Watauga River Fly Fishing Tennessee

For rainbow and brown trout fly fishing, there’s no better choice than the tailwaters of the Watauga River outside of Elizabethton, TN. The float trips are by far our most popular trip on this river.  About 20 miles long, it offers plenty of room for anglers of all kinds—and it’s one of our favorite destinations. When you book one of High Country Angler’s Watauga River fly fishing trips near Johnson City, TN, you’ll spend the day float fishing down the river in a Stealthcraft hard bottom drift boat. There are also places where you can get out of the boat and wade.

Using generation schedules provided by TVA, our local experienced guides figure out where the trout are biting and take you float fishing or wade fishing there. Generation schedules are available before all trips; you can download an app on your phone or view them online.

Fly Fishing on the Watauga River

The headwaters begin on the slopes of Grandfather Mountain in Watauga County, North Carolina, and flow into Watauga Lake(3rd cleanest lake in the nation). Surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest, the lake is formed by the Watauga Dam, followed by the Wilbur Dam. Because of the river’s consistently cold temperatures, anglers can enjoy Watauga river fly fishing outside of Elizabethton, TN all year long. The river has a robust rainbow and brown trout population, and the hatches are ideal for blue-winged olives, sulphurs, caddis and midges. Scuds are huge part of the trouts diet here that is often overlooked.

Contact our guides to request more information about our Watauga River fly fishing trips outside of Elizabethton, TN. We serve visitors from throughout the United States from our Johnson City, Tennessee location. Be sure to check out or 5 star google reviews as top fly fishing guides here 🙂