I was fly fishing on the Caney yesterday and it was TOUGH.
The day before I was chatting with an employee at Jones Fly Co in East Nashville. He advised me to fish above Happy Hollow as he believed there weren't many trout further down at this time (due to stripers moving up as well as the warm water).
I started at the stairs and couldn't get a bite. I did manage to catch a small brown by accident on a red midge (he slammed it while I was reeling in to move to another spot). The water was on the green side and plenty cold.
I fished several spots down past the stairs with only a few taps to show for it. I chatted with some folks who had caught a a handful of small trout. Nobody was slaying them (save for one guy who claimed to have caught 30 on a crankbait).
Honestly, I hardly even saw any trout in the water! There were plenty of shad schools, suckers, and yellow bass. I finally did manage one decent brown on an olive wooly bugger. By that time I was pretty far down and the dam was set to turn on. On my way back I passed a family that had caught several modest rainbows on worms.
I drove to Happy for a final hour of fishing. I saw only one fish the entire time. I did get a few light taps on my wooly bugger.
All in all this has been a humbling summer for me on the Caney. Early on it was pretty solid but I feel like the fish are not there in the same numbers I'm accustomed to seeing. I wonder if they aren't congregating somewhere further away from the typical high pressure areas (or maybe they're all right below the dam where the water is cool).
Would love to try again tomorrow but I see there's a flash flood watch. Trying to convince myself it should be ok to fish for a few hours.
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