It’s been a while since we’ve posted a report. First of all, let me assure you it’s not because there’s no fly fishing to be done here in the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee. In fact we’ve been so busy we’ve found it tough to find time to sit down and type up a report.

Your moment of thunderstorm zen from Townsend, TN

Water levels are getting low, but they are much better than they were last year. In fact, while we’re getting close to 4″ short on rainfall for the year, we were about 12″ behind at this time last year. We’ve also had some good rains in the past few days. They didn’t bring a dramatic rise in stream levels, but did improve things. More pop up thunderstorms are forecast for the weekend, so I expect we should hold around this level for a while.

We’re in our typical pattern of fishing higher elevation streams in the Smokies. Little River is fishing upstream of Metcalf Bottoms, but we prefer to hike in above Elkmont for the most action. The West Prong of Little Pigeon is fishing extremely well as it always does in the summer. This stream can be treacherous to wade in many places so be cautious. The Oconaluftee is also fishing quite well. We’ve spent a good deal of time there lately as well. Closer to Townsend Tremont is fishing pretty good. It can be pretty crowded at times. I’m guessing the local fly shop is steering people that way. We’re catching some nice fish up there, plenty in the 7-9″ range and a few better. Thunderhead and Lynn Camp Prongs are our local pick for good fishing along with some solitude. We’ve been up to Sam’s Creek a few times and caught a ton of brookies. None of the brookies have been very big, but it’s a beautiful stream with plenty of privacy and a fair amount of casting room for a small stream.

The tailwaters are fishing well if you can catch a favorable generation schedule. We’ve been on the Clinch few times recently and doing well and midge pupa and small beadhead Pheasant Tail nymphs. Brook trout are making up most of the fish we catch with a couple up to a foot long. There are some really nice rainbows and browns this year, the best we’ve seen in a few years.

The Holston is getting tougher to fish as TVA has bumped generation quite a bit. The water is still ice cold and the fishing is great when we find the right schedule. Caddis are still hatching on the upper river, but nymphs and small streamers are the consistent way to stay in fish. Smallmouth are getting more active every day on the lower river, but still a little sluggish with the cold water temperatures.

The Hiwassee will provide a good bite, but the size of fish is on the small size this year. We’ve floated the river a few times and had a great time, but keep you expectations in check as far as size goes.

We haven’t made the trip up to the South Holston and Watauga this season, but have heard great things about both. Right now the South Holston is fishing better when the water is off, although that should change shortly and Sulphurs will hatch in good numbers during generation mid-day. The Watauga is always consistent and provides schedules that work for waders and floaters. Most of the fish are being caught on beadheads, but watch for a few caddis and craneflies on the surface.

We’re preparing a newsletter that we hope will be out in a few days. We also expect to get a few more reports posted in the coming days and weeks.

It’s been another busy week of guiding here in East Tennessee. Again, we’re covering a lot of water from the Holston River tailwater to creeks in the Smoky Mountains.

The weather has really started to heat up, getting in the upper 80’s. It’s not that warm on the stream in the Smokies, but still warm. Wet wading is now starting to become a viable option, particularly for those anglers who prefer to hike in to smaller streams to fish.

The warm weather hasn’t affected the tailwater fishing at all. The Holston continues to fish well, mostly on nymphs, but there are still some caddis hatching along with a few Sulphurs. We’ve heard about some good Sulphur hatches on the Clinch, but the best fishing has come on nymphs. You’ll have to head to the Hiwassee early but you can still fish until about lunch time around Reliance if you’re wading. The Hiwassee has gone into full float mode with its summer generation schedule.

We’re also getting into a pattern of afternoon thunderstorms, a welcome change from the drought conditions of last year. Stream levels are in good shape, although they have been a little lower than average all spring. This hasn’t been all bad, though. Conditions have remained fishable virtually every day this spring while we typically see a few days get blown out by high water during an average spring season.

This brings us to a helpful pointer. Rain makes for good fishing!

This point seems to be lost on a number of anglers we come across. There have been a number of mornings when we’ve been headed to the water after a good rain the previous night. Some fly fishers we’ve seen at the Coffe Shop or gas station seem surprised to see us heading up the river while we’ve been surprised to learn that they expect the fishing to be poor after a rain.

A good rain will often bring water levels up a few inches. This provides excellent conditions. The added flow seems to energize the fish and often spurs insect activity. Furthermore, a little color in the water is an added bonus. The trout can’t see an angler as well and are less likely to spook. Larger brown trout will use the opportunity to move about freely and perhaps ambush prey. Colored water can make for some superb streamer fishing.

The National Park Service has just changed the fishing regulations so that Sams Creek is now open for fishing. This stream has been closed since the 1970’s to protect native brook trout. A restoration was conducted by the park service along with volunteers from Trout Unlimited. Biologists at Great Smoky Mountains National Park now say that the population of brook trout in the stream is viable for fishing.

Charity and I are particularly gratified by this development. About five years ago we spent 3 days camping the backcountry with park fisheries biologists in the upper headwaters of Little River. We backpacked about 165 brook trout about 8 miles down the trail to be used for the Sams Creek restoration.

We carried 5 gallon containers of water fitted to an external frame backpack. The containers were equipped with battery powered bubblers to oxygenate the water and we’d stop every 40 minutes or so to refresh the container with fresh, cold water (and catch our breath).

Sams Creek is a tributary of Thunderhead Prong, one of the two forks of the Middle Prong of Little River. You can reach it by driving to the end of Tremont Road and following the path up Thunderhead Prong, the right fork of the stream at the trailhead. You will need to hike a pretty good way and the path up Sams Creek is pretty discreet.

We haven’t had much of a chance to post a report because we’ve been on the water so much. Fly Fishing in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains is superb any where you turn right now. We’ve been on just about any kind of water you’d want to fish this past week and it’s all fished great! We’ve been in the backcountry for brook trout, fished road side streams for rainbows and browns, floated for trout, and even floated for smallmouth bass. In spite of what could be described as challenging weather on a few day the fishing has been excellent on all occasions.

The Smokies

We’ve hit that time frame when it’s finally warmed up enough to find consistent fishing in the higher elevations. Fly fishing for brook trout has hit its stride and will continue into October. You have to work to get on this water and the fish are generally smaller than other streams where you can step from your tailgate to the stream, but the fast action and solitude are worth it. You’ll probably want waders right now but it won’t be long before you can wet wade with comfort.

Things are really happening on the large streams as well. We’ve been into fish all day long. Some days are better than others on dry flies, but you can always get some action on a beadhead nymph. We’re seeing some quality fish on Little River.

Tailwaters

All we can say about the tailwater fishing we’ve seen in the past few weeks is “WOW!!” Excellent hatches coupled with some nice fish have made for a superb spring season. We’ve been floating the Holston more than anything but we’re also hearing some good reports from the Clinch and Hiwassee too.

Chad Plumley caught this beautiful brown trout on a #18 Caddis pattern

John Switow caught this beautiful rainbow from about 12″ of water on a #18 Caddis dry fly

You can probably tell from the photos that we’re catching some tremendous fish from the drift boat. The reels have been singing and we’ve even gotten an education as to just why we put backing on our reel. The best part has been that almost all of our fish have come on small dry flies. There’s just nothing like hooking a big trout on a small dry fly.

We’ve managed to sneak in a family float for ourselves too!

Don’t Forget the Smallmouth Bass!

In spite of the fact that the trout fishing is as good as we’ve seen it, we’re still sweaty to fly fish for smallmouth bass. I went down the Holston River last week with my good friend Rob Fightmaster. It was the first time we’ve ever fished that section of the river. We spent most of the day fishing poppers. The best action came in the afternoon but we expect this to only get better as the weather get warmer. There was one point when I think we boated three bass with about five casts. We even got a few trout even though we were miles downstream of “trout”water. There were a few huge bluegills too. The average fish was about 12″ long and powerful. There were a few larger than that, but we were both so thrilled to be on fish that we were having too good a time to pay too much attention.

We’re having some incredible weather in East Tennessee right now and the fly fishing is superb! Water levels in the Smokies are great. You’ll do best fishing nymphs on the larger streams like Little River and Abrams Creek right now, but dry fly fishing is excellent on the medium to small streams. Wet wading is tolerable, but you’ll still be more comfortable in your waders for now.

Watch for the best mayfly hatches and egg laying flights of stoneflies just before dark. Action can be sparse some evenings and incredible on others.

Tailwater fishing is great right now. Generation schedules are perfect for wading and bug activity is at a maximum. The Clinch is fishing pretty good with nymphs with sporadic late day action on sulphurs. The caddis hatch on the Holston is keeping fish looking up. Some days are certainly better than others, but even slow days are good right now.

Water temperatures have even warmed up to the point where smallmouth bass are getting active as well. I saw several moving about while floating the Holston and we’ll be spending more time chasing them as the season progresses.

R&R Fly Fishing at the Hazel Creek Hilton May 1-4, 2008

We’re back from another incredible stay at Hazel Creek in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The weather was good. We had one day of scattered rain showers. The fishing was good with trout eating dry flies and nymphs up and down the creek. Everyone caught some nice trout and, of course, the setting was top notch.

Steve Claxton making biscuits from scratch

As always, Steve Claxton and his lovely assistant Cynda kept us well comfortable and well fed. Steve’s dinners this time featured ribeye steak, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp, pork tenderloin, fresh trout, asparagus, cheese biscuits, corn on the cob, salads, blackberry cobbler, and apple pies. After all the hiking and fishing I think we still gained some weight!

Darren Cummings and Andrew Sonner load their plates with pork tenderloin, asparagus, cheese bisuits, mashed potatoes, and dressing.

Ian shows a nice rainbow trout caught by Lee Howell

After the second full day of fishing everyone made their way back to camp. Charity and I had been guiding several of the campers while the rest had set out on their own. The overall consensus was that fishing had been tough, but gotten pretty good around 3:00. Most anglers were doing best with a nymph and the most successful used weighted flies or a small split shot.

Charity was anxious to do a little fishing for herself and got in the stream just downstream of camp. Several of us thought we heard some shouts a few minutes later, but dismissed it as another group we had seen on the trail a few minutes earlier. I think the chairs were a little to comfortable and the cocktails a little too inviting for any of us to get up. Charity came back a few minutes later, exasperated that no one had responded to her calls. She had hooked a large fish, then chased it down the creek some way before another group of campers came to check out the ruckus.

She had originally started by casting a streamer, but after a few minutes with no response she put on a heavy Prince Nymph and continued on up the stream. On her 3rd cast with the nymph she hooked something large that moved about the stream but was reluctant to run or come to the surface. Eventually the trout made a blazing run down the creek, zig zagging through boulders before entering a large pool near the campsite. A large tree had fallen into the stream last winter and the fish made several attempts to run to it before Charity could keep it turned.

Thanks to the unknown campers who took this picture of Charity and the 18″ brown trout she caught

Most of the trout caught on the trip were in the 5-8″ range with several over 10″. Nymphs easily outfished dries. Pheasant Tails, Copper Johns, and of course, Prince Nymphs accounted for most of the fish hooked. We did raise some fish on Stimulators and Parachute Adams.

We’re already planning another back to Hazel Creek in October. We’ll keep you posted!

It’s been a busy week of guiding and great fly fishing here in East Tennessee. We’ve been getting around quite a bit. We’ve been on several large streams in the Smokies, back country streams, floating the Holston, and even floated lower Little River for smallmouth bass. The weather has been pretty warm but we’re still in waders as water temperatures have been in the mid to high 50’s where we’ve been fishing.

Water levels started getting a little low for this early in the season and dry fly fishing dropped off noticeably. Our best fishing came from fishing nymphs. Pat’s Nymphs, Prince Nymphs, Beadhead Pheasant Tails, and a few other patterns I’ve been experimenting with have worked well. Fishing a #16 nymph under a #14 Stimulator has worked well throughout the park.

View of Rich Mountain from the Peaceful Side of the Smokies

We’ve been getting some good rain and the rivers and streams have risen noticeably without getting blown out. This is great! I fished Wendy Williams and Bill Boyd on Little River yesterday. Real diehards, they fished through a torrential downpour. We stuck with nymphs all day long. After the rain let up a little bit the river took on a slight amount of color and the fishing was incredible. Every run yielded multiple strikes on nymph patterns. Bill got a 12″ brown on a caddis larva he ties and another brown that might have gone 14″ on a #10 Prince Nymph I tied. Wendy kept the fish biting all day long too.

The Holston River has been on fire with caddis hatching in the afternoon. We’ve been catching good numbers of nice rainbows on small nymphs fished deep in the morning. By lunch time the bugs are hatching and we’re catching plenty of fish on #18 caddis patterns. We’ve actually had a hard time keeping track of all the fish we’re hooking! This should last for at least a month, perhaps a bit longer.

We’ve even done a little smallmouth fishing on lower Little River. The water is still a little cool for the action to be great, but we got several nice smallies on poppers along with several redeyes and some bluegills as well. It won’t be long before the big bass on the Holston will take a popper and we can’t wait.

We’ve been out on the water almost everyday and covering a lot of water. We’ve been on the Tennessee and North Carolina sides of the Smokies plus floating the Holston several times a week. The caddis are hatching big time on the Holston and dry fly fishing is in full effect throughout the Smokies.

Jim Gibson Jr. does a fine job of hooking trout on a dry and dropper rig in the Smokies 

While the dry fly fishing has been quite good, we’ve been using a good number of dropper rigs in the middle of the day and mornings. Backcountry streams are really fishing good right now. We’ve had a few slow times on Little River and the Oconaluftee, but they were interrupted by biting fish.

Yellow Sallies are hatching and egg laying flights are coming along in the evening. We’re also seeing Hendrickson mayflies and March Browns as well.

Little Yellow Stonefly, sometimes called a Yellow Sally 

The Holston River has been superb! Outside of a few days with oddball flows from TVA it has been fishing excellent. The caddis hatch has begun and should last into June. We even continue to fish caddis in July. We start with nymphs or streamers and are usually fishing dries by noon.

Charity rows anglers to more trout on the Holston 

Jim Gibson with a nice rainbow that ate caddis dry fly on the Holston 

We’ve entered that short time frame known around East Tennessee as “Dogwood Winter”. It’s the brief cold snap that always seems to coincide with the blooming of dogwood trees. There’s even a light dusting of snow on the crest of the Smokies while shades of light green are creeping up the slopes from the lower elevations. There was 2″ of snow at Newfound Gap this morning and 5″ on Mount Leconte.

We can also expect another cool down, “Blackberry Winter”, to coincide with the blooming of the blackberry bushes. This is usually a more mild cool down that also lasts for a couple of days.

Snow on top of Thunderhead Mountain as trees bud out on Rich Mountain in the foreground

Dogwood blooms: A sure sign of spring and an accompanying cold snap

Fly fishing has continued to hold up nicely in spite of the cold weather. I took a pair of anglers, Christian and Jim, up the river above Elkmont on Sunday as the cold weather began to set in. Dry fly fishing didn’t hold much promise, but the trout continued to take nymphs all day long. A few snow flurries fell through the day.

Expect trout to continue scanning the currents for drifting nymphs

Today is the last day for temperatures to be cool. We can expect 60’s and 70’s by the end of the week.

The tailwaters continue to fish well. The Clinch and Hiwassee both have superb schedules for waders. The Tuckaseegee River near Dillsboro, North Carolina also has favorable conditions to catch some nice trout in a big river. We like to float this river, but flows are clearly in favor of wading right now. The caddis hatch on the Holston should only get better in the next couple of weeks.

Morel along a Smoky Mountain stream

Spring is truly here in East Tennessee and fly fishing has been great this week. The dogwoods are starting to bloom, hatches are taking place on the rivers, trout are rising, and even the smallmouth bass are beginning to take flies.

We started the week in the Smokies. Greg and Frank Norris walked into the back country of the Smokies with me and we had a great day of fly fishing. We started the day fishing nymphs but made the switch to dries by lunch time. The weather was beautiful and the fishing was excellent. We caught more rainbows than anything, but saw a few browns.

Frank caught this nice Smoky Mtn rainbow on a Bead Head Pheasant Tail

But, that’s not all the fishing we’ve done. I floated the Holston yesterday with Jim Petty from Michigan. Nymphing was slow but steady, picking up a trout every so often. I switched Jim to a streamer and the uptick in action was immediate. He even caught a pretty decent smallmouth bass on the streamer which got me thinking. about the possibilities there.

By lunch caddis were steadily hatching and trout were rising well in the riffles. Jim caught his best rainbow of the day, a 15 1/2″ specimen, on a #18 Elk Caddis. Jim is a real smallmouth nut. In fact, he even inquired about the possibilities when he booked his trip. Early April is a tad early for consistent bass action with a fly rod so I took him to a lower section of the Holston where trout are plentiful but bass are present.

After catching a good number of trout on a dry fly Jim switched to a brown and orange Clouser Minnow. While he was still hooking trout I began choosing promising smallmouth lies for him to cast to. By the end of the day Jim had boated 8 smallies, 2 of which were quite nice. We measured one at 15 3/4″ and another at 15″ long. Most were about 11-12″ long and chunky.

We’ve also heard excellent reports from the Clinch and Hiwassee Rivers. Plenty of trout are being caught on small nymphs on the Clinch; even a few big ones. The Hiwassee has some pretty good dry fly fishing right now and generation schedules are ideal for wading. We’ve heard of some real nice fish downstream of Reliance.