We had a wet spring in the Smokies and that pattern has continued into June. This has set us up for a great summer of fly fishing. So far June has been warm but mild with an abundance of scattered rain showers and thunderstorms. The Smoky Mountains are a rain forest, so it’s been nice to see this pattern keeping our trout streams in good shape.
Susan Smith gets a drift through a beautiful run of water some way above a trailhead in the Smokies.
We’ve been wet wading for several weeks. Now is a great time to do some hiking to reach more remote waters. Be sure to bring a rain jacket though! Thunderstorms might form over the mountains and bring a brief downpour in the late afternoon or early evening.
We’re seeing a good number of chunky native brook trout this year
We continue to rely on dropper rigs on the large to medium size streams. Both dry flies and nymphs are hooking trout, although the dry fly seems to outperform the nymph as the afternoon develops. There doesn’t seem to be much need to tie a nymph under a dry fly on the small streams. The trout seem pretty happy to take the dry fly. The extra tippet and hook only create more tangles when the conditions are naturally tighter.
This solid wild rainbow took a bushy dry fly
As always, the wild trout in the Smokies seem to be pretty open-minded about the flies they are willing to eat. Almost any dry fly in a size #14 will work, but we tend to favor the most highly visible and high floating patterns. Parachute Adams, Elk Caddis, Stimulators, Humpies, and Thunderheads are favorites for a reason. Add about 18″ of 5X tippet and tie on your favorite beadhead nymph if you opt to run a dropper rig. No need for tungsten or super weighty nymphs under a dry fly. The fact fish are looking up precludes the need to drag bottom. Feel free to run nymphs deep if you want to focus on deeper waters and pass on dry fly fishing all together. This can be particularly effective right after rains bring stream flows up.
This brown trout took a nymph fished under a Stimulator
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