Now that the water has been high much of the time and the weather has turned cold we’ve gone back and taken a look back at the year we’ve had. It seems like the life of fly fishing guides is all fun and games, but it’s really quite hectic. It’s only now when we’re not […]
How can you tell when the water is high?
This is one way… We’re in the middle of another high water session all across the Smoky Mountain region with creeks boiling with whitewater and our tailwaters running full. The Norris Dam is about start spilling so we won’t be fishing the Clinch any time soon. Even the Watauga and South Holston, usual good bets […]
Quick Pic: High Water in the Smokies
Yup, the water’s high in the Smokies… This is what it looked like Tuesday, November 29 on the Middle Prong of Little River near the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont.
The End of Our Busy Season
We managed to capture this on video over the weekend and thought there would be plenty of you who would like to see it. This is a bear cub at Tremont. His mother had already crossed the stream and he was somewhat less than enthusiastic about making the plunge, and we can understand. The water […]
Quick Pic: Rainbow Trout on a Tellico Nymph
Water was up and rolling so we started out with streamers to stir up some big brown trout. It didn’t take long to figure out the browns had no interest in streamers but we could still pick up some fish on nymphs.
Big Brown Trout in the Smokies: You Win Some, You Lose More
It’s that time of year here in the Smokies when we have our best shots at hooking up with the really big fish. We’re not talking about 12″ – 14″ fish that put a lump in your throat when they eat your dry fly in May. We’re talking about fish that would be considered big […]
A Warm, Wet Week of Fishing Ahead
It looks like we’re in for a generally warm week with some rainy weather here in the Smoky Mountain region. That’s not really a bad thing when you consider it’s mid-November and by the time it gets this late in the year rain could easily be snow in the mountains. We saw some very cold […]
We Still Know How to Fly Fish
We’re on the tail end of another busy guide season and starting to find some time to go fishing for ourselves. After weeks of being out on the water guiding and instructing fly fishing sometimes you start to wonder if you’d even remember how to get a good drift. Yesterday Charity and I were able […]
It’s November and the Trout are Still Rising in the Smokies
It’s the same old story every year. October in the Smokies is incredible with vibrant autumn colors, beautiful weather, rising trout, and plenty of fishermen on the river. Then when the calendar flips over to November most of the fishermen have called it a season but the color is still there, the weather is still […]
The Peak of Fall Fly Fishing in the Smokies
We’ve got to admit it. We’ve been more than a little let down by the TVA generation schedules over most of the fall season so far. Last autumn was so good on the Clinch that we’re still savoring it, but outside of a few weekend opportunities, we’ve been guiding almost exclusively in the Smokies since […]