2026 Results

2026 Recap

The 5th annual Tennessee Tri-Fly included 14 anglers who fished in low clear water on both rivers with sunny skies.

The fish were not looking up and tested the skills of anglers and guides. For the first time quantity of fish was the deciding factor.

Jed Dunn won top honors for the anglers with 758 points and a remarkable 129 fish over the two days. With 2 points per fish and the maximum fish bonus both days, Jed earned 74% of his points from quantity of fish caught.

On day 2 Jed hooked a 17” fish that ran under a pile of logs near the bank and would not come out. Rhett Shroyer got out of the boat, waded 15 ft to break apart the log jam and freed the fish. Without that fish Jed still would have won by 2 points over Clay Gibson who finished second with 674 points. Remarkably Clay caught two of his largest fish with dry flies.
Donald Ratigan caught the largest fish, 22”, with a size 22 sulfur nymph that Justin colored in the yellow split back with a brown sharpie. The next largest fish was 18” - there were three.

The guides used both rivers. Rhett Shroyer won 1st place for the guides at 1550 points and Matt Champion came in second at 1316 points. No other guides broke 1000 points despite lots of hard work.

While there was keen competition, fellowship and story telling were the highlight of the time together. The opening night started with handing out hooded Ts with a special design to mark the fifth year of the tournament. Many thanks to John Tomlinson for the screen design.

Ryan Turgeon and John Leraas joined the group to highlight the cumulative impact of TTF projects to improve trout habitat and clean water. The Overmountain TU chapter and the Blue Ridge Guide Association are working on a project for 2027 to measure flow levels in both rivers. Blake Hall, who lives nearby in Virginia and is a member of the World Youth Fly Fishing team, was recognized and spoke briefly. Through side bets during the two days we gave Blake $560 to defray travel costs for the upcoming competition, and wished him the best.