We’re having some incredible weather in East Tennessee right now and the fly fishing is superb! Water levels in the Smokies are great. You’ll do best fishing nymphs on the larger streams like Little River and Abrams Creek right now, but dry fly fishing is excellent on the medium to small streams. Wet wading is tolerable, but you’ll still be more comfortable in your waders for now.

Watch for the best mayfly hatches and egg laying flights of stoneflies just before dark. Action can be sparse some evenings and incredible on others.

Tailwater fishing is great right now. Generation schedules are perfect for wading and bug activity is at a maximum. The Clinch is fishing pretty good with nymphs with sporadic late day action on sulphurs. The caddis hatch on the Holston is keeping fish looking up. Some days are certainly better than others, but even slow days are good right now.

Water temperatures have even warmed up to the point where smallmouth bass are getting active as well. I saw several moving about while floating the Holston and we’ll be spending more time chasing them as the season progresses.

R&R Fly Fishing at the Hazel Creek Hilton May 1-4, 2008

We’re back from another incredible stay at Hazel Creek in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The weather was good. We had one day of scattered rain showers. The fishing was good with trout eating dry flies and nymphs up and down the creek. Everyone caught some nice trout and, of course, the setting was top notch.

Steve Claxton making biscuits from scratch

As always, Steve Claxton and his lovely assistant Cynda kept us well comfortable and well fed. Steve’s dinners this time featured ribeye steak, bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp, pork tenderloin, fresh trout, asparagus, cheese biscuits, corn on the cob, salads, blackberry cobbler, and apple pies. After all the hiking and fishing I think we still gained some weight!

Darren Cummings and Andrew Sonner load their plates with pork tenderloin, asparagus, cheese bisuits, mashed potatoes, and dressing.

Ian shows a nice rainbow trout caught by Lee Howell

After the second full day of fishing everyone made their way back to camp. Charity and I had been guiding several of the campers while the rest had set out on their own. The overall consensus was that fishing had been tough, but gotten pretty good around 3:00. Most anglers were doing best with a nymph and the most successful used weighted flies or a small split shot.

Charity was anxious to do a little fishing for herself and got in the stream just downstream of camp. Several of us thought we heard some shouts a few minutes later, but dismissed it as another group we had seen on the trail a few minutes earlier. I think the chairs were a little to comfortable and the cocktails a little too inviting for any of us to get up. Charity came back a few minutes later, exasperated that no one had responded to her calls. She had hooked a large fish, then chased it down the creek some way before another group of campers came to check out the ruckus.

She had originally started by casting a streamer, but after a few minutes with no response she put on a heavy Prince Nymph and continued on up the stream. On her 3rd cast with the nymph she hooked something large that moved about the stream but was reluctant to run or come to the surface. Eventually the trout made a blazing run down the creek, zig zagging through boulders before entering a large pool near the campsite. A large tree had fallen into the stream last winter and the fish made several attempts to run to it before Charity could keep it turned.

Thanks to the unknown campers who took this picture of Charity and the 18″ brown trout she caught

Most of the trout caught on the trip were in the 5-8″ range with several over 10″. Nymphs easily outfished dries. Pheasant Tails, Copper Johns, and of course, Prince Nymphs accounted for most of the fish hooked. We did raise some fish on Stimulators and Parachute Adams.

We’re already planning another back to Hazel Creek in October. We’ll keep you posted!

It’s been a busy week of guiding and great fly fishing here in East Tennessee. We’ve been getting around quite a bit. We’ve been on several large streams in the Smokies, back country streams, floating the Holston, and even floated lower Little River for smallmouth bass. The weather has been pretty warm but we’re still in waders as water temperatures have been in the mid to high 50’s where we’ve been fishing.

Water levels started getting a little low for this early in the season and dry fly fishing dropped off noticeably. Our best fishing came from fishing nymphs. Pat’s Nymphs, Prince Nymphs, Beadhead Pheasant Tails, and a few other patterns I’ve been experimenting with have worked well. Fishing a #16 nymph under a #14 Stimulator has worked well throughout the park.

View of Rich Mountain from the Peaceful Side of the Smokies

We’ve been getting some good rain and the rivers and streams have risen noticeably without getting blown out. This is great! I fished Wendy Williams and Bill Boyd on Little River yesterday. Real diehards, they fished through a torrential downpour. We stuck with nymphs all day long. After the rain let up a little bit the river took on a slight amount of color and the fishing was incredible. Every run yielded multiple strikes on nymph patterns. Bill got a 12″ brown on a caddis larva he ties and another brown that might have gone 14″ on a #10 Prince Nymph I tied. Wendy kept the fish biting all day long too.

The Holston River has been on fire with caddis hatching in the afternoon. We’ve been catching good numbers of nice rainbows on small nymphs fished deep in the morning. By lunch time the bugs are hatching and we’re catching plenty of fish on #18 caddis patterns. We’ve actually had a hard time keeping track of all the fish we’re hooking! This should last for at least a month, perhaps a bit longer.

We’ve even done a little smallmouth fishing on lower Little River. The water is still a little cool for the action to be great, but we got several nice smallies on poppers along with several redeyes and some bluegills as well. It won’t be long before the big bass on the Holston will take a popper and we can’t wait.

We’ve been out on the water almost everyday and covering a lot of water. We’ve been on the Tennessee and North Carolina sides of the Smokies plus floating the Holston several times a week. The caddis are hatching big time on the Holston and dry fly fishing is in full effect throughout the Smokies.

Jim Gibson Jr. does a fine job of hooking trout on a dry and dropper rig in the Smokies 

While the dry fly fishing has been quite good, we’ve been using a good number of dropper rigs in the middle of the day and mornings. Backcountry streams are really fishing good right now. We’ve had a few slow times on Little River and the Oconaluftee, but they were interrupted by biting fish.

Yellow Sallies are hatching and egg laying flights are coming along in the evening. We’re also seeing Hendrickson mayflies and March Browns as well.

Little Yellow Stonefly, sometimes called a Yellow Sally 

The Holston River has been superb! Outside of a few days with oddball flows from TVA it has been fishing excellent. The caddis hatch has begun and should last into June. We even continue to fish caddis in July. We start with nymphs or streamers and are usually fishing dries by noon.

Charity rows anglers to more trout on the Holston 

Jim Gibson with a nice rainbow that ate caddis dry fly on the Holston 

We’ve entered that short time frame known around East Tennessee as “Dogwood Winter”. It’s the brief cold snap that always seems to coincide with the blooming of dogwood trees. There’s even a light dusting of snow on the crest of the Smokies while shades of light green are creeping up the slopes from the lower elevations. There was 2″ of snow at Newfound Gap this morning and 5″ on Mount Leconte.

We can also expect another cool down, “Blackberry Winter”, to coincide with the blooming of the blackberry bushes. This is usually a more mild cool down that also lasts for a couple of days.

Snow on top of Thunderhead Mountain as trees bud out on Rich Mountain in the foreground

Dogwood blooms: A sure sign of spring and an accompanying cold snap

Fly fishing has continued to hold up nicely in spite of the cold weather. I took a pair of anglers, Christian and Jim, up the river above Elkmont on Sunday as the cold weather began to set in. Dry fly fishing didn’t hold much promise, but the trout continued to take nymphs all day long. A few snow flurries fell through the day.

Expect trout to continue scanning the currents for drifting nymphs

Today is the last day for temperatures to be cool. We can expect 60’s and 70’s by the end of the week.

The tailwaters continue to fish well. The Clinch and Hiwassee both have superb schedules for waders. The Tuckaseegee River near Dillsboro, North Carolina also has favorable conditions to catch some nice trout in a big river. We like to float this river, but flows are clearly in favor of wading right now. The caddis hatch on the Holston should only get better in the next couple of weeks.

Morel along a Smoky Mountain stream

Spring is truly here in East Tennessee and fly fishing has been great this week. The dogwoods are starting to bloom, hatches are taking place on the rivers, trout are rising, and even the smallmouth bass are beginning to take flies.

We started the week in the Smokies. Greg and Frank Norris walked into the back country of the Smokies with me and we had a great day of fly fishing. We started the day fishing nymphs but made the switch to dries by lunch time. The weather was beautiful and the fishing was excellent. We caught more rainbows than anything, but saw a few browns.

Frank caught this nice Smoky Mtn rainbow on a Bead Head Pheasant Tail

But, that’s not all the fishing we’ve done. I floated the Holston yesterday with Jim Petty from Michigan. Nymphing was slow but steady, picking up a trout every so often. I switched Jim to a streamer and the uptick in action was immediate. He even caught a pretty decent smallmouth bass on the streamer which got me thinking. about the possibilities there.

By lunch caddis were steadily hatching and trout were rising well in the riffles. Jim caught his best rainbow of the day, a 15 1/2″ specimen, on a #18 Elk Caddis. Jim is a real smallmouth nut. In fact, he even inquired about the possibilities when he booked his trip. Early April is a tad early for consistent bass action with a fly rod so I took him to a lower section of the Holston where trout are plentiful but bass are present.

After catching a good number of trout on a dry fly Jim switched to a brown and orange Clouser Minnow. While he was still hooking trout I began choosing promising smallmouth lies for him to cast to. By the end of the day Jim had boated 8 smallies, 2 of which were quite nice. We measured one at 15 3/4″ and another at 15″ long. Most were about 11-12″ long and chunky.

We’ve also heard excellent reports from the Clinch and Hiwassee Rivers. Plenty of trout are being caught on small nymphs on the Clinch; even a few big ones. The Hiwassee has some pretty good dry fly fishing right now and generation schedules are ideal for wading. We’ve heard of some real nice fish downstream of Reliance.

Last week Charity and I looked at the calendar and saw that this was the last week we had with much time off. After this week we’ll be guiding at least 5 days a week. (There’s still some availability if you need a guide, but you don’t want to wait any longer before booking a trip before Memorial Day.) We decided to seize the opportunity to take a few days and do some fishing for ourselves. We get to fly fish in Tennessee all the time so we headed to the North Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains to work some water we haven’t fished in a while.

We started by fishing Deep Creek near Bryson City, North Carolina. That’s a stream we used to fish quite often but now that we try, we can’t remember the last time we cast a fly here. Deep Creek is among the better brown trout streams in the Smokies and has some beautiful water.

The weather was in a state of flux as an approaching front made for a stiff breeze. The fishing was noticeable affected. Very few fish rose to a dry fly and we had to work for the fish we caught on nymphs. The best rig was two #12 Pat’s Nymphs fished in tandem. The Pat’s Nymph is a scraggly fly that has weight tied onto the full length of the hook shank, then covered with gray, shaggy dubbing and finished with a collar of brown hackle. It’s one of my favorites since it’s a quick tie, highly effective, and takes a beating without falling apart.

The next morning we decided to fish Noland Creek. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve fished Noland. Usually when we head in that general direction we end up fishing Deep Creek, the Tuckaseegee, or the Nantahala so it seemed like a good opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with this beautiful stream.

Noland Creek is a medium sized trout stream with only trail side access. It’s mostly pocket water with a few bigger pools. I chose to stick with nymphs while Charity started the day with dry flies. There wasn’t much difference in our success rate. She was hooking trout on dries about as fast as I was hooking them on nymphs.

The fish were generally small, mostly 6-8″, but very active. Charity did rise one very nice fish out of the run seen above that was at least a foot long, but the brown had a set of teflon lips and the hook didn’t stick. Most of the fish we hooked were rainbows, but we each land a couple of browns as well.

Charity here…

Let me start by saying Thursday was an excellent day for fly fishing in the Smokies!
I had the pleasure of teaching two enthusiastic kids how to cast a fly rod and then put their skills to work on the river. Daniel, 12 & Darcy 11 are on spring break and visiting their Grandmother, Julie Tallman, who is a client and friend of ours.

We started the day in a field near Elkmont campground and covered all the basics from how to hold the rod, make a cast, side arm cast, roll cast and just what to do when the fish eats the fly. They did great and were quick studies. By 11:15 we were in the water.

Darcy was first up. I tied on the Haystack she had tied the night before with her Grandma. We made several good drifts, but not eats. So I added a dropper with a small Bead Head Pheasant Tail. A few more casts and the show was on! Darcy hooked a pretty little rainbow that ran all over and jumped a few times, throwing the hook. A few more drifts and another came to the surface to eat her dry fly – it was a quick eat and tough to get a hook set for a new angler. It was really exciting and fun for both of us.

Then it was Daniel’s turn. We went through the same steps as I did with Darcy by tying on a nymph dropper to his self tied fly as well. Daniel was fishing a little faster water, so I put on a heavier nymph, a Prince Nymph. A few good drifts and as I was looking upstream for the next drift, Daniel shouted and he had a beautiful rainbow trout on the line. We landed our first fish of the day – the first of many I might add.

After lunch we headed upstream for some excellent dry fly fishing. There were lots of bugs and some happy fish. Daniel and Darcy became very attentive anglers and quickly understood how to get the drift and where to put the fly on the water – they each caught rainbow and brown trout in Little River.

Another nice wild trout brought to hand

Our day ended with huge smiles and I got some great hugs from the kids. Little sister Lydia, 7, was along also and we’re planning to get her on the river next time!

While Charity was guiding anglers in the Smokies Tim Doyle and I headed out to scout the smallmouth situation. Last season’s drought made trout fishing pretty tough on a lot of rivers and streams in Tennessee, but we had exceptional fly fishing for smallies on several rivers.

Tennessee is blessed with a tremendous number of quality smallmouth bass rivers. In fact, there are more quality rivers for bass than trout. The Pigeon River near Newport has been one of our favorite rivers for a “guide’s day off” of fishing. However, generally low water conditions last summer didn’t provide for great floats on this river so we only floated it once in 2007.

The Pigeon has some of the prettiest water there is to float in East Tennessee. It’s a great combination of long riffles, long pools, and mild whitewater rapids. The high peaks of the Smoky Mountains tower only a few miles in the distance. While the Pigeon is currently one of Tennessee’s most productive rivers that wasn’t the case only a short time ago.

A paper mill in Canton, North Carolina dumped dioxin into the river for nearly 80 years. The river was devoid of life and cancer rates for residents along the Pigeon were off the charts. A law suit in the late 1980’s changed that and the paper mill has cleaned up its act. The river has come back with a vengeance. Smallmouth bass are prolific in the river and it’s not uncommon to hook a large one. White bass and a number of sunfishes are also common in the river. Furthermore, brown and rainbow trout have even established a wild population in the section of the river near the Tennessee and North Carolina border. This is marginal water for trout based on summer time water temperatures, but it’s not uncommon to catch a few.

This nice fish ate a brown and orange Clouser Minnow

Fishing was generally slow, but we expected that. It is still March after all. Water temperatures were around 50 degrees which means active trout but sluggish bass. We caught a few fish on Clouser Minnows. All were cookie cutters like the one above. Not a bad average fish. We did try poppers in a few spots but there were absolutely no lookers. It would have surprised us if a fish came up in the cold water, but we had to try.

Fishing for smallies generally gets consistent in mid to late April and continues through the summer and into the fall. We also float the Holston River and Little River for bass.

After yesterday’s scattered snow showers and hard freeze last night, temperatures slowly grew milder today. I took Zeke Foard and his grandson Joshua out for a day of fishing. It was Josh’s first experience fly fishing and Zeke and excited to see him catch his first trout.

We started out fishing some beadheads and covering some technical information on the best way to achieve a good drift. It wasn’t too long before Josh hooked and landed a decent rainbow.

First rainbow trout on fly!

By 12:00 we were beginning to see some mayflies so I suggested we find a pleasant place to eat lunch on the river as the hatch progressed. It was the best hatch I’ve seen this season and I would guess that most of the fish in the pool we fished were rising.

Josh’s first brown trout

After Josh hooked and landed several fish Zeke settled in and got serious about fishing. Josh and I moved downstream and picked off a couple more fish working our way back to Zeke. He caught three while we were gone. Quill Gordons accounted for most of the rising trout we saw today, but there were also some Blue Quills, caddis, and stoneflies as well.