Winter Fly Fishing Sets In

Oops! I put the wrong link in the newsletter that was emailed on December 4. Click here for the post I meant for you to see.

There are still plenty of days on the calendar in 2018 and there are some great days left to get out on the water, but the season has pretty well come to an end here in the Smokies. We don’t mean that because there’s no more fishing to be done, but because all the crowds have left and we’ll do very few guided trips before New Year’s Day.

There’s still a few patches of fall color, but it mostly gone now

Last weekend was pretty mild but today it’s only barely above freezing and we can see occasional glimpses of snow on the Smokies whenever there’s a small break in the clouds. It even feels like the season has drawn to a close.

This might sound like an mournful proclamation about the end of fishing for the year, but this is actually the time of year when we get the most fishing in for ourselves. We rarely get to fish for ourselves when conditions are great because we’re out guiding. There’s also no pressure to have to catch fish, so we can just relax and take it all in. While we don’t face the same stress as a surgeon with a dying patient or a fighter pilot dodging missiles, we do take it pretty seriously when the fishing is slow. There’s a certain freedom in knowing the fishing will be tough and just accepting it for what it is. This time of year we can just take it easy and enjoy our time on the water.

A nice rainbow caught on a quiet winter day on Abrams Creek

We’ll also spend more time in places where we don’t typically guide. This means getting to fish on the Hiwassee and fishing on Abrams Creek without any of the high season traffic in Cades Cove.

Don’t hesitate to check with us about guided trips over the next few months. We’ll be honest with our assessment of how fishing will be. In fact, fishing can be decent unless the weather has been bitterly cold. As long as we have water temperatures in the 40’s, preferably higher than 42, we have a good shot of being in fish.

Stay tuned as we’ll also have more time to post fishing reports here and we’ll also be doing more work on our new project, Rise Fly Fishing – Advice From the Guides so go check that out. This is something you’ll certainly be seeing more of in the future and we’re really excited about.