Tennessee's Watauga River Trout Fishing

Icy roads, snow, wind and a falling barometer marked the scene on the Watauga River near Johnson City while we were in town to film this episode of Pautzke Outdoors and as any trout angler knows these conditions aren't good for fishing. Meanwhile, having Pautzke salmon eggs can still tempt trout to bite as you'll see on this fabled Tennessee trout river that's heavily stocked by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

For those familiar with the Watauga it’s loaded with trout. Lots of planters clog much of the public access areas, while bigger trout are everywhere, too, yet harder to catch simply because the smaller fish are more aggressive. Those smaller fish hammered us through the first portion of our day. The first two hours were dominated by hook ups with a dozen 10-inch rainbows that destroyed Gold Label and our new Pink Shrimp and Chartreuse Garlic Balls O Fire salmon eggs. Meanwhile, no trout greater than 12 inches bit.

An obvious reflection of a shaky barometer, trout weren’t following their traditional paths. We noticed many seemingly frustrated anglers. It’s not that trout weren’t biting, because we fielded many bites and what would have been easy limits of pan size rainbows. However, the larger fish we flew in for were being stubborn.

We caught three browns in one hole (all 12-15 inches) on Yellow Jacket and Chartreuse Garlic salmon eggs by simply drifting eggs under a float on a single salmon egg hook. Even though the water wasn’t gin clear we used four-pound test as we didn’t want to give the trout an excuse not to feed.

The Watauga is blessed with an endless amount of trout holding water. However, most of the success came on the edge of current lines, in larger pools, around breaks and any water that wasn’t terribly fast or slow. The largest trout we caught, an 18-inch rainbow, came on a Pink Fire Dye worm. We soaked a night crawler in Pink Fire Dye, which literally turned the worm pink. The added attraction worked on a few rainbows.

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To Learn More About Tennessee Trout Fishing: https://www.tn.gov/twra/topic/trout-information-stockings

Editor’s Note: When in town to fish the Watauga, Team Pautzke recommends eating dinner at Tupelo Honey in Johnson City and lunch at Ridgewood BBQ in Bluff City where you should order the BBQ Plate with half beef and half pork.