It’s been a little while since our last fishing report. The reason isn’t because we haven’t been fishing. In fact, we’ve been guiding almost every day and have had little opportunity to sit down and type up a report.
Smokies Improving
Fishing in the Smokies is getting better but cold weather will keep it mostly a mid-day affair. The combination of low water and cold weather made fishing tough in the park. In fact, we redirected most of our wade trips to the Clinch or Holston for that reason. However, recent rains and melting snow have caused water levels to rise and milder temperatures have the trout much more active. Water temperatures have risen out of the 30’s into the mid 40’s. We’re sticking with nymphs most of the time, but you might be able to fish a dry fly with some success in a sunny spot during the afternoon.
Tailwaters
The tailwaters have been fishing extremely well and that’s where we’ve been focusing most of our attention lately. Generation schedules have been favorable for both wading and floating and we’ve done plenty of both. Midge pupa and small Pheasant Tail Nymphs have been our best flies, but we’ve seen some decent caddis hatches on both the Clinch and Holston Rivers and that’s allowed for some good dry fly fishing.
The Tuckaseegee has been fishing quite well. We’ve fished more nymphs than anything, but Woolly Buggers will always turn some fish on the Tuck. I was surprised to find rising fish extremely selective just up the river from Dillsboro. We did best with a small #18 midge pupa dropper under a dry fly. A few fish ate the varied dry flies we fished, but to dropper hooked the bulk of the fish.
We Give Thanks
It’s quite a life we live here in the Smokies. We’re extremely grateful to be able to make a decent living doing something we love in a beautiful place. The 700+ miles of wild trout streams just out our backdoor in the Great Smoky Mountains are incredible and we always seem to find a new place to explore. The large tailwaters we have are great and give us unparalleled variety. One day we’re on a small brook trout stream high in the Smoky Mountains, the next we’re in a drift boat casting to 16″ trout rising to caddis emergers.We have the best job in the world and thank you for your business!