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.

I didn’t realize until just about now that I’ve been taking fish pictures with my anglers’ cameras and not mine. Most of the fish we’ve been into have been 10″-12″ but we’ve also hooked into some real nice ones in the 16″-17″ range. Almost every one of those came on a nymph.

While I haven’t been taking many fish pictures I have taken some pretty good wildlife photos on the river. I’ve seen a family of foxes the past few days and have even found their den.

A mother red fox watches us float down the river

A young fox stands at the mouth of its den

The best fisherman on the river, an osprey

Yesterday Charity and I were both on Little River. There weren’t many bugs hatching, but the fish would certainly rise to a good drift. There were some brown stoneflies laying eggs on the water throughout the morning, but for some reason these guys just don’t seem to get the fish up.

Parachute Adams and Haystacks kept the trout up for us all day long. I was upstream of Elkmont. The water is a little on the high side up there, but quite fishable.

This bald eagle kept vigil as we ate lunch today

Floated the Holston today and there was very little insect activity. It was a breezy day and it was a real challenge to keep the boat positioned properly while my anglers struggled to cast in the wind. Fortunately the fish were on nymphs and we were able to stay hooked up more than enough to make it worth the effort.

We saw a couple of bald eagles on the river today, but were able to observe an immature eagle at relatively close range while we ate lunch. I first saw the eagle when he swooped down on a lone Canada goose. The goose saw him coming and was able to make a last minute dodge to deter the attack.

The photos I was able to take were with a telephoto lens, but we were within 100′. Bald
eagles have this coloration until they’re three years old. After that they develop the white head and tail.

Keep checking in and we’ll keep posting reports and photos!

The Smokies

The bugs are really hatching now and the fishing are rising to meet them. I saw the first really good hatch of Quill Gordons on Little River yesterday. It was obviously one of the first days of strong hatches because there were no birds perched along the stream to grab mayflies the trout missed. We usually see crested fly catchers and cedar waxwings fluttering over the streams or even waiting in anticipation.

Ray and Connie Jones both caught their first trout on dry flies on Little River yesterday. They have caught fish on nymphs and streamers, but never on dry flies until yesterday. After seeing fish rise to Quill Gordons for better than an hour I thought Ray might just explode from the sheer excitement. I think I’ve converted another one to dry fly fishing!

Tailwaters

I floated the Holston last Sunday and the Clinch on Monday. The weather was wet and cold on the Holston, but a thick midge hatch kept the fish near the surface. In spite of this we brought the streamers out on both rivers.

This brown ate a Woolly Bugger but we brought out the big streamers late in the day. Tim Masincupp hooked and lost a true beast, but small midge pupa patterns won the prize for consistency. Cherokee Dam hasn’t had the best generation schedule this week, but expect that to improve soon.

Mike Sikes caught several very nice rainbows on the Clinch. This river fished very good last year and I think I’m prepared to say the Clinch is back! The average size of fish is excellent right now and all are very strong.

The best way to describe the fishing on the Clinch was “streaky”. There were long periods of non-activity throughout the day that were broken up by periods of several good hook ups. It seemed like the unsettled weather had an effect on the midge hatch. I’m sure it was no coincidence that the fish were the most active when midges were also the most active.

It’s been too long since I’ve posted a report and the reason is because we’ve been fishing so much. Fishing in the Smokies, fishing on the tailwaters, fishing for smallmouth. You name it, we’ve done it over the past two weeks.

The drift boat has seen plenty of use over the past few weeks when we haven't been fishing in the Smokies.

Smoky Mountains

Water levels have come down to where you’d expect them to be in late July. However, we have much more water than we did in 2007 or 2008 and things are where they’re supposed to be. In fact, cooler than average temperatures have kept things fishing well. Water temperature at Elkmont yesterday morning was 62 so things are picture perfect.

It’s terrestrial time! We have a thing for ant patterns so that’s what we’ve focused on most, but beetles are also pretty good. Use these patterns during sunny weather. They aren’t near so effective on cloudy or rainy days.

Backcountry streams are really fishing quite well. There are too many to mention, so just pick a blue line on the map and head for the water.

Tailwaters

We’ve been on three tailwaters in less than two weeks time. Generation schedules are really a day to day thing right now with very little in the way of consistency outside of the Watauga and Hiwassee.

The Clinch is fishing pretty good when the water’s right. As usual, bring your midges and small beadheads.

We fished the South Holston for several days when we went to the South Holston Fly Fishing Festival. Sulphurs were hatching, but there were more bugs than rising trout. We caught enough fish to have fun, but seriously, there were excellent hatches every day we fished and only a few fish were looking up.

This 19" brown ate a midge pupa on the Holston

The Holston is still fishing, but the schedules are far more challenging than the trout. Midges are the scene.

Smallmouth

Now is the time to try fly fishing for smallmouth bass if you haven’t done it. Fish are taking poppers or small streamers in most streams. Little River from Townsend on downstream towards Maryville is really fishing good.

Chunky smallmouth bass with take poppers are small streamers in a variety of East Tennessee rivers and streams

Another overlooked stream is Abrams Creek in Happy Valley. While Abrams is always thought of as a trout stream (it’s a damn good one) it’s also a great smallmouth stream on the lower end. It fished great a few days back.

The Pigeon and Holston Rivers are two more of our favorites and be sure to hit the Nolichucky if it’s not too far for you.

The Scenery

Abrams Creek on a snowy day last January

Misty spring day on Newfound Gap Road

Daffodils at Elkmont in March

Rhododendron blooms on a remote brook trout stream

Rainbow over Rich Mountain, Townsend, TN

The Fish from 2008

A Little River brown trout fooled by a Haystack

A native brook trout miles from the trailhead

A rainbow trout feeds in the current in a Smokies stream

Charity with a 18″ Hazel Creek brown trout

John Switow shows a beautiful rainbow that he caught on a caddis emerger on the Holston

A nice Holston brown trout caught by Chad Plumly last May

A family float on the Holston

A smallmouth bass from the Pigeon River

A different view of a Smokies rainbow trout

Underwater view of a Smoky Mountain brook trout

The rare big brown trout landed on Little River

Another very nice Little River brown trout

A rainbow rises to an emerging caddis on the Holston River

The Wildlife

A bull elk along the Oconaluftee River near Cherokee, NC

 A bull elk in Cataloochee Valley

Ruffed Grouse along Little River

River otter in Little River

River otters on Calderwood Lake

Bear tracks at the mouth of Hazel Creek

Black bear eating cherries in Cades Cove

This timber rattler was sunning along the trail up Fish Camp Prong

It’s always the same every fall. September is a period of relatively light guiding as the kids are back in school, football starts up, summer’s heat hasn’t quite dissipated and fall color is still about a month away. That’s why we go to Yellowstone country in September. The weather’s still nice and we’re not missing much while we’re gone.

We come back to one of the busiest guide months of the year in Tennessee; October with colorful fall foliage, cool mornings, and trout rising to olives in the Smokies. It’s a great month to be on the water but we’re all worn out by the end of the month. This year I had a four day camping trip on Hazel Creek sandwiched on both sides by float trips on the Clinch River. October wears us out but we’re always ready to hit the water because the fishing is so good.

November is always different from one year to the next. Sometimes the fall color arrives a bit late and it’s a colorful month. Other years (like this one) winter arrives early and it’s cold. Regardless of the weather, anglers are eager to get one last trip in while the weather is still reasonably good.

Thanksgiving week is always a busy one and we’ve gotten into the habit of staying home for the holiday since we always seem to have trips the days before and after. This year was no different.

All the guides we regularly see on Little River were out as well. Saturday was a tough day in spite of mild weather conditions. It was the first morning in some time that was free of frost and temperatures were in the high 50′s. We all expected it to be a great day for fly fishing in the Smokies. Well… It was a good day for fishing, but not so hot for catching. That was the general consensus among all the guides. Fishing nymphs deep only yielded a modest number of strikes and there wasn’t much reason to fish a dry fly unless you just liked to watch it drift. I’m guessing that melting snow from the higher elevations knocked water temps down enough to put the fish off. The guage near the Townsend Y showed water in the high 40′s, but it was much cooler around Elkmont.

Nice way to round out the season!

Charity seemed to have to single bright spot from Saturday. One of her anglers caught a beautiful brown that taped out at 14″.  Whenever asked what the fish ate Charity will sigh, “Prince Nymph…” like you should know all good autumn fish caught in the Smokies eat nothing else.

The tailwaters have been really fishing quite well. In fact, I’ve been quite impressed with the Holston lately. Good hatches of midges along with a smattering of olives and caddis have kept fish looking up. The Clinch is still fishing good, but maybe not quite as good as it was a month ago. We’re thrilled to see the Clinch coming back around. The past few years were tough so it’s nice to see our old friend fishing good again.

We’ve got plenty of things to keep us busy. We’re rounding out a couple of new books we’ve been working on. One is a guide to the previously closed brook trout streams in the Smokies. Think of it as an addition to Angler’s Companion since those streams were closed to fishing when that book came out. The second book covers fly fishing with streamers. This is one of our favorite ways to fish and we’re aware that the methods for fishing with streamers are poorly understood.

We plan on doing some fishing for ourselves plus we’ll do some more guided trips as well. The park should have some good fishing in the afternoons as the winter progresses. The Tuckaseegee, Clinch, and Holston Rivers always fish pretty good in the winter and we even float them through the winter.

Stay warm and fish when you can!