The future is brighter for the Caney Fork than it has been in a long time. For those who love this Middle Tennessee tailwater, the good news is that the river is in a good place, finally. The bad news, well, you can't expect only good news anytime we talk about our fisheries. If nothing else, there is still too much illegal harvest of PLR fish and the stripers are still returning for another summer of feeding on trout. Those big fish don't magically get that big overnight. They need to remain in the river for several seasons. Still, even with a few potential short comings, the Caney is in a really good place.

Some of the best news is that the recent period of very high water (over 23,000 cfs) did not scour the riverbed out completely as past high water events have. Instead, the weed beds are mostly all intact. This river is at its best when it is full of big healthy weed beds. More like a giant spring creek, these weeds create all kinds of habitat for the fish and particularly for the bugs that the fish rely upon. While there are still some water quality concerns (poor dissolved oxygen being the main one), the overall trend on the Caney Fork is to better water conditions and resulting in better fishing opportunities.

This year is looking like another significant drought year in middle and East Tennessee. While it only takes a couple of tropical systems moving through to quickly change this narrative, it looks like our summer and fall will be dry with lower than normal flows. Those are the years that are best for our tailwaters to thrive. In particular, the brown trout do exceptionally well during years with extended low flows.

Last fall, our extended dry period and low flows allowed the fall stocking of small brown trout to do exceptionally well. This year, we are seeing more small browns in the river than we have in a long time. There are also more of those nice browns from 12 inches to in excess of 24 inches. While it is a slow process to rebuild the brown trout fishery, progress is happening. Our current Guide Trip Fish of the Year leader was a huge 24.5" brown trout on the Caney Fork that ate a midge.

The midge fishing has been excellent as of late which is a feature of these lower flow years. The Caney has long been known as a Zebra Midge river, and this year is going to help the river live up to its reputation. Find out how I like to fish the Zebra Midge in this old blog post:

Fishing the Zebra Midge

The mid to late summer midge fishing should be exceptional this year. In fact, some of my favorite sight fishing on the Caney happens every year during this time frame. Years with lower flows are best for this exciting fishing. If you want to test your skills on some of the toughest but most rewarding fishing around, check with me about a midge trip to target larger fish.

One of the big downsides to the new water flow regime on the Caney Fork is that the lower river is getting stressed out more than is good for the fish. On weekends, the Corps of Engineers is cutting flows significantly as compared to on weekdays. This is allowing the lower river to heat up much more than is good for the trout. Moving forward, this will be one of the main issues affecting trout on the lower river. Thankfully, the continuous minimum flow will keep the upper river to at least the Smith Fork in relatively decent shape.

Unless we have a major tropical system move through and dump a bunch of rain this summer or fall, we should see more low flows than not moving forward until winter. A big tropical system will change things, but for now it looks like the river will be in good shape for a while. https://troutzoneanglers.com.