It’s hard to believe, but for the most part we’re at the end of yet another season of fly fishing in the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee. There’s still some fishing left in 2017, but most of it’s behind us and we’re at the time of year when most people’s thoughts turn to family and the holidays.
It was an up and down year for us. Our greatest disappointment was that the bulk of our trout float season was blown out on our tailwaters due to extremely high flows. We got some good floats in, but the majority of our dry fly season was a wash out. We had a great spring and summer in the Smokies though with terrific fishing for wild trout throughout.
Congratulations to Jon Reimels on this outstanding wild brown trout he caught after sight casting to it with a George Nymph.
Fall fishing has been a little off from what we typically expect, but very good nonetheless. We didn’t see as much dry fly fishing as we often do in fall because of higher flows. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but nymph fishing was much more part of the program. We’re experiencing very cold nights in the 20’s and 30’s every night now and water temperatures have been in the low to mid 40’s lately so the bite has slowed considerably. Still, there’s some warmer weather in the long range forecast so while the fishing has been a little slow, but looks to possibly improve.
A wild Smoky Mountain rainbow trout scans the flow for insects
At this point in the season we no longer do full day trips but focus our efforts on the most productive hours of the day from about noon to 4:30. Nymphing is the primary means of catching fish, but there can still be some dry fly opportunities. In fact, flows are a bit on the low side right now and we’ve been fishing some dry and dropper rigs. Even as fishing has been a bit slow, many of the takes have been on the dry fly.
In the end it’s been another spectacular year on the water and everything that goes with it – incredible scenery, wildlife, and great folks!
A colorful wild brook trout from the Tremont section of the Smokies
A large black bear forages for acorns up slope from the stream
Just another beautiful day about to begin as seen from R&R Fly Fishing world headquarters
Edgar (Ed) Vaughn says
Will your new book be available before Christmas?
Ian says
Hi Ed,
Looks like we’ve had some complications arise in the publication process so it’s going to be a few months into 2018 before it’s available. Thanks for checking!