A Good Place To Fly Fish In Eastern Tennessee

The landmark Bristol Virginia Tennessee Slogan Sign spans two states. Perched above State Street and the state line that divides the common downtown district, it displays the name of a twin city and its slogan, “A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE.”

- Joe Shields

We stood before the electric artwork, in no man’s land, just before midnight late last May. Approximately 1,330 light bulbs illuminate the sign. “VA” beams on one side and “TENN” on the other side of the demarcation. Weary from travel, Chris Young, aka Younger, a buddy from Roanoke College, reminded me it was pouring rain. I wanted to try out my new waterproof camera after a late dinner at Whiskey Rebellion on the TENN side of the street.

 

The camera was manufactured in Germany, by Germans with engineering degrees who demand precision. I stepped into VA to photograph the sign from the perspective of my home state. My camera’s monitor screen transformed the sign into an image worthy of a rock band album cover.

In the morning we discussed the online fishing report. Fish were active and hungry. Nymph and streamer bites were on. (Nymphs imitate insects such as mayflies that still live under the water. Streamers imitate minnows and larger underwater fish foods.) Yellow bugs had arrived. In the afternoon, guides were seeing sulphurs (yellow-colored mayflies that are imitated by dry flies that float on top of the water) and split-case nymphs were working well.

For us, Bristol is the gateway to the South Holston River, the region’s most famous stretch of fishy water. The “SoHo” was created in 1950 after the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) completed the South Holston Dam. The river originates at the dam and extends 14 miles to Boone Reservoir. A single-turbine generator operated by the TVA controls the flow of the SoHo.