Here in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains we can usually count on two things Thanksgiving week. It’s typically our last busy week of the guide season and cold weather usually sets in sometime that week. This year the best weather was on the front side of the holiday with near record warmth.
Not much in the way of dry fly fishing, but nymphing was quite good. Water levels have been excellent and we saw several big brown trout this week. We didn’t have anyone hook up with any of the big guys this week, but casts were made to them.
A front came through Thanksgiving night with some strong wind and rain. Fortunately it wasn’t enough to blow out the streams or even get the water muddy. Temperatures this week are more in line with what one would expect for late November. Highs will be in the high 40’s or low 50’s and overnight temperatures will be below freezing. Still some good weather for fishing and we’ll be out there even if you can’t be.
It looks like the Clinch will continue with the generation schedule at least a little bit longer. The river had some low water for wading over the holiday weekend, but expect flows to favor floating this week. There have been some windows for wading on the Holston River lately, but they have been pretty short with only one or two exceptions. All of the reservoirs are approaching their winter levels so generation will diminish sometime soon.
There was an interesting article in the Maryville Daily Times today about the elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We see these guys at least once a month and are familiar with the exact locations specified in the article. Wildlife managers in the park seem to expect the elk to continue spreading so it well be interesting to see how long it takes and where they end up.