Local rainfall here in East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains has tapered off to merely “normal” from soaking wet. As a result our streams have fallen to negotiable fishing conditions if not a bit on the high side. The tailwater rivers remain exceptionally high, and to an almost unbelievable degree. While we haven’t experienced any bitter cold so far this winter the weather has been exceptionally gray and wet.
Charity fishing on Little River in the Smokies on a rare recent sunny day
All of our major tailwater rivers are either sluicing or spilling water, which means that there is more water flowing than can go through the generators. This isn’t something to worry about as far as the well being of the trout is concerned. We’re sure they’re doing just fine, but there isn’t much point in doing any fishing on those rivers right now.
You’ll find typical winter fishing conditions in the mountains. That means straight up nymphing and not much reason to even consider fishing a dry fly. We’re using either heavily weighted nymphs or a small split shot to ensure the fly is down where the fish will be.
Our son Boone caught this nice brown at Elkmont on a Pheasant Tail Nymph
The warmest days have fished the best, but to be completely honest, it’s not like we’ve had much in the way of real cold days either. Streams have remained in the 40’s most of the time unless there’s been a few short spikes into the 50’s. Water levels have been our main concern, not water temperatures. As usual, the best time to be on the water in the winter is from about 11:00 or 12:00 on to about 4:30 or 5:00. The trout aren’t moving much in the mornings but you’ll almost certainly see small small black caddis and winter stoneflies flitting about streamside boulders.
You can see from the water and Charity’s mode of dress that flows are high temperatures relatively mild.
Bookings are starting to come in daily so don’t delay if you already know which dates you want to get out with us. I’ll also remind everyone that I am NOT booking floats this season. This has been the case since the middle of last summer, but not everyone has heard. Flows have been so unreliable over the past three years or so that I’ve lost far too many days of work during prime season. No floating, but plenty of wading and hike in fishing in the Smokies.!