We’re at the point in the season where we’ve already seen a few hatches come and go, but we’re in the peak of insect emergences on our streams.
We’ve had to cancel or postpone a few trips due to some stormy weather or high and muddy water, but that’s a fact of spring fishing in the Smokies. It will rain hard some of the time and you just have to take what you get and be grateful for all the great days.
That said, there are excellent emergences of Sulphurs, Yellow Sallies, and more. We’ve experienced very cool mornings so nymphing has been the best way to get into fish until about lunch time. Dry fly fishing has been very good on most afternoons. In all honesty, there’s not much of a “bad” way to fish right now. Nymphs are best in the morning, but catch fish all day. Afternoons are best for dry flies, but you might get some takes with a dry fly in the AM hours. Dry and dropper rigs are great all the time. Pick your favorite method and have at it!
A native Smoky Mountain brook trout after release
We were still wearing waders up until today as we had wake up temperatures in the 40’s in Townsend until just a few days ago. That means there has been frost along the peaks of the Smokies just in the past week. In fact, it still looks like early spring along the crest of the mountains with only a few trees just starting to bud. Last week some of our anglers thought the trees were bare above the Chimneys on Newfound Gap Road because of the fire a few years ago. They didn’t realize spring had yet to arrive at that elevation.
We should be wet wading by the weekend though as we’re about to see a dramatic warm up. Dry fly fishing will certainly be excellent, although nymphs may do better early in the day. The good old dry dropper rig is a perfect way to hedge your bets until the fish are committed to the surface.