Charity and I got out on the water for a few hours in the Smokies yesterday. Stream levels were generally high, but the fishing wasn’t bad. We fished nymphs deep in calm pockets and got a surprisingly good number of strikes.
Charity fished a Zelon Nymph and Pats Nymph with a split shot under a strike indicator. Depending on the exact spot she would adjust the depth, but did pretty good. I intentionally went with a different method and used a #8 Prince Nymph and #8 Rubber Leg Tellico Nymph and fished them without a strike indicator. Both flies were tied heavy enough that no extra weight was needed.
My superior skills The bigger flies and lack of a strike indicator probably accounted for the fact I landed a few more fish. I did mix things up and changed the position of the flies and it didn’t matter which fly was on the bottom, the fly bottom fly always hooked the fish.
Last week’s high water brought area lake levels up, so flows from the dams have increased as well. One interesting fact to keep in mind, TVA is announcing that Norris Dam has one generator running but the actual flows seem to indicate two generators running as much water as possible.
This is an important distinction since one generator provides a superb flow for fishing from a boat while the extra generator makes fishing far less productive.
We’ve got more rain on the way so we’ll have to see what that does with water levels. We’ll keep you posted!