Even as we’re in Yellowstone Country fishing some of the most fabled rivers in the Northern Rockies you might be interested to know that we still keep tabs on conditions at home. While we can’t give you any first hand information about the fishing we can certainly tell you what we know based on the intel we have.
Fall in the Smoky Mountains is starting now
Water conditions are relatively high in the Smokies right now, but that’s based on a seasonal figure. If this was April the water conditions would just about average but September is typically a low water time of year. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. There should be some hatches of Blue Wing Olives getting started and the large ginger colored Autumn Caddis should start appearing.
Neither of these are big time hatches and may not be enough to get the fish looking up consistently, but if it was us we’d be casting a #14-16 Parachute Adams or a #12-14 Orange Stimulator with a #16 Pheasant Tail dropper. The added flow should keep the fish from being too picky. Drastically reduced water temperatures should also have the fish pretty frisky as we’re seeing low elevation streams with temps in the 50’s. Overnight temperatures in the highest elevations have been in the 30’s so the time for wet wading may be coming to an end. Fall is pretty much here!
Still looks like construction is continuing on the Clinch River weir dam so flows are still about as good as a wade fisherman could ask for. Once this project wraps up it’s unclear whether or not flows will work for wading, but there should be some good flows for floating. Norris Lake is falling according to schedule so we’re hoping that there won’t be any additional flows later.
See you in Yellowstone (still checking on conditions at home!)