Fly fishing in the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee has reached it’s spring peak and our guide service has been absolutely slammed. We’ve had two or more guides on the water all week and covered all kinds of water.
The Smokies are still fishing great. However, don’t get your heart set on dry fly fishing all day long on the larger streams. We’ve had a number of instances this week when the dry fly wasn’t pulling much to the surface, but a nymph could hardly make a good drift without a strike.
This is typically in the middle of the day or early in the morning when its very cool. We’re still seeing some frost on the mountain tops at night. In fact, it’s still in the high 30’s or low 40’s many mornings here in Townsend.
Cliff Nolan caught this beautiful brown trout with Charity
We’ve even had a few trips up into the brook trout streams and they are fishing. You might let things warm up in the afternoon, but you can certainly expect great dry fly fishing.
The tailwaters are still progressing around Knoxville. While the fishing has been very good on the Holston River, the vast majority of fish we’re catching are on nymphs, midge pupa, or the occasional streamer. We’ve seen very little dry fly activity, but we are seeing a few caddis and expect the hatch to progress in the days ahead.
The same goes for the Clinch River. All fish have come on small beadheads or midge pupa. No Sulphurs yet, but with low flows and beautiful weather it shouldn’t be long before we see them hatching as well.
