Charity fished a Zelon Nymph and Pats Nymph with a split shot under a strike indicator. Depending on the exact spot she would adjust the depth, but did pretty good. I intentionally went with a different method and used a #8 Prince Nymph and #8 Rubber Leg Tellico Nymph and fished them without a strike indicator. Both flies were tied heavy enough that no extra weight was needed.

My superior skills The bigger flies and lack of a strike indicator probably accounted for the fact I landed a few more fish. I did mix things up and changed the position of the flies and it didn’t matter which fly was on the bottom, the fly bottom fly always hooked the fish.

Last week’s high water brought area lake levels up, so flows from the dams have increased as well. One interesting fact to keep in mind, TVA is announcing that Norris Dam has one generator running but the actual flows seem to indicate two generators running as much water as possible.

This is an important distinction since one generator provides a superb flow for fishing from a boat while the extra generator makes fishing far less productive.

We’ve got more rain on the way so we’ll have to see what that does with water levels. We’ll keep you posted!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hang in there! Spring is coming soon!

It’s still winter but many of us are already planning our fishing in the months ahead. We get numerous emails and phone calls over the winter from people planning trips. Many of those folks are trying to hit a particular hatch, good flows on the tailwaters, or the best conditions for an extended backcountry fishing trip.

February There’s not usually a whole lot going on in during the heart of winter, but you can get out on the water more than you might think. Focus you attention on the tailwaters for the best action. It’s been a long winter with little to no tailwater fishing depending on the exact river, but TVA should begin to moderate generation by February. The South Holston and Watauga Rivers always have the most consistent schedules for fishing, but look for the Clinch, Holston, and Hiwassee to get good.

Fat rainbows can be caught on the Clinch and Holston in the late winter

The South Holston is the head of the heap for dry fly fishing with great Blue Wing Olive hatches. Also bring some midge patterns along with a few Sulphurs. The Clinch can have some superb midge fishing in the winter. Try some sowbug patterns if the midges aren’t hatching.

Most of the streams in the Smokies will fish slow. Abrams Creek in Cades Cove usually fishes better than most other streams because it has warmer water temperatures from numerous springs that feed it. Delayed Harvest streams like Paint Creek and Tellico River in Tennessee and the Nantahala and Tuckaseegee Rivers in North Carolina are also good bets in the winter.

Periodic mid-winter “thaws” can provide some very good fishing on all waters. Warm, sunny days will get midges hatching on the tailwaters and fish in the mountain streams will become more active as well. Some years spring weather can arrive by the last week of February.

March is really when spring fishing kicks off in the Smoky Mountain region. Fishing on the tailwaters can be good, but dry fly fishing on many of the creeks can be nothing short of phenomenal. Quill Gordons and Blue Quills are mayflies that hatch on the larger streams and bring trout to the surface.

Little River, Deep Creek, the Oconaluftee River, and Bradley Fork have some of the best dry fly fishing in the Smokies during March. These hatches can start as early as the first of the month or as late as the 15th. Bugs will start hatching between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM and may linger up until 3:00 PM or later.

One thing to be aware of in 2010 is that Cades Cove will be closed March through May while the road is re-paved. This means no fishing on Abrams Creek this spring.

Midge fishing is usually pretty good on the Holston and Clinch Rivers in March. There might be a few caddis on the Holston to whet your appetite for the coming months, but focus your efforts on fishing nymphs. Small Woolly Buggers can also be quite effective in the spring. Bring them across riffles with an erratic retrieve for the best results.

April is when things start to heat up all over. Fishing starts to pick up on all the tailwater rivers and the streams in the Smoky Mountains only get better. The Clinch, Holston, and Hiwassee Rivers are all usually on a “pulse” generation schedule. This is a minimum flow schedule when flows are generally low and generators will give occasional pulses of water to keep water flowing. Caddis usually hatch on the Hiwassee and Holston while Sulphurs start to hatch on the Clinch.

In the Smokies the trout will be rising very well and certainly eating nymphs when they’re not. Quill Gordons will begin to fade from the scene but they are replaced by Hendricksons and March Browns. The yellow mayflies start to hatch by the end of April. Light Cahills and Sulphurs hatch late in the afternoon into the evening.

Watch for Yellow Sallies to start hatching by mid-April but the real action with these bugs happens later in the month when they lay eggs on the water just before dark.

Yellow Sally stonefly

May is one of the best all round months for fly fishing in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. Fishing is excellent in the Smokies at all elevations. Hatches are well under way on the tailwaters and smallmouth bass are also active on the rivers.

Light colored mayflies and stoneflies come out in the evenings on Smoky Mountain trout streams. The caddis hatch on the Holston River can be downright ridiculous at times and the Sulphurs usually have trout rising on the Clinch. Dry fly fishing is certainly part of the experience no matter where you fish for trout, but don’t leave the nymph box at home.

Charity hooked this brown trout on a dry fly

Nymphs are often required on the tailwaters in the hours leading up to a hatch. They continue to work well during a hatch, but who can fish a nymph when trout are rising to the surface? May is usually our best month for dry fly fishing on the Holston River. Caddis hatches can get crazy at times!

May is also the best month for Sulphurs on the Clinch. Last year was the best Sulphur hatch we’ve seen in a long time and we’re hoping for a repeat in 2010!

We had some high water last weekend, but water levels are very good right now. Water temperatures have been in the low to mid 40′s and the trout have been surprisingly active. We haven’t been out on the water in the morning, but fishing has been excellent from about noon to 4 PM.

We’ll see if this good fishing keeps up, though. Next week temperatures are forecast to be about ten degrees cooler than what they’ve been this week. If that’s the case we’ll be dredging bottom with bigger nymphs like #8 Rubber Leg Tellicos and #10 Princes.

The Tuckaseegee River continues to produce even when the water is high

The tailwater scene has been as grim as we’ve seen it in years. High flows have kept us off the big rivers for a while. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the fish, though. Flows are pretty standard and the fish are accustomed to it. Problem is that there’s just no option for wading and the increased flows keep the fish deep and spread out.

The Tuckaseegee River near Dillsboro, NC has been our destination for float trips. The river has been higher than we’d like, but we’re still managing to hook some trout. We usually focus our efforts on fishing nymphs, but lately we haven’t even brought them out of the box. Streamer fishing has been the way to go.

Streamers allow us to cover more water more effectively. Furthermore, we seem to be hooking a few more real good fish than we typically do on nymphs.

Just like the mountain streams, the Tuckaseegee has fished best in the afternoon but we’re still moving fish before lunch. Wading the Tuck really isn’t much of an option. Anglers who are extremely familiar with the river probably know of a few spots where wading is possible, but there’s not much room to move about.

A view of Mout Leconte from Townsend, TN on a winter day

View from the fly tying desk on a cold day last January, Townsend, TN

Spring rainbow trout during the Quill Gordon hatch, Great Smoky Mountains National park

BBQ Ribs on Hazel Creek; Not a bad way to end a day of fishing.

Little River rainbow trout, Great Smoky Mountains

Michael Kennedy hooked up with a nice trout hooked on a dry fly from the drift boat, Holston River, Tennessee

Hooked up with a rainbow on the Clinch River, Tennessee

Nice brown trout during the Sulphur hatch on the Clinch River, TN

John Emert caught this beautiful rainbow on a #18 caddis dry fly on the Holston River, Tennessee

A black bear eating poke berries, Townsend, TN

A curious deer fawn edges closer to investigate fly fishers on Abrams Creek, Great Smoky Mountains

This tiger striped smallmouth bass inhaled a brown and orange Clouser Minnow on Tennessee's Pigeon River

Did you miss this post last summer? Click the photo for the full story.

Casting terrestrials on Little River mid-summer, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Montana

Lewis River Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Madison River rainbow trout, Yellowstone National Park, Montana

A brown trout holds in the current in Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The view from Newfound Gap on our commute to work guiding the Oconaluftee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

A trout rises among leaves drifting in the current, Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

John Coley caught this beautiful wild brown trout in the backcountry on a dry fly, Little River, Great Smoky Mountains

That's a nice brown anywhere, but particularly for the wild streams of the Smokies, Oconaluftee River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Autumn scene on Hazel Creek, Great Smoky Mountains

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

View from the Foothills Parkway on a beautiful fall afternoon

The weather across East Tennessee and Western North Carolina barely cracked 80 degrees over the weekend. We managed to fly fish in a variety of locations for a variety of fish species and it was excellent everywhere.

This fish rose nicely to a dry fly

Generation at Cherokee Dam fell off significantly over the weekend so we hitched up the drift boat and headed that way to see how things are. Water temperatures can get marginal for trout on this tailwater in late summer and fall so we were curious to find out what’s going on. We’re pleased to say that the water was in the high 60′s at Indian Cave and there were some trout feeding.

Fishing was nothing like it is at its peak in the spring, but we still picked up several nice rainbows, even a couple on dry flies. Trout fishing was a bit on the slow side so we moved to a different section of the river and broke out the poppers.

We caught a number of smallies about this size

The smallies were real active and we hooked them on poppers, Woolly Buggers, and Clouser Minnows. This was upstream of Indian Cave and the best bass fishing is downstream of there so the river is fishing exceptionally well for the bronze backs right now.

It looks like generation at Cherokee Dam will cut back this week so there should be some good windows to fish smallmouth around Nances Ferry or even lower on the river.

The weather was cool and wet in the Smokies and it felt more like October than August. Temperatures were in the 60′s and 70′s across the Smoky Mountains and we haven’t seen the fish so happy since last May.

A cool, damp weekend in the Smokies

Tricos, Isonychias, and a variety of stoneflies are hatching right now and the fish are looking up. The fish may have eaten larger flies, but we stayed true to #18 parachute patterns. We started with a Hi-Vis Parachute Blue Wing Olive and never used anything else because it worked so well. We even cast flies to rising fish, something that usually happens later in the fall.

Most of the fish we caught were rainbows about this big

We missed some fish in the 10-12″ range, but virtually every one we caught was in the 5-8″ range. Not very big but colorful and very willing.

This weather pattern is forecast to last through the week with plenty of sunshine. We’ll be on the water loving every minute!

A quick reminder… Newfound Gap Road in the Smokies between Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC will be closed from sunset Tuesday September 1 through 6:00 PM on Wednesday September 2. This is for the rededication ceremony for the Smoky’s 75th Anniversary.

Great water levels are keeping the water cool and the trout happy

Water levels are well within fishable, but look much more like April than August. Here on the Tennessee side of the Smokies Tremont is fishing really well. I’ve been fishing nymphs about three feet under a yarn indicator, but dry flies will tempt plenty of fish. Just be sure to cast dries to spots that aren’t more than three feet deep for the best success.

Little River along the road is fishing much better than it usually does in August,  but it’s still the most difficult fishing to be found in the park right now. It’s unusual to shake me up, but I almost fell over yesterday when a brown trout in the 4-5 pound range appeared in a shallow riffle and nosed my indicator yarn. I continued to nymph the run with a rubber leg Tellico Nymph then followed that up with a streamer. No dice, but I know where that one lives.

The Clinch River continues to be the best bet for a tailwater in our neck of the state. Generation schedules have been great all week. Anglers can fish near the dam until well after lunch time or wade around Clinton all day long. The Sulphurs are long past gone so focus your efforts on nymphing. Small midge patterns like a Zebra Midge are the usual flies we rely on at this time of year. Some small black caddis could make an appearance, so a black Elk Caddis in #20 might come in handy, but it’s still a little early in the year.

A black bear returns to the berry patch near our house

We received a few comments about the bear we saw behind our house last weekend. He returned this morning for a second helping. So everyone knows, I’m using a 300 mm lens to take these photos which allows me to zoom in close without getting near the bear. We’re also observing him from the back deck on our house which is on the second floor and has no stairs down to the ground where the bear is.

Charity and I try to maintain this area over the winter by keeping pine sprouts down and keeping it open so blackberries, polk berries, and devil’s walking sticks will continue to grow. All of these produce berries that are eaten by a variety of birds, squirrels, deer, turkeys, and of course black bear.

The bear usually stays hidden in the brush. A long lens and a fast shutter speed allowed me to get this image.

We have been pleased to see that the bear remains somewhat skittish so we have to remain pretty quiet to watch him. It’s also a good sign that he’s in the berries. We never keep trash cans outside because of wildlife and this bear seems to prefer natural foods.

Our daughter Willow was thrilled to “eat breakfast with a bear” on the deck. The berries in her cereal were picked a while ago and came out of the freezer, but she giggled at the idea that she and a bear had the same thing for breakfast.

That's my size 11 foot in the photo for scale

It’s been a couple of weeks ago now, but I came across the the biggest brown trout I’ve ever seen on the Clinch River. I had taken Gary Newton from Berea, Kentucky on a float trip. It was a pretty good day of fishing with most trout taking midge patterns in the #20 range. A few of the trout were in the 14″ – 17″ range with most in the 10″ range.

Clouds built throughout the day and around 4:00 the rain started to fall. That wasn’t too bad, but the thunder and lightning drove us off the river to safety. There was no real place to stay dry, but we sat it out in rain gear. It was a downpour to say the least and water was standing about ankle deep at the rowers seat in the drift boat.

The rain started to let up and we decided to go ahead and pull out into the current. The water had started to rise so I didn’t have to worry about zig-zagging my way down the river through a maze of ledges. The water had just gotten high enough so there was a few inches clearance to float over them.

The fog had come on pretty thick over the river and visibility was only about 75 yards. There were still some rumbles of thunder in the distance so I was pushing the boat on down the river to avoid round two in the storms.

I was just upstream of Lewellyn Island when I noticed something off to my left in the river. I initially thought it was some flotsam picked up by the rising water, but it had a little bit of motion that made it look more alive than a piece of trash.

As I rowed over to it I could see that it was a big fish. It was drifting with the current but so big that I had difficulty getting in the net. It took me four separate attempts to finally get it in the net and in the boat. Gary made the comment that the fish was easily over 24″ long.

I have a 20″ ruler decal in the drift boat and the fish dwarfed it, more than a head and tail longer than the sticker. I put the fish down in the water in bottom of the boat and it showed signs of life so I rowed over to a shallow spot in order to get out of the boat to revive the fish.

After about 10 minutes the fish didn’t seem to be any more alive, although it occasionally kicked or worked its mouth open and closed. I couldn’t see myself mounting a fish I didn’t catch and I don’t have a fly shop to put it on display so I simply decided to leave the fish in the water. As I started to leave I thought to measure the fish and get some photos.

I don’t carry a tape measure in the boat since I have the ruler decal. I grabbed a spool of tippet and pulled a length of line from the brown trout’s nose to tail and clipped it off. I did the same to get a girth just behind the pectoral fins.

I reviewed the photos I had taken of the fish and knew that even with a net and my foot in the picture and knew that the true size of the fish couldn’t be appreciated from those images. I asked Gary to pop a few pictures of me holding the fish.

In the back of my mind I was guessing that the brown was about 28″. We’ve hooked and landed some beasts from the Clinch over the years but all were 26″ or less. I’m aware of at least one fish that a fly fisher caught on a streamer that was 28″. We hear the 30″ number tossed around every so often, but that’s a bigger trout than most people realize. One of our regular customers has fished Tierra del Fuego for sea run browns and has assured us that 30″ is a lot of fish.

I measured the two pieces of tippet and was floored by the size. The brown trout was 34″ and had a 19″ girth. Truly an impressive trout anywhere you go. Even more when you consider this is a resident fish, not a lake or ocean run fish.

I ran into TWRA cold water fisheries biologist Jim Habera a few days later and showed him the pictures. Jim has handled some big trout while shocking tailwaters here in Tennessee and he laid down an educated guess that the brown trout weighed about 20 pounds. The current state record here in Tennessee is 28 pounds from the Clinch River.

The fish was in good shape and didn’t show any injuries so I asked Jim if he had an opinion as to why the fish was dying. His opinion mirrored mine. A fish has to die some time of something and it looks like this one died of old age. Jim told me that a fish of this size would almost have to be 8 years old but could easily be older.

Brown trout like this one are exceptionally rare, but there are certainly other fish out there in this size range. The Clinch and South Holston Rivers are the most likely suspects along with the Cumberland River in Kentucky, but the Caney Fork in Middle Tennessee is a dark horse that could produce a fish like this or will some time in the future. We know of one fly fisher who landed a 30″ brown trout on the Watauga a few years back so it’s not a stretch to consider that river either.

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.

The Quill Gordon hatch is under way on most streams in the Smoky Mountains and that has the fish looking up. We haven’t been on the North Carolina side of the park yet, but have heard from a few folks that bugs are hatching over there as well.

Charity snapped this photo of a brown trout caught by Yvonne Sanders this week during a hatch of Quill Gordon mayflies.

Little River has had the best hatches. Fish are rising at Greenbrier, but we’re not seeing near as many insects on the water. Beadhead nymphs are the most consistent fish catchers, but dry flies have brought fish to the surface every afternoon.

We’ve done a few floats this week too. Midges have been the main attraction on our local tailwaters. A #18 Skull & Bones has done quite well for us. We drift it over sipping trout. We’ve also hooked a fair number of fish on streamers this week.  The streamer fishing has been great fun, but we’re not hooking near as many fish as we’re attracting to the fly. Most run at the fly and roll at it, but that’s pretty fun too.