Cool mornings and clear skies signal autumn is on the way

That means streams are cooling to premium temperatures for trout and aquatic insects are growing more active as well. We received plenty of rain last week so most streams are at pretty good flows. There is some variation from one watershed to the next, but most are right where they should be.

We’re still fishing pretty basic stuff in the Smokies. Terrestrials are working great on the bigger streams as well as the small ones. A good old Parachute Adams or Stimulator will pull them to the surface if you’re in the backcountry. Watch for Tricos to hatch early in the day on bigger streams like Little River and you’ll see spinner falls in the late morning.

Our local tailwater situation isn’t great, but that’s also about right for late August. We have too much water in the Clinch and Holston Rivers now as TVA has started to draw down Norris and Cherokee reservoirs. There are some short windows to get out on the water, but no opportunities for fishing more than a few hours.

Charity nabbed this nice rainbow when we hit a short, fishable window last week

Right now the Clinch will have good schedules on weekends, but expect it to run high through the week. Expect this pattern to last into October. Flows may moderate if the weather remains dry and the reservoirs get low early, but it’s often early November before we see river levels drop to a good level.

On the other hand, this is a great time to get out and fish for smallmouth bass. Fishing with poppers peaks in late summer and early fall. We’ve been doing better on streamers, but poppers will always pull something to the surface. Sometimes we get more redbreast sunfish, bluegills, and red eyes on poppers than smallies, but they’re fun too.

We’ve been reliving some memories of the past few months by looking at some photos. Here are some of our favorites from this spring and summer.

Flame azaleas bloom along Hazel Creek

Ian actually got to handle a fly rod on Hazel Creek one evening and managed to land a 17″ brown trout on a dry fly

Can a fish get any more colorful?

Golden Stonefly

Lee Francis shows off a nice wild Smoky Mountain brown trout

Red cheeked salamander

Far up a native brook trout stream in the Smoky Mountains

Charity found some time away from guiding to do some fishing.

A solid rainbow from the Holston

Misty morning on the Clinch River

This 19″ rainbow trout ate a #18 caddis emerger on the Holston River

We’ve been into plenty of smallmouth bass just like this all summer long

A nice smallmouth goes home

This 21″ smallmouth is the catch of a lifetime and made even better because it ate a popper.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Over 2000 brook trout were planted in the stream last year over some 6 miles of water. All of the fish came from streams in the Smokies and were not brought in from hatcheries. Brook trout in the Smoky Mountains are a genetically distinct sub-species and the main reason for the project is to expand their populations into more of their original habitat.

This summer fisheries biologists in the national park have continued their work on Lynn Camp Prong. Most of the work has been to keep track of the brook trout planted in the stream last year. This video shows biologists and Trout Unlimited volunteers electrofishing the stream to count the fish.

Approximately 25-30% of the brook trout found in the stream this summer are young of the year. This indicates that adult brook trout spawned successfully last autumn. As you see there are some really nice fish in the stream right now. Lynn Camp Prong is currently closed to all fishing, but the park plans to open it for fishing in a few years once brook trout populations have stabilized.

Several of the biologists in this video are wearing backpack shockers. Electrical generators are on the backpacks and create an electrical field between the two probes in the water. Any fish in the electrical field is momentarily stunned and paralyzed. Biologists can easily net them to get an accurate count of the fish in the stream. All fish are placed back in the stream where they quickly recover.

There have been a few rainbow trout discovered in the stream this year. It seems that someone may have carried a few fish in to the stream in an attempt to re-stock rainbows. It is also likely that a few fish found refuge from previous stream treatments in a very small tributary. Those fish eventually made it back into the larger stream. All rainbows that have been found this year have been removed.

YEAH rain!!! So happy for the rain that came today.  The streams got muddy this afternoon after a heavy downpour this morning. Light rains continued off and on throughout the day. The forecast shows more rain through the week.

Thanks to Ian’s guys today for forgetting their rain jackets – that old rain jacket voodoo kicked in! (For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, we have a saying that if you forget your rain jacket, it’s sure to rain. It’s the “rain jacket voodoo!” )

Ian guided up in the park today after a few days of floating for smallmouth over the weekend. I took a few beginners up in the park over the weekend and we got into some greedy risers when we threw the Elkmont Ant at them. Got a few on nymphs before lunch while fishing a dropper rig.

All in all it was a great weekend and were off to another good week on the water!

Check out the link below to read more about the trip we are hosting in Montana this September. We only have two rooms left and would love for you to join us!

It’s only June, but we’ve already put in a full season of guiding by Rocky Mountain standards; and summer has just arrived.

We’ve got some good stuff in store. We’re putting a new newsletter together with plenty of  pictures and video from the past few months on the water. There’s even some news from the Lynn Camp Prong brook trout restoration near Tremont in the Smokies.

Brookies in Lynn Camp Prong are doing well

The Smokies

We’ve been experiencing a fair number of afternoon thunderstorms across the Smoky Mountain region of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina over the past few weeks. Fortunately there hasn’t been much of the way of blow out streams.

Typically a few streams will get stained or a bit off color for a few hours of the day, but that’s about it. In fact, We’ve usually been able to drive 20 minutes or less to another stream with clear water.

Right now all of the medium to high elevation streams in the Smokies are fishing extremely well. Larger streams in the lower elevations are starting to fish a bit tougher, but several experienced anglers continue to do well on them. It’s terrestrial time in the Smokies so dig out your ant and beetle patterns.

Tailwaters

The tailwaters continue to fish well and there have been good river flows for both wading and floating anglers. The Clinch has really fished well this year and we’re seeing some nice size fish as well as good numbers of fish in the 9-12″ range.

TVA has kept Cherokee Dam running a minimum flow for much longer than usual this spring and summer. This warms water up way down the river around Nance’s Ferry, but overall is better for the fishery since it guarantees plenty of cold water in the reservoir for the balance of the summer and fall. This leads to far more quality trout in the river next year.

Smallmouth rivers and streams

It’s smallmouth time! Flows on the Pigeon are great and you can find somewhere to wade any day of the week. Keep tabs on the white water flows so you know where to be for the best water levels.

Little River from Townsend on downstream through Walland is perhaps the most neglected smallmouth river we know of with superb access. Fishing with poppers is great in the evening.

Expect periodic muddy conditions on the Nolichucky due to the sporadic thunderstorms. The same goes for the French Broad, Tuckaseegee, and Little Tennessee Rivers in North Carolina.

It was a great day for a hike and we cruised along the Little River Trail upstream of Elkmont. I know the following encounter would creep out a bunch of folks, but Charity and I always take pleasure in seeing wildlife.

A timber rattlesnake creeps out onto the trail

Timber rattlers are among the most intimidating snakes you’ll ever see, but I always tell people that they are among the easiest going snakes I see. Most of the time I see rattlers as I’m about to step on the them because of their incredible camouflage. In spite of my many bumbling up close encounters I’ve never had one act threatening toward me.

True to form, we saw this snake as a pair of hikers came down the trail toward us, stepped right over it and never saw it. We only noticed the snake because it flinched to avoid the hiking boots bearing down on it. The hikers smiled and waved in blissful ignorance as they went by. Charity and I decided to let them keep on moving without giving them the fright of their life.

If you haven’t been able to get out on the stream or you’re sitting at work right now and could use a 60 second vacation, this is for you. As you can see, water levels in the Smokies are great right now and the fish are looking up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A colorful change from rowing a drift boat and pulling an anchor

We waded wet, but I still think it’s probably a little early in the season for most folks. Let me say it’s certainly a knee-deep or shallower proposition. Water temperatures are still in the mid 50’s on most streams.

Dry fly fishing is certainly the best way to go on mid to high elevation streams right now. The bigger streams will fish best with nymphs through most of the day, but expect great hatches of Light Cahills and egg laying flights of Yellow Sallies in the evenings.

Flows are beginning to change on the tailwaters. Waders should pay extra attention to generation schedules as TVA has started to kick up the flow on several rivers. The Clinch and Hiwassee will both see higher flows this week, but both should have good windows for waders to get on the water. The float scene will certainly improve on those rivers.

The South Holston  and Watauga Rivers both have ideal schedules for wading this week. Wilbur Dam is generating some water in the evenings, but there should be no impact for waders on the lower river.

Fortunately the festival seemed to miss out on the biggest part of heavy rains in East Tennessee. Some strong thunderstorms have been rolling through in the afternoons, but we’re happy to report that all of the mountain streams have remained at fishable levels.

The tailwater generation schedules will be changing a bit in the days to come. Cherokee Dam will still be running a minimum flow on the Holston River, but watch for generation to increase on the Clinch River. Norris Lake has reached full pool and TVA will certainly begin to move some water down the river. It looks like there will be plenty of time for fishing but we’ll all have to pay some attention to the generation schedule.

All of the streams in the Smokies are back to normal levels. They were running a little on the high side after heavy rains about 10 days ago, but have been fishable for at least a week. Dry fly fishing in great in the Smokies now, especially on the small streams. Use nymphs on the bigger water most of the day and watch for hatches of Light Cahills and Sulphurs in the evening along with egg laying flights of Yellow Sallies.

I’ve been floating almost every day and we’re finally seeing good hatches. We’re seeing a blend of caddis and Sulphurs on the Holston. There are pretty good Sulphur hatches on the Clinch in the very late afternoon. Watch for generation to kick up a notch on the Clinch, but also expect plenty of time for wading.

We’ll be at Trout Fest this weekend. Come on down and see us along with Lefty Kreh, Bob Clouser, Joe Humphreys, Kevin Howell, Jim Casada and others.

We’ve got another full week of guided trips on the schedule this week so we don’t have a lot of time for a detailed report. We’ll try to post that in a few more days.

Here are a few photos for now.

Flame azalea in bloom along Hazel Creek

Plenty of wild rainbows and browns in this size range

March Brown

Charity and I went fishing between guiding and supper and it was worth it!