wild trout are opportunistic in March, and we love using big flies on 4X tippet before things get more technical in May, when smaller flies and tippet become the norm.
Trophy Fishing on the Smith River
As for the Smith River, people often ask how Carter consistently puts anglers on big trout. We’ll just say this: the details are for our clients only.
If you’re serious about hunting trophy fish on the Smith, give us a call … we’ll show you what’s possible.
