Tennessee on the Fly

The Duck is guided in three reaches, an upper eighteen miles, a middle fifteen and a lower seven, with the lower watershed the usual water. Low water months mean float trips; high water means jet boat trips. Smallmouth bass are plentiful and reach five pounds and better, small spotted bass keep an angler company through the day, largemouth lurk in the wood and the occasional striper turns up. The Buffalo, the Duck’s largest tributary and the longest unimpeded river in Middle Tennessee, is float-fished from a drift boat over big blue holes and pristine gravel bottoms for smallmouth on the fly. Six- to eight-weight rods are recommended. The going presentation is low and slow with a minnow or craw, with big streamers swum through deep runs and poppers splashed over shallow grass when the fish will come up for them.