The Elkmont Ant is a fly I came up with a few years ago. I was doing a bit of guiding at Blackberry Farm where the fish were big and the water was small. A daily string of guides and anglers kept the trout pretty educated and even smaller fish became jaded by early July.

The Elkmont Ant not only fooled the largest trout at Blackberry, but it did an impressive job on the wild fish in the Smokies. It’s incredibly effective in low water conditions and tempts everything from smaller brookies to larger brown trout. In fact, I caught 2 brown trout around 18″ around Elkmont on Little River the first season I fished it.

Terrestrials are always important in the summer. They are relatively abundant and any beetle, cricket, yellow jacket, or ant that falls into the water is unlikely to get out. In fact, it’s a certainty that they will be eaten by a fish. The only question is when.

The Elkmont Ant has a foam body so it floats great. The soft legs vibrate to give the illusion of life and a poly-yarn wing makes it visible to the angler. It even lands with a soft plop that will often lure hungry fish out of hiding.

Tying the Elkmont Ant isn’t hard. Here’s the pattern:

Hook:  #14 Dry Fly

Thread: 6/0 Black

Body: Black Foam cut to about 1/8″

Legs: Black Span Flex

Wing: White Poly-Yarn; Neon orange or chartreuse may be substituted for even better visibility

Step 1:  Cover the hook shank with black thread. This will make the hook blend with the foam and provide better traction for the foam to stay in place. Cut a strip of foam to about 1/8″ wide. The foam should not be any thicker than that, but may be a bit thinner. Tie the foam in just above the bend of the hook.

Step 2: Tie in a piece of Span Flex on each side of the foam. You’ll want the pieces to be long initially, then clipped to size. Tie the Span Flex in so it is secured along the side of the fly in the crevice in the foam. The legs should have a “V”.

Step 3: Wrap the thread up the hood and secure the foam about one and a half hook eye lengths back from the eye of the hook.

Step 4: Tie in the Span-Flex for the legs on the front. At this point I usually clip the corners from the foam at the head and rear of the fly to give it a more rounded appearance.

Step 5: Tie in a piece of poly-yarn. I prefer white, but you may see the fly better if you use neon orange or chartreuse. Tie off with a half hitch or whip finish and go fishing!

Fishing the Elkmont Ant

You’ll want to use a slightly different method to fish the Elkmont Ant and other terrestrials than you would a Royal Wulff, Parachute Adams, or other standard dry fly. Most standard dries imitate aquatic insects like mayflies, caddis, and stoneflies. These insects live in riffle habitat and are most often eaten by trout while ther are drifting in current.

Many terrestrials, particularly those found along the forested streams of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, will fall from trees or streamside brush. You should cast these flies into quieter waters that you might be tempted to pass up. In fact, it’s not uncommon for brown trout to sit in “frog water”, avoiding riffle water in the summer.

You’ll do well fishing well defined feeding lanes as well. Rainbows will remain in current through the summer. Brook trout are often found in slower currents as well as eddies.

Don’t be afraid of letting the fly hit the water with a SPLAT! Insects falling from trees will make a plop and fish accustomed to eating them will be attracted by the noise. Of course, only the fly should do that, not your entire leader and fly line.

Terrestrial patterns like the Elkmont Ant will be most successful during the day while the sun is on the water. I’m not sure why, but terrestrials lose much of their effectiveness in the evening, probably because those insects are most active during the heat of the day.

It’s been an extremely busy week here in the fly fishing mines of the Smoky Mountains and East Tennessee. We’ve spent several days guiding anglers in some out of the way streams in the Smokies, helped park biologists monitor a brook trout stream one day, and did a float on the Holston on another.

I took Ethan McClellan and Jared Rice out for a few days of walk-in fly fishing. Their main priority was to fish some water that is off the radar of the common angler. These are among my favorite trips to guide, especially in August. The water is cold, the surroundings beautiful, and the fish are eager. The guys also wanted to catch some brookies. The first day we hit one of my favorite brook trout streams, but one I rarely guide. Ethan and Jared are in great physical condition, probably better than me, so I had no reservations about taking them to a stream that required a bit of walk followed by a full day of bouldering.

Ethan notified me that he was deathly afraid of snakes. In fact, he’s nearly fainted at the mere sight of a snake in the past. As usual, my response was that we might see a harmless water snake and sightings of rattlers and copperheads were quite rare. Our second day on the water took us up Fish Camp Prong, one of Little River’s larger tributaries. It’s primarily a rainbow trout stream with a few brown trout. There is a robust population of brook trout if you go far enough.

We had gotten into a good number of fish by lunch. Shortly after eating we decided to put a little more trail behind us before getting back into the fishing. After walking about a half mile this is what I saw in the trail.

I stopped so fast I think I left skid marks. I threw up my arms and yelled, “Turn around! Don’t look! Don’t look!” Ethan, bringing up the rear knew exactly what that meant and responded quickly. Jared, like myself, isn’t particularly fond of snakes but is curious enough to want a good look.

This photo is exactly the way we found the rattler and we left him just the same. Just like every other one I’ve seen in the Smokies it was somewhat docile, not moving, even after a few light taps with the tip of a fly rod. In fact, this individual was content to sun itself in the trail. We decided to back trak a little bit and fish around the snake rather than try to sneak by on the narrow trail. Again, the fishing was excellent. The guys caught mostly rainbows with a couple of browns thrown in as well.

Charity and I did a float on the Holston a few days back and it has fallen off dramatically. While water temperatures are far fom lethal in the high 60’s, the fish aren’t moving around very much. We only got a few fish to the net all day. The best success came on small nymphs fished extremely deep in relatively quiet water. Right now we’re discouraging trout floats since generation schedules on the Clinch aren’t favorable. Smallmouth fishing on the Holston is excellent right now. If a float is what you want in our neck of the woods we certainly recommend smallies. Popper fishing is great right now.

Brook Trout Monitoring in the Smokies

Charity and I helped park biologists with brook trout monitoring on Bunches Creek on the North Carolina side of the Smokies. We always enjoy doing this since you get to see exactly how many fish are in a stream and see how the different sizes of fish stack up to each other.

The North Carolina side of the Smokies seems to have less water this year than the Tennessee side, and the the biologists were concerned by the low water levels. However, the population doesn’t seem to be affected much. We sampled 100 meters of stream and I think we shocked up well over 200 brook trout.

On the way home we saw this bull elk along Newfound Gap Road near the Oconaluftee River.

I was able to squeeze in a day of hiking a fishing between several days of guiding this week. I’ve been trying to fish as many of the formerly closed brook trout streams as I can. This has been something of a quest over the past few years since these streams opened. The vast majority of these streams are pretty far back in the sticks. The tributaries of Big Creek were my target this week.

Midnight Hole on Big Creek

These streams were originally closed back in 1975 because it was believed that the Southern Appalachian brook trout was in serious decline and fishing was a leading cause. After recent studies were conducted, combining creel surveys with trout population surveys, it was found that droughts and floods were the primary forces that shaped trout populations. Furthermore, anglers using legal methods rarely caught more than 10% of a stream’s trout population in a year. Similar studies in other wild trout streams in the Southeast even suggest similar results when fisherman used bait or artificial lures.

The upper Big Creek watershed was still a place I had yet to sample, with a number of streams holding brook trout. If you haven’t been to Big Creek you’re missing a real treat and I have to admit passing it by on far too many occasions.

Big Creek is just inside North Carolina, only a short drive up the Pigeon River out of Newport, Tennessee. If I’m heading to Newport with a fly rod you can usually be sure I’m hunting smallmouth bass. If I continue on up the river out of Newport with the Smokies in mind I’m typically thinking of brown trout in Cataloochee Valley, another 35 minutes or so up the road from Big Creek.

I saw a number of fish in Big Creek as I hiked up the trail

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Big Creek and I immediately struggled to remember why. It’s easily among the most scenic streams in the park and fits the profile of anyone who enjoys fishing after a short hike. Anyone who fishes here will need to plan on walking a little more than a mile before getting in the stream, but after that access is pretty good from the trail for several miles.

I walked up to Walnut Bottoms before getting on the Swallow Fork Trail. Access was marginal for much of the way, but not too bad after about a half mile.

Swallow Fork, a dandy brook trout stream with a few rainbows mixed in

The stream was predominantly brook trout with a few rainbows along the way. After a little bit of fishing here I headed back to Big Creek and continued on upstream. I couldn’t resist fishing Big Creek just a little bit and caught a few nice rainbows and a few brookies as well.

In the past I don’t remember catching any brook trout around Walnut Bottoms. I’ve noticed over the past few years seeing more brookies further down in a number of streams. It would seem this trend is also occurring on Big Creek.

Heading further into the backcountry I found the mouth of Gunter Fork. This stream was quite similar to Swallow Fork in size. It was also a blend of brookies and rainbows.

Just what I came for…

By this time the skies had darkened and thunder was rolling off the mountainsides. I walked about half the distance back to the trailhead in a torrential downpour but was glad for the rain. After last year’s drought I don’t think I’ll ever mind a rainy day half as much as I used to.

I was happy to see the car on my return. I put in at 15-16 miles of hiking plus several hours of fishing and was feeling it the next morning.

We’ve gotten thunderstorms with heavy rains 3 afternoons this week. This has allowed us plenty of time for fishing while bringing the stream levels up from a relatively low point. Overnight temperatures in the Smokies have been in the 50’s and this has also helped to perk up the fish. High temperatures on Friday remained in the 70’s throughout much of the park and the high peaks barely made it into the 60’s.

Fishing along the road on Little River has improved greatly over last week, but the best fishing remains in the higher elevations. This is a typical summer time patterns for fly fishers in the park. We prefer to use attractor dry fly patterns in these smaller, tumbling streams. If you stick with the larger streams we recommend you fish nymphs in the riffles and pocket water. Terrestrials are good regardless of where you fish, but are far more effective on warm sunny days.

As promised in my post from the other day, here’s some video from our float on the Holston River here in East Tennessee. There are some beautiful clips of rising trout.

Those of you have been with us and missed a good number of fish might really enjoy this. Charity hooks up more than I do. Notice how you’ll hear Charity invoke the “3 Strike Rule” over my groans of frustration.

This 4 minute video represents about 45-60 minutes of fishing before we couldn’t stand it and put the camera away and both fished.

 Yesterday Charity and I hitched up the drift boat and headed over to the Holston River. Our original intent was to focus our attention on smallmouth bass, but we were in a section of the river that has good trout populations in addition to smallies.

We put the boat in the river and the water was around 60 degrees; excellent for a hot day this far down the river. Our plans of fishing poppers were put on hold when we saw pod after pod of rising trout. We finally rigged up a four weight, tied on a dry fly, and started casting to them.

The fish were obviously midging, but we decided to see if they remembered what a caddis was. Charity captured this superb sequence with the camera.

Yeah…  They ate the caddis emerger.

We finally got around to getting the bass rod out. We cast poppers for the duration of the afternoon. Honestly, the bass fishing was a tad slow. We would have done better to have stuck with the trout, but we still caught about 8 over the afternoon. It wouldn’t have hurt if we were further down the river where the bass are more prolific and the water warmer, but we couldn’t complain. Heck, we even caught a trout on the popper! Not a bad way to spend a summer day.

Check back over the next few days for more. We got some pretty good video from the day that we’ll post, plus I’m planning another trek into a remote backcountry stream for brook trout.

We had some soaking rains over the weekend and water levels are pretty good right now in the Smokies. Fly fishing last Sunday was a bit streaky as the morning started off rainy, weather cleared around noon, then a strong front with thunderstorms closed in during the afternoon. A number of runs were pretty stingy on upper Little River, but others were red hot. Nymphs consistently drew the largest number of strikes.

Our local tailwaters have been a little inconsistent regarding flows. Some days feature positively awful generation schedules that don’t allow much in the way of fishing while other days have great schedules. Right now the Clinch, South Holston, and Watauga have the best schedules for wading. The Hiwassee is in the middle of its summer schedule which is great for floating. Give it a try if you have a pontoon but be sure to wear a PFD. The river has a few dicey spots plus it’s the law on that river.

Mark Scarbrough of Southeastern Anglers advises a student rower how to negotiate the Stair Steps on the Hiwassee

I floated the Hiwassee in our Hyde drift boat this past Monday. Unfortunately the water was pretty stained from water coming in from the river bed upstream of the powerhouse. Fishing was as slow as I’ve seen it there, but those were just temporary conditions that I’m sure improved by the next day.

Schedules on the Holston River have been great for smallmouth fishing. Fly fishing with poppers is great at this time of year.

“Make up!!!”      Ian at work?

This morning I met a small crew from Knoxville’s Channel 10 News. They’re in the process of creating a promo that incorporates a number of East Tennesseans at work. The commercial will begin airing the week of the Olympics and continue for some time after that. I think you’ll see me for about 2 seconds.

One last thing - We’ve gotten a few calls from folks looking for a used drift boat. Our old friend Chuck Robinson in the Nashville area has let me know he’s looking to sell his Hyde lo-profile. He’s asking $5500. Shoot him an email if you’re interested and he’ll give you the details. His address is crobins@rei.com.

Nobody has an office with a better view…

It’s been a long season of guiding so far. I don’t think there are many tears shed for us while we spend most of our days on trout streams in the Smoky Mountains or floating the tailwaters in a drift boat. Still we don’t get to actually fish when we’re guiding. It’s the sacrifice we have to make for so spacious an office, but a day off to actually cast a fly to fish is just as much a treat for us as it is for you.

I’ve been making the long circuit around the Smokies trying to hit as much of the recently opened brook trout water that I can. The park service closed most of the streams with brook trout in 1975 to protect their populations. However, recent research has indicated that sport fishing has little if any impact on trout populations in the Smoky Mountains and the streams were re-opened to fishing a few years back.

As I’ve been hiking around the park to experience as many of these places as I can I’ve reached the conclusion that most of the streams are so far back in the sticks that no one would have fished them much even if they were open. That’s certainly the case now. Many of the streams are surprisingly large, not the claustrophobia inducing rhododendron tunnels most anglers imagine.

This brook trout stream remains relatively large for miles

I recently went back into a stream that was about as good as it gets. I’m not going to name the exact spot. The main reason is that is was a pretty tough place to reach and I’m not sure if it would do any angler’s health much good if they attempted to replicate the day. The total mileage on the day was 13 - 14 miles round trip. Several miles were in the stream bed.

I hiked 5 miles up a relatively underfished stream before I got in the water at a point where it and the trail part ways. I caught a blend of rainbows and brookies plus a couple of stray brown trout. My main intention was to fish as far up the stream as possible in a day so I skipped over a lot of water to cover ground. After a while I only caught brook trout.

The reward for the long hike…

The stream flowed through old growth forest.  Many of the poplars and buckeyes were huge. I’m sad to say that the hemlocks here are on the way out, victims of the woolly adelgid. At one point late in the day I could make out spruce trees further up the slope, a sure indication that I was at 4000′ or higher. Many of the fish were at least 7″ and I got strikes almost anywhere I put the fly. In fact, fish would often move 3′ or more to take the fly, a big contrast to more pressured water like Little River where good fly placement is critical.

There was one striking landmark along the way that I’ll mention. Anyone who has been there will certainly know the spot. As I made my way up the stream I came upon what looks like the remnants of a jet engine from the wreckage of a downed fighter plane. A number of figher planes have wrecked in the park over the years as it’s under military airspace. We’ll occasionally see aircraft streaking up Calderwood Lake lower than the surrounding ridges. I know of fly fishers who have seen this. I fished quite a distance upstream of here.

Newfound Gap Road after a drenching rain

I’m happy to report that this has been the rainiest few days in the Smoky Mountains I can remember over the past few years. It hasn’t been raining continuously but we’ve been getting some good afternoon thunderstorms. Stream levels inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Nantahala National Forest, and Cherokee National Forest bear a striking resemblance to what they should look like. Water levels have been low for about a month, but nothing like what we saw last year. We’re still close to 5″ behind on rainfall this year, but far better than the 13″ deficit we had racked up by this time in 2007.

We’re thrilled to see the rain, but the unsettled weather has made this fishing a bit tougher over the past week. In our experience fish seem to respond best when the weather is relatively steady. This isn’t always the case, but we’ve seen the fishing slow down just as thunderstorms started to build then get much better as the weather cleared. There were several days when we had 3 guided trips go out on the same day to different places. All experienced generally slow fishing with spurts of activity after the skies cleared.

River otters on Calderwood Lake, Tennessee

Fly fishing on the rivers of East Tennessee and the streams of the Smoky Mountains has been excellent this spring. Our fisheries seem to have only suffered minimal impacts from last year’s drought and water levels are excellent this year. Tailwater fishing was as good as we’ve seen it this spring. We’ve already moved into the heat of summer and are getting into the groove of warm weather fishing. We’re been wading wet in the Smokies for several weeks and expect to continue with that until early October or late September.

Head into the back country for the best summer fishing

Smoky Mountain Streams

Summer always sees us migrating to the higher elevations in the summer to pursue trout. While there are plenty of fish around Metcalf Bottoms on Little River, these fish are always somewhat sluggish in the hot months. We generally go upstream of Elkmont or fish other streams at elevation such as the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River, the Oconaluftee River, and Porters Creek. While all of these streams are often harder to wade than Little River, there is always much more action.

Brook trout are often one of our main summer time targets in the Smokies. There are found in streams that always flow cold plus their aggressive strikes make for a great day on the water. Again, these streams can be rought to wade in many places, but it’s well worth the effort for anyone who wants to catch some beautiful trout in an incredible setting.

Head to the high country to find brook trout…

…and rainbows too!

General attractor patterns work well in secluded mountain streams, but be sure to bring some terrestrial fly patterns along as well. Ants, beetles, and inch worms are all extremely effective in the hot summer months and will often out fish commonly used attractors in more pressured streams.

Be sure to get out after thunderstorms as well. These short but intense periods of rain, common during the summer months in the Smokies, provide some superb fishing. Nymphs are often the best fly patterns. We like Prince and Tellico Nymphs in #10-12. Be sure to try some streamers as well. Black or Brown Woolly Buggers in #8-10 are great but tie on a #2-6 Zuddler for big pools on larger streams like Little River, Deep Creek, and the Oconaluftee River.

Tailwater Rivers

Floats for trout are generally less productive in the summer than the spring on the Clinch and Holston Rivers. However, we still catch some fish. Flows are often less predictable in the summer than they are in the spring so we will usually finalize plans for a float the night before. Most of the fishing is done with small nymphs, but there are often some dry fly opportunities. Stripping streamers with a sink tip or full sink fly line is one of our favorite methods on the tailwaters. This is always more work for the angler, but the average trout is always larger.

We’ll still see a few caddis on the Holston and midges are a constant on the Clinch. Be sure to keep tabs on generation schedules for the Hiwassee, South Holston, and Watauga. All of these tailwaters continue to fish well through the summer. Some of the best Sulphur hatches in the nation take place on the South Holston. Summer is an excellent time for beetles on the Watauga. Anglers can usually wade the Hiwassee in the morning before the generators come on. Fish midges, small caddis, and bead heads to stay in fish.

There are still some nice trout yet to be caught from the drift boat this summer

Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass

We’ve already cast some streamers and poppers for smallmouth bass on the rivers.  The Holston, Pigeon, and Little River are all places we frequent when we’re looking for bronze backs. Smallies are the red-headed step child of the fly fishing world, but we’re trying to change that. Last summer we introduced a number of our customers to fly fishing for smallmouth bass and everyone loved it. While conditions for trout are often less than favorable in the summer they can be perfect for river smallies. We prefer to fish on the surface with poppers, but will often cast streamers as well. The fish we catch are generally as long or longer than the trout we catch, but heavier and usually fight harder. The rivers we float are every bit as scenic as the rivers we float for trout and most of the fishing is visual so you see the strike.

If you’re heading out on your own you can probably find any number of quality rivers and streams to catch smallies. In Western North Carolina be sure to check out the French Broad, Tuckaseegee, Little Tennessee, and Cheoah Rivers. In East Tennessee look at the Pigeon, Little Pigeon, Nolichucky, Holston, Powell, and lower Tellico Rivers.

Our favorite flies are “chugger” style poppers that make lots of racket in #6-8 as well as Sneaky Petes. If you can’t get the bass to look up, try a basic Woolly Bugger in #6-10. Brown and orange Clouser Minnows fish extremely well in riffles and pockets.