One of many rainbows caught by the Moak boys on dry flies

Hatches are still developing everywhere, but we’re seeing some great moments in the Smokies. Tom and Jake Moak went out on their first Smoky Mountain fly fishing trip last Friday. It was Jake’s first time handling a fly rod and there was one point when he hooked and landed five trout from one small pool. There were a number missed strikes, but both Tom and Jake caught a good number of rainbows on dry fly.

The tailwaters are fishing pretty good too

Saturday was clear and sunny when I took Buddy and Pam Leach for a float trip. Midges hatched sporadically through the day and like my last tailwater float, things were a bit streaky. We’d get into a few fish and then have relatively slow period. This cycle continued all day long. Pam caught the fish of the day on a #16 Beadhead Zelon Nymph.

Buddy also caught one close to this size on the beadhead, but experimented with streamers for about 30 minutes. Typical of streamer fishing, he had several swipes on the fly and hooked one large trout. The big one was a rainbow that absolutely crushed the fly. He had it on for a few seconds but the fish managed to free itself after only a few seconds.

This week is off to a wet start with a bit of a cool down but remember, rain is not a bad thing! Fish like water. This kind of weather is typical of March and even April, but the weather and fishing will only get better from now on!

We’ve heard excellent reports from the Clinch River. Generation schedules are great and the fish are eating. Bring your best midge patterns.

Don’t our buddy Andy Sonner that the good dry fly fishing hasn’t arrived in the Smokies. Andy caught this brown in the national park on Monday… wait for it… on a dry fly!

We really can’t stand admire Andy’s knack for pulling this off every couple of years. A wild fish like this in the Smokies is a big deal and catching it on a dry fly is somewhat akin to finding the Holy Grail. This isn’t the first time he’s done it either. He landed one bigger than this on a dry fly about three or four years ago.

Andy is one of those disgusting guys with that “fish sense” that must be integrated into his DNA. A few years ago he joined us on our Hazel Creek camp and rubbed our noses in it thrilled us when he caught this behemoth. At least he caught this one on a nymph!

Yes, that is a full size rod

Fishing in the Smokies has been best in the afternoons and water levels are workable. Nymphs are the way to go in the mornings, but hatches have been coming off after lunch. Yesterday Charity got into a good olive hatch around 2:00 and fishing rose enthusiastically after that.

The caddis hatch on the Holston has been about as good as the weather. The nicer the weather is the better the bugs hatch and the better the fish rise. It’s been mainly a nymphing affair with some spotty dry fly fishing. One of Tim’s anglers, Brian Beech, landed a 16″ brown on a streamer from the drift boat yesterday.

Fortunately we’re looking at sunny, warm and dry conditions over the next few days. Early next week looks wet though.

No doubt Tom at Trout Underground will believe those of us fortunate enough to live a in a great place are taunting him, but we’re not. (Ummmm… Okay, maybe we are just a little bit.)

Dry fly fishing has kicked in and in a big way. Quill Gordons are hatching in the Smokies along with smaller Blue Quills. We’re seeing most of the bugs get started after 2:00, but that should creep up a little earlier everyday.

The tailwaters are fishing great right now and the midges are thick on the water. We’ve done best with #18 midge pupa patterns. We’re excited just thinking about the hatches we’ll see in about another month.

We’ve had about three good days of slow, steady rain. The streams are running great. We’re right on target for our annual rainfall so it looks like we may be out of the drought we’ve experienced over the past two years.

Doug Sanders stays true to the dry fly on Little River

We started fishing dry flies last Friday. There were plenty of Early Brown Stoneflies buzzing around, but no Quill Gordons or Blue Quills. My fishing buddy Doug Sanders who lives down the road from me decided to fish strictly dry flies and tied on a Haystack.

I hooked up a few fish on a Prince Nymph, but Doug caught up quickly with the dry fly and I switched over. After about three hours we both landed five fish and missed a few more.

I took Drew Hughes from Tuscaloosa, Alabama fishing on Saturday. Drew was pretty new to trout fishing and awe struck by the scenery. Drew landed about a half dozen trout by the end of the day and missed about three times that many. I rigged Drew with several dry and dropper combos, but most of the strikes came on the dry fly.

We saw a few Quill Gordons on Saturday, but that was it. I swapped Drew’s rig so a #14 Orange Stimulator was on top and it got the best response to a dry fly. Drew also caught and missed some fish on a new nymph we’ve been experimenting with. It’s been a real winner and we’ll be talking about it more in the weeks to come.

Early Brown Stoneflies have been the most common insect recently seen on Smoky Mountain trout streams.

There is virtually no doubt that our spring hatches will explode this week. The water has gotten a little bit warmer every day and should be in the 50′s for the next few days. We’ve got some rain in the forecast this week as well. It’s good to see a wet week coming. We’re hoping for a normal year with respect to rainfall.

Anchor ice is rarely seen here in the Smokies. Ice forms in small micro-eddies on the bottom of the stream in riffles

Water just doesn’t get any colder than this. It was 32 degrees and frozen anywhere it wasn’t moving. Not good fishing conditions, but pretty to see. This small waterfall on the West Prong of Little River, just upstream from the confluence with Middle Prong was particularly impressive. That’s not a long exposure, the cascade is mostly ice!

And you thought the rocks were slick in the summer!

We went on to Cades Cove parked at the bridge over the spring creek section of Abrams Creek. At 3:30 the temperature was 19, but it was just nice to get out. While the other streams were icy, the spring influence was evident on the stream. There was absolutely no ice anywhere and it was so cold that putting your hand in the water felt relatively warm. We saw a 10 point whitetail buck browsing along the stream and watched a beaver maintaining a dam.

On the way back home we saw these fish in Little River just outside of the park. It was tempting to pull over and fish, but the floating ice was enough to convince us to head for home and the fireplace.

Dry fly fishing has been nothing short of excellent over the past few days. Midges, Blue Wing Olives, and a variety of small caddis have kept the trout looking to the surface. The best fishing has been in the middle of the day, but we’re still getting fish up in the morning and late afternoon.

Late afternoon on the Clinch

While Tim and Charity have spent most of their time in the Smokies I spent most of the week floating the Clinch River. The Clinch has been surprisingly consistent. Most of the trout we’re catching have been less than a foot long, but we’re still getting a few to the net in the range of 14 – 18″.

There has been a pretty even distribution of rainbows, browns, and brook trout. Most of the sizeable trout have been rainbows, but Ben Shawler landed a 18″ brown this week. I’d like to take this opportunity to openly taunt Tom Chandler of Trout Underground. Tom is a brook trout fanatic and often wonders if I’m taunting him when I post photos of brookies. Most of the brook trout have been in the 10″ range, but a few are a little better. They aren’t the biggest fish in the river, but they’re cooperative and it’s fun to catch them on a big river from a drift boat.

A standard issue brook trout from the Clinch

We’ve also seen a little bit of dry fly fishing on the Clinch. Most of the fish are coming on midge pupa or small beadhead nymphs fished under a strike indicator. Some small black caddis are hatching late in the afternoon and we’ve been able to pick up some fish on #18 emerger patterns.

The weather forecast looks good for the next few weeks and the fishing usually holds up through the end of the month. After that it’s anyone’s guess when the cold weather will set in, so get out on the water while the getting is good.

A chunky rainbow from the Clinch

We’ve floated the Clinch a few times this week and it has been fishing  very well. Both generators are down at Norris Dam and TVA is sluicing a steady flow of 420 cfs. That is, they have a gate cracked to keep a steady flow. The result has been great for fishing. While water is still low enough for wading, it’s a little higher than we’ve typically seen in past few years. The fish seem to be feeding better and are certainly less skittish if you’re fishing from a drift boat.

Brook trout have been a new addition to the river this year. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency started stocking them in the river close to a year ago. I used to wonder why the state didn’t stock them there since that’s one of the coldest tailwaters we have and brookies flourish in ice cold water. Most of the fish were stocked in at a relatively small size, but right now you’ll find most of them between 9″ and 12″ long. They’ve been in the river long enough that they have very nice color. Some have vibrant orange bellies.

The old standby Clinch River flies are working as well as ever. About any midge pupa or larva pattern will work well.  The Zebra Midge has been one of the most popular in the past few years. A #16 Beadhead Pheasant Tail Nymph is also as effective as ever. You’ll see numerous rise rings on the surface as the fish are eating midge emergers, but you’ll hook more fish using a nymph.

Trout Streams in the Smokies

Fall color is getting more vibrant every day.  We had a pretty good rain a few days ago and water levels improved a bit. There’s a chance of scattered showers late this week. Weather has been unseasonably warm. Our average temperature for this time of year is in the low 70′s or high 60′s in the Smokies. We’ve been about 10 degrees higher than that but it looks like a cool down to more seasonable conditions is on the way.

Fish are rising to Blue Wing Olives, midges, and micro caddis. A #18 Hi-Vis Parachute Blue Wing Olive has done extremely well for us this week. We’ve also used #14 Parachute Adams and #16 Haystacks in the rougher water.

It’s a good time to see black bears out and about. I saw another bear above Elkmont a few days ago with Brian Jones and Eric Tuttle. We were on the trail and we spotted it on the other side of the river foraging about for acorns. It’s one of the largest I’ve seen, perhaps 40o pounds.  I pull that number out because it was at least twice the size of bears I usually see and the average Smoky Mountain black bear weighs about 200 pounds.

Dry fly fishing is good right now. The basic Parachute Adams should work well, but downsize your fly if you get a few refusals. A #18 BWO will be the ticket in the weeks to come. Beetles and ant patterns should produce for a few more weeks. Switch to a #16 Beadhead Pheasant Tail or Hare’s Ear Nymph if you can’t get the fish to look up. In fact, this is a good way to go if you’re out early in the morning.

 Report from the Road

Wyoming’s state motto is no lie: “Like no place on Earth” Charity and I have been on the road. We’re now at the Slide Inn on the Madison River in Montana, but have come via Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Of course we’ve fished along the way.

We set up camp at Gros Ventre (pronounced “Grow Vaunt”) Campground in Grand Teton National Park. The Gros Ventre River was about 150′ from our tent and the hoppers were jumping all over as we got our camp established. The hopper bite was still on in Jackson Hole and we did very well on the Gros Ventre.

It’s always been a goal of ours to float the Snake River through Jackson Hole. The scenery is incredible and it’s one of the last best big rivers with native populations of cutthroat trout. The float was everything we hoped it would be. The Tetons towered over us all day long and the cutties rose to hoppers along the banks. Rowing the Snake was an experience we’ll never forget!

Changing to a less chewed up hopper pattern on the Snake River

Just getting to the river anywhere in Jackson Hole puts you inside a postcard. This is one of those places that I’ve often said Stevie Wonder could take a great photo.

Our motto is “It’s all about the experience!” This is so true of our western fishing trips. We have a great time staying in the cabins at Slide Inn, but camping is a big part of it for us. It’s been 3 years since we’ve camped in Yellowstone country and we’re glad we did it again. Yes, it’s cold in the mornings. There was frost on the tent, but you can’t trade the experience of brewing a pot of coffee on a camp stove while a bull moose saunters by.

A bull moose behind our tent

From Jackson Hole we turned our sites toward Yellowstone Park and the Yellowstone River. I’ll post that in a day or so.

Low water conditions in the fall give trout plenty of time to inspect a fly in the slow flow.

While fish rise regularly in the autumn, the insects they are eating are much smaller and the water conditions are almost always lower. This gives the fish more time to inspect your offering in low, clear water. The swift, choppy flows of spring are more forgiving and trout will occasionally slash at a variety of fly patterns before they can make an informed decision.

Size and color of the fly are the two most important factors to fool a trout. Unfortunately the most prolific hatches found in the Smokies October through November are small and dark. These can be exceptionally difficult to see on the water.

Here’s a fly that we use for ourselves and tie on for our guide customers. It’s extremely effective at fooling trout and most anglers can see it quite clearly. This makes it easier to get a good drift and you’re far less likely to miss a strike when you see the fly instead of straining to see a fly that is actually five feet left of where you’re looking.

I like to use turkey flats for the parachute post for several reasons. First of all there is no need to stack turkey flats like you do with calf hair. Turkey flats also tie in much flatter than calf hair. This is important when you’re tying a small fly and trying to keep the body from getting too fat. Last, turkey flats retain very little water when you fish the fly. This is a great material that allows a tyer to work faster, make a better fly, and allows the fly to float better.

Hi-Vis Parachute Blue Wing Olive
Hook: Standard Dry Fly #18 – #20

Thread: 8/0 Olive

Wing: Day Glow Orange Turkey Flat

Tailing: Dark or Medium Dun Hackle Fibers

Body: Blue Wing Olive Superfine Dubbing

Hackle: Dark or Medium Dun Dry Fly Hackle

Step 1: Tie the thread onto the hook at about one hook eye length behind the eye. Clip about 1/3 of the even portion of the turkey flat and tie onto the hook. The wing should be as long as the length of the hook.

Step 2: Pull the wing back and wrap thread up against it to get it to stand up. Wrap the thread around the base of the wing. This will keep the fibers neat and tight and give a firm base to wrap hackle later.

Step 3: Tie in a clump of hackle fibers at the back of the level portion of the hook.

Step 4: Dub a spare amount of dubbing on the thread. Only a small amount is required and no wax should be needed. Wrap it on the hook to create a tapered body. Wrap in front of the wing and finsh dubbing just behind the wing. About 3-4 wraps of dubbing should remain.

Step 5: Strip the hackle fibers from the base of the spine of the hackle. Tie it in on the directly against the front base of the wing. The remainder of dubbing should be used entirely.

Step 6: Wrap the hackle 3-5 times around the base of the wing depending on how heavy you like your flies hackled. Start wrapping near the top of the thread wraps and make each successive turn below the previous one. Tie the hackle off and clip it clean. Make a few more thread wraps over that then tie off with a series of half hitches or whip finish.