Secrets of Southern Tailwaters, with Tic Smith

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tic Smith [37:18] is head guide at Orvis-endorsed Southeastern Anglers and is a veteran guide with many decades of experience on southern tailwaters. Our discussion centers on his home river, the Hiwassee, but the tips and tricks he shares will be valuable on many other tailwaters. He talks tackle, flies, presentation, and most importantly reading the water from a drift boat.

In the Fly Box this week we have some great trips and interesting questions from listeners, including:

Can I re-use an old Depth Charge running line with a shooting head, and if so how should I connect it to my heads?
Can I put my reel in the water when landing a fish?
Would the 7-foot, 9-inch Superfine Graphite rod be a good one for redeye bass? Will it add to the fun factor?
A listener has a question about getting around another angler while fishing public water surrounded by private land.
A biologist answers a question from a previous podcast—where are all the baby carp?
What is this Tenkara stuff all about? Can I use conventional flies on a Tenkara outfit?
An anonymous listener please for listeners to contact their elected representatives regarding the defunding of the EPA's Office of Research Development.
How do native brook trout get so high up in remote streams?
I can catch fish in low gradient brown trout streams on nymphs and dries but streamers don't seem to work. Why?
Will floods that have increased flows tenfold in a river have a deleterious effect on the trout population?
Can you recommend a good long dry-fly leader that is knotless? Is it as good as a hand-tied leader?
What kind of fly-fishing gear should I avoid using in salt water?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing podcast.
0:13.9	This is your host, Tom Molesenauer.
0:16.0	And my guest this week is Tick Smith from Southeast Angler.
0:22.1	And Tick was nominated as one of the finalists for Orvis Andor's Guide of the Year.
0:29.1	He fishes southern tailwaters.
0:31.7	He mainly concentrates on the Hiawassey River.
0:35.0	And in this podcast, we're going to be talking about, you know, how to fish from a
0:41.5	drift boat in a southern tailwater. What kind of strategy do you use? What kind of tackle?
0:46.3	What kind of flies? And very important how to read the water. So there are lots and lots of
0:53.7	great tailwaters in the southeastern United States and very
0:59.8	popular these days. And if you fish in that area or if you plan on fishing in that area,
1:06.0	I think that Tick's podcast, although he concentrates on the Hiawasi, which is a river with lots of public
1:13.9	access and a great place for do it yourself, Tick will give you some solid advice on how to manage
1:22.4	this kind of fishing. And before we get into my interview with Tick and into the flybox, I wanted to talk to you and
1:32.3	inform you about some of the great Orvis endorsed guides out there.
1:39.5	The guide this week, the guide of the week, is Captain Michael Pittman.
1:46.8	And Michael is a Louisiana native. He's a lifelong fisherman, and he specializes in saltwater site fishing from
1:53.5	Hopedale and Delacroy on the west side of the Mississippi to Myrtle Grove, Port Sulphur, and Venice
1:59.8	on the east side of the Mississippi.
2:02.2	This is a great fishery, and I'm sure you've all seen videos and photographs of the big redfish
2:11.1	chasing poppers and chasing streamers in shallow water.
2:15.3	It sure looks exciting.
	...

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