We’ve been wet wading for a week and water conditions have been perfect (finally!!) in the Smokies. Charity and I have both been guiding quite a bit as folks with cabin fever (not Covid-19) have been getting away to the mountains.
A solid creek rainbow from the Smokies. Colorful as always!
We’ve been fishing a lot of dry and dropper set ups, but most days we tend to lose the nymph after a while. Most of the fish are coming to the dry flies, but we occasionally pick one up on the nymph.
Things were exceptionally crowded a couple of weeks ago, but things seem to have settled down a bit. In all honesty it’s been hard to predict the crowds. Saturdays have been the days we’ve seen the most people out, but many roadside locations have been uncharacteristically quiet. Elkmont Road is still closed but we’ve seen a number of cars parked at the gate with the tell-tale bumper stickers indicating fly fishers.
Cades Cove Campground and Smokemont have both opened. Elkmont Road will open next Monday, June 15. Cataloochee Valley has also opened up so there are certainly more places for anglers to find their own spots to fish.
Joey Asher drops the dry fly into the zone
Charity put on a phenomenal Women on the Water in the Woods glamping weekend. Things were up in the air as to whether or not we could put it on, but fortunately all the pieces fell into place and we were able to make adjustments for social distancing. As always, the ladies had a great weekend of camaraderie while learning more about becoming independent fly anglers.
Laura Holtz living it up during our women’s glamping weekend.
And ladies don’t need to wait for our special glamping events to get on the water. We regularly take ladies out to help them become better fly fishers.
Kyra came with her husband to fish with Charity and CRUSHED it!
The tailwaters are finally getting into shape! The Clinch has had a few days with wadeable flows and it looks like waders will have optimal conditions this week. There are some really nice fish coming out of the Clinch on the usual flies, mostly Zebra Midges and Pheasant Tail Nymphs. Hopefully this will last for a while so we can take advantage of it ourselves.