I was actually expecting a pretty good day of fishing since it’s not unusual for spring mayflies to continue hatching on such days. The wet and cold conditions will often keep the bugs on the water and whip the trout into a feeding frenzy. In a nutshell, that didn’t happen.

There were a few bugs and a few fish on Little River, though. Take a look.

Fly Fishing the Smoky Mountains During a Spring Snow from Ian Rutter on Vimeo.

The weather forecast calls for sunny and warm temperatures starting on Wednesday.

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 yet another snowy day here in the Smoky Mountains. The same system that brought snow to the deep south gave us a little bit as well.

Roads were closed in the park today so we couldn’t get to our favorite runs of water to do some fishing. We parked at the Townsend Y and took a short hike up the river along the closed road. Here’s a short video of what we saw.

We’re hoping to get at least a few hours of fishing in this week. The tailwater situation looks as bleak as ever. TVA continues to generate around the clock to keep the reservoirs below the flood guide. Perhaps we’ll finally get back on the Clinch or Holston in a couple of weeks.

Your moment of zen: The bright red adipose fin of a Smoky Mountain trout.

We’ve only been on Little River for the past several days, but no regrets. The river has been fishing great! We’ve heard a few grumbles from a few anglers who feel like the river is too high to fish, but I think they’ve forgotten what spring in the Smokies is supposed to look like. In fact, water levels have fluctuated slightly from just above average to slightly below average all week long.

Another moment of zen: Band of color from a Smoky Mountain Rainbow Trout

Hatches are still great in the park. Most of the bugs show up in the afternoon, but you can still nymph fish up in the morning. We had a pretty chilly night a few nights back and the morning that followed was a bit slow, but the afternoon fishing more than made up for it.

We’ll be heading over to the tailwaters and perhaps the North Carolina side of the park next week.

Rainbow trout released back in Little River

We spoke in Asheville a few nights back at the Land O Sky Chapter of Trout Unlimited and had a great turnout. Thanks to all who endured cramped conditions to hear us talk about our favorite waters and fly fishing methods here in East Tennessee. Jeff Curtis, chapter president, joked that he’d like for us to speak at every meeting if the turnout would be that good.

Charity and I stayed with our good friend Charlie Downs, bamboo rod maker, fly fisher, and all round good guy. The next morning we followed Charlie to the Davidson River to meet Starr Nolan, Casting for Recovery volunteer and guide at Brookside Guides in Asheville.  The Davidson was dramatically different from the streams we fish in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The fish get large from feed pellets that wash out of the hatchery there. Intense fishing pressure has caused the fish to become quite acclimated to an angler’s presence; so much that they don’t seem to spook.

We caught fish on small midge pupa and I was broken off twice when I drifted a #8 Rubber Leg Tellico Nymph through deep slots. The water levels on the Davidson are noticeably lower than they are here in East Tennessee. While we’re recovering from drought, southwest North Carolina is still feeling the effects.

Little River fished quite well yesterday. The fish ate nymphs in almost every good looking spot. A #14 Pheasant Tail Nymph was my best fly, but my buddy Doug Sanders caught most of his on a George Nymph. A split small split shot crimped on the leader seemed to make the flies more effective. Water levels are very good and it looks like we’ll be getting some more precipitation over the next few weeks.

Doug Sanders on Little River

Tailwater flows haven’t been favorable for fishing locally on the Clinch or Holston, but it looks like that might be changing next week. We’re ready to get the boat back in the water!

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.

Little River came up quickly last night and there was some minor flooding here in Townsend. We have some friends who live on the river who left their house last night as the water began to get real high. Turns out their house wasn’t flooded but the road leading there was, so it was probably a good call to leave when they did.

Charity and I ran up into the park this morning to check out the scene. The water was extremely high, but there was a clear watermark that showed the river had already dropped about a foot.

Little River today. This is a particularly rocky section of the river. Notice all of the boulders are under water.

Little River at the Sinks

Metcalf Bottoms on Little River. Notice the river is well out of its banks.

The rain has moved out and I can see it beginning to snow on Thunderhead Mountain while the temperature here has fallen all morning. It’s 40 on my back porch and still falling.

The river probably won’t be fishable for a few days. Watch for the gauge to drop to around 3.0 for it to be high but fishable.

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 still raining here in East Tennessee, but don’t get me wrong. We’re not complaining. After two years of drought it’s great to see my home water looking like its old self. In fact, it looks like we’ll probably end up meeting the annual average rainfall total. The rain we’re getting is slow and soaking; just the thing to recharge the water table.

I drove up Little River yesterday. The river looked good, I haven’t gotten to go fishing in a little while, plus we’ve been working on books about – yes – fishing. I was getting shaky and there was only one thing to cure it. Charity was working on a side design project and grimaced as I headed out the door. She wanted to go at least as bad as I did, but… Well, let’s just say she acted more responsibly than I did and I ditched work to go fishing.

We’ve been getting our new book about streamers together and that had me itching to jerk some streamers through some select spots. High water conditions are excellent for fishing streamers in the Smokies. The fish react best when the water has a little bit of color, but Little River was crystal clear. The fish were all over it!

I had about 15 fish swat or slash at the fly in about 2 hours. I didn’t get any of them to hand, but you could say I was fishing a fly that showed an optimistic attitude. Only the most suicidal of trout less the 12″ would have been able to get the streamer in their mouth. I moved 2 browns that were better than that. One got nicked by the fly, the second charged it but stopped short. I feel positive it broke off the attack because it saw me.

This streak of wet weather has Norris Dam generating a good deal of water so fishing it pretty much out of the question on the Clinch. However, there are some windows of opportunity on the Holston and the South Holston has the best schedules for wading.

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!