Finally Some Beautiful Weather in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains

Fly fishing around East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains seems to finally be nearing something like consistent. It’s been a tough spring season when we look back at all the cold snaps, wet weather and high water but we might just be nearing the end.

Nick Poston on an incredibly beautiful piece of water a few miles up the trail

With warm temperatures and incredibly bright sunny days the stream fishing in the Smokies has just taken off. The dry fly fishing has been excellent and we’ve gone several days without even tying on a nymph. Just spectacular!

More small stream goodness from the backcountry of the Great Smoky Mountains

So far afternoon fishing has been far better than mornings, but our overnight temperatures are starting to warm so we  expect fishing to follow the trend of getting better earlier. We’ve continued to see frost along the peaks of the Smokies but overnight temps in the 40’s are helping things warm up quicker in the lower to middle elevations. The one thing you should be aware of is that it can be tough for anyone with spring time allergies. The mountains are loaded with over 100 species of trees and even more flowering plants so the pollen is thick right now.

Wild Smoky Mountain rainbow trout

The Clinch has really been fishing pretty well this year. Unfortunately flows on our area tailwaters have been anything but consistent. This is typically the peak of big river trout fishing for us because flows should be consistent and the bugs and trout are all with the program. Unfortunately a wet winter coupled with several strong fronts during the spring have kept our reservoirs higher than they should be. This has been particularly problematic for flood control. We haven’t seen any flooding in East Tennessee but the constant threat in West Tennessee and areas downstream along the Ohio River have forced TVA to constantly tweak flows.

This means that they will often hold water back to allow downstream areas to drain. Unfortunately this gets our reservoirs far too full to absorb any likely flood threat here so those periods are followed by flows to high for good fishing. It seems we’ve been on a flow roller coaster this spring. Many times this spring we’re not really sure what we’ll get until the night before.

A solid rainbow from a recent float on the Clinch River

There’s nothing new to report about the Clinch this year since the fish are still eating all the same old patterns they always have. Be sure to have your usual blend of Pheasant Tail Nymphs and Zebra Midges. That accounts for well over 90% of the fish we’ve caught. It seems that the Sulphur hatch is primarily on the lower end of the river. We’ve seen a few here and there upstream of Peach Orchard but most of them we see are much further down the river closer to Clinton.

A Sulphur Mayfly dun shed its skin to transition into a spinner on the oar of the drift boat

So far we’ve only been on the Holston River a few times which is unusual since that’s are usual “go to” float in April and May. We’re hoping flows start to become more fishable and predictable. Spring flows are too low for floating the Clinch most years, but it’s been good to us so far and we’ve been treated to plenty of wildlife. The highlight for many people this year has been seeing fledgling eagles in a nest over the river. These two guys are getting big but still haven’t flown.

Fledgling bald eagles on the Clinch River