Ellis Ward Guide Service

Ellis Ward Guide Service Fishing Guide, tyer, fly designer, streamer & dry fly nut

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05/26/2026

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Active night 🐭, and always a blast fishing with ya dude! Bart will be holding a slobbering demon of a brown trout in my ...
05/21/2026

Active night 🐭, and always a blast fishing with ya dude! Bart will be holding a slobbering demon of a brown trout in my boat soon.
..

Trip information, for the unfamiliar (you can get a much better sense of things on YouTube at ):

We have a couple program options in place for the foreseeable future, which is more or less the next couple months:

Afternoon big water: predominantly streamer fishing and dry fly fishing. Both of these Rivers can have some fantastic hatches in the afternoon and evenings, yielding a lot of sight fishing to rising trout. In between stopping for risers, we are floating big water and fishing streamers for browns, and it is one of the most fun ways to fish I can think of.

Half Mousing: with the most predictable schedule of releases resulting in low water options on both Rivers at dark, one way to take advantage of how much fishing we can do here is to fort big water in the afternoon for 4 to 6 hours, then finish off our time in darkness, waking rodents and brown trout.

Double points for that wordplay.

Give me a call, text or visit elliswardflies.com to learn more and book your trip

Crafty nigh nigh time
05/19/2026

Crafty nigh nigh time

Bill showing off with a 21" ambushing bank dwellerFor the second half of the day, our streamer fishing has been even mor...
05/10/2026

Bill showing off with a 21" ambushing bank dweller

For the second half of the day, our streamer fishing has been even more tactical than it usually is - all of the intention and spot selection and casting/retrieving, etc. etc. is emphasized in low water.

The shots with the highest probability are generally in fast water, which comes with high gradient. What does this mean? You get one shot per spot, we're either in the middle of a chute or dropping into and out of pockets while you ignore that the boat is a few feet from boulders on boat sides, and the prime real estate requires a little sidearm action with an appetite for sniffing the rocks on the bank in between and under trees, bushes, and roots.

As much as I'll tell everyone to get risky, you also know that if you hang up in that root ball, the next few shots are blown along with the one you're trying to hit. Slowing down is the key, as it is almost always. Thoughtful ex*****on and intentional use of the fly rod results in both accuracy and speed, which are required when timing is so critical.

This is arguably the hardest way to catch fish with a fly rod, and it follows that it's the most fun, and rewarding.

Nice work dude!

Bill with a very proper river striperThere's a brief moment between when a striper eats and when the reel is singing, wh...
05/07/2026

Bill with a very proper river striper

There's a brief moment between when a striper eats and when the reel is singing, where all parties seem to engage in a "huh, what's going on here?"

The fish is pulling in a way that might feel like big head shakes, but it's pretty clearly not that. It's not running. It's heavy. Quickly, the thumps turn into lunging pulls, which very quickly turn into a drag ripping sprint that end a hundred yards downstream, if you're lucky. Oftentimes, the pool runs into a set of rapids, and the fish isn't done, and doesn't want to go down, so the patience and white knuckling turns into reeling as fast as possible in an effort to maintain some semblance of tension on the hook point(s), which may or may not be set properly, or half bent out - the latter occuring at a much higher rate if the hook set doesn't drive through to the bend. Nothing fancy, no acrobatics, and devoid of the boatside lunacy that makes netting a big brown or a musky a moment of truth instead of relief.

It's brute strength and speed.

Leader knots, terminal knots, reels, drag, backing, braid, slack line, hook points, wire gauge. If there is a weak link you'll be informed in a heartbreaking way.

What an absolute stud of a fish caught a good ways up the river. It's a special catch in a special place that has been a fixture in my life for 6 years now.

Let's not ignore that these are largely the bycatch of going after brown trout, which tend to show up throughout the day as well.

Bill first fished with me 4 years ago when I was truly in the early stages of guiding, and has been on the boat for some wild stuff between then and now. This is our biggest fish together, and I was so goddamn happy to see it going down.

Congrats Bill!

🍖🍖🐕‍🦺
05/05/2026

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Josslyn and Chad made a father daughter float memorable in both the 1st and last at bats.Patience and doing the right th...
05/04/2026

Josslyn and Chad made a father daughter float memorable in both the 1st and last at bats.

Patience and doing the right thing consistently...much easier said than done when the work is already there, but the payment has yet to show up.

At dawn, chad boated a few nice fish, including a brown just over 20" and a slightly smaller rainbow - both fish that qualify the day as a success. Lack of foresight on my end resulted in pictures that were a bit spot burny.

Josslyn caught both of these lifetime fish banging the banks with lures - under bushes, into log jams, through trees, all while moving in a boat - and had a boatside eat and close quarters knife fight with that brown (coming in at 24.25"), right above, then through a set of rapids. They came 7 hours after her dad boated his dawn fish. Right in this time frame, Chad also had a brown that rivaled his daughters eat a streamer at his rod tip. Chad laughed off a trout set that sent the fish home, thrilled to have seen it and get the eat, and maybe 10 seconds later, Josslyn hits a homer...the sacrifices we make as fathers 😭😭

Talk about windows. Gotta be swinging when they crack open.

While ~95% of casts from my boat are with a fly rod, you better believe we keep our options open - for your preferences or those of the fish.

Things continue to heat up, and I have a good number of days open in late May and June.

I appreciate everyone who has made 2026 a great year already. The faith, the trust in what we do out there, the work it takes to make it happen, the fun we have in the process...the fish don't just luck themselves into the net. So, thank you.

With conditions as tough as they have been, and the quality of fish we are consistently finding, I'm getting more and more excited as rain is in the forecast, and generation on both rivers is in the near future.

Happy Monday

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04/30/2026

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🏋️‍♂️Shouldered up 26" and changeListen to the most recent fishing report to hear a little more about this fish, and th...
11/05/2025

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Shouldered up 26" and change


Listen to the most recent fishing report to hear a little more about this fish, and the moments leading up and following.

With an instantaneous perspective, this fish came to hand easily. Good cast with a tight line in the right place, the fish ate hard off the bank, good set. We can dramatize the one cast and eat, which is always incredible, but that's not why it's special. The same reasons why it is special are why so few really commit to this.

Being where we were, when we were, and fishing how we were. All of the fishing that day prior to this fish, and the work that goes in over years. My time alone getting my ass handed to me, wondering what the hell I'm doing. The gamble to do this and not that.

None of that happens for free, and all of it, and more, is what makes this difficult and so much fun. That stuff is why I appreciate the anglers on my boat so much, and why I have come to know, and enjoy my time with, so many of you.

I personally have so much faith and confidence in what we do, and at this point, it doesn't change when the bite is hot or when it's silent. We have partners in this dance, and a lot of the time they are less prone to play the game than we want them to be.

So, I can understand why I hear clients tell me that others say things like "they don't eat streamers here" and "why are you fishing with him?", and why I see more spin gear this time of year than the rest of the year combined.

It's hard to do, and it's even harder to teach.

If you have an interest in learning how to fish streamers, you will value the time on my boat. The devastating eats and big fish will happen. It might be with me, it might not be. In whatever case, you'll have a friendly "you moved your rod" reminder when the fish comes unbuttoned, and another one encouraging the fly to get back into the water, because they're eating.

See ya out there


Address

Johnson City, TN
37601

Opening Hours

Monday 5am - 11pm
Tuesday 5am - 11pm
Wednesday 5am - 11pm
Thursday 5am - 11pm
Friday 5am - 11pm
Saturday 5am - 11pm
Sunday 5am - 11pm

Telephone

+15135430019

Website

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